By Peter Biggs

BLESSINGS Christian Marketplace, Canada’s largest Christian bookstore chain – challenged by the high Canadian dollar and various market forces – is poised to undergo major downsizing.

Mark and Angela Hutchinson, the Chilliwack-based owners of Blessings, have been facing tough realities in recent months. They have had to make difficult choices, affecting most of the chain’s almost two dozen stores across the country.  

About half of them, including one in Coquitlam, will likely close. Blessings will continue with four stores – two of them in B.C.; the Chilliwack, Langley, Calgary and Edmonton stores will remain with Blessings.

BCCN spoke January 22 to Mark Hutchinson, who explained some of the necessary and painful restructuring they are undergoing.

“We currently have 23 stores,” he said. “Subject to a positive outcome of a meeting with creditors January 24 [after BCCN went to press], we will move forward with four stores.

“Our aim has been to try and keep as many stores open as possible in communities. Eight of our stores will continue under independent ownership. The others – in this economic and commercial climate – will close.”

In a interview late last year, Hutchinson explained Blessings had “filed for creditor protection under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act,” and were “looking at all options prior to a financial restructuring for the future of the company.”

 There are some 700 Christian booksellers in Canada. They all face difficult times.

Hutchinson outlined three challenges booksellers are facing:

• The high dollar means Canadian retailers have to sell old inventory (purchased from the U.S. with a weaker dollar) at current exchange rates.

Continue article >>

“I buy a book for $10 in September, and sell it for $14. I can now buy that book for, say, $8 – and thus sell it for $11.20. We have employees and stores and other overhead; selling a $10 book for $11.20 is zero profit.

• Big box stores  such as Costco and Walmart operate on a different financial level. “They buy the cream of the cream – and can afford to only mark it up by 13 percent. They buy sheer volume, and can often even negotiate to return unsold product.”

• Online purchasing has mushroomed, and physical stores – with all their overhead – cost more to run.

Hutchinson, who has also been a pastor, has a vision of bookstores as community Christian resource centres.

“We want to be so much more than simply a retailer. We seek to be a type of ministry, a place that is trying to build community and complement the work of the local church.” Indeed he has built a reputation for just that.

Speaking in late 2007, he said: “Blessings doesn’t make any profit. In fact, last year, we gave away $20,000 to Christian ministries. We also host events, bring in authors and musicians and have in-store events. It blows me away when we get letters from people whose lives were changed by the products we sold.”

Blessings’ restructuring was not wholly unexpected. Throughout the process, Hutchinson has been very open in interviews. In  December, he outlined the dramatic changes he saw coming.

“I don’t think we can go much longer. Sales were good till mid-September. Now we’re in decline. The market, the stores, the customer base is all unchanged; the only thing that is different is the high dollar. If we don’t see a marked improvement by January, I’ll have to reduce our stores.”

February 2008