Less than six months after LifeWay Christian Resources announced it was closing all 170 stores, the company has come up with a plan to put its products in more brick-and-mortar outlets than ever before.
LifeWay has launched an “authorized dealer program” that allows independent Christian retailers to sell its popular Bible studies.
LifeWay-brand Bible studies by Beth Moore, David Platt, Priscilla Shirer, and others were previously available only in LifeWay outlets. They will now be sold in special, branded sections of more than 290 stores.
The publishing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention expects to have 350 authorized dealers by October, with 15 to 20 new stores signing up for the program every week.
David Humphrey, director of trade sales, said the authorized dealer program puts LifeWay in all the markets where it previously operated stores, as well as 90 new ones.
“The way the Lord has provided for us, it’s like he’s given us increased favor,” Humphrey told CT. “We have five authorized dealers in Nebraska, and we’ve never had a store in Nebraska before. We have partners in the far Northeast and the far Northwest where we’ve never been able to reach before.”
LifeWay’s 170 stores were located in 30 states. The 290 authorized dealers are in 44 states, to date, and Humphrey said he hopes there will ultimately be a LifeWay-branded shelf “in driving distance for everybody in the United States.”
Back in March, Greg Squire, president of the market research firm Parable Group, told CT that LifeWay’s decision to close stores would mean that “hundreds of independent Christian bookstores have an expanded role and increased responsibility to serve their communities with Christian content and product.”
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Source: Christianity Today
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