The Foot of the Cross Christian bookstore in Great Falls has moved to a new location in the Holiday Village Mall and will be celebrating their grand opening all week April 14th through the 19th. The nonprofit store has been operating for 3 years, selling Christian books (both new and used) as well as other Christian products. The new location opens avenues for them to fulfill their mission in new ways.
Mark Davis, who started the Foot of the Cross store, explained the recent move: "We were located in the residential house of Greater Faith Church for approximately three years, and the church decided they were going to need a different use for that location. So they asked us to go ahead and move. We started looking for a number of different locations, and found a few, but none of them really would have worked for what we were looking for. So finally, we contacted them (Holiday Village Mall Management) to see if they would be willing to work with us, and in all honesty with you, they pretty much bent over backwards to get us in."
The new location is near the bottom of the escalators outside of Scheels. Mark commented, "I think the space is going to be optimal for us as far as traffic goes. We've already seen a huge increase in this location of the number of people that have come in compared to what we were seeing over at the other location."
The grand opening is taking place a little later than initially planned, mainly due to the need to train new volunteers in running the store. The Foot of the Cross does not have any paid staff, instead relying on volunteers to run the operation. Mark, who also serves as a volunteer, explained that covering payroll and the associated taxes would make it impossible to give money back to ministries in the community, which is a major part of the organization's mission.
LaRee Cox, who volunteers at the store and helps run the operation, explained that the new location has also helped gather new volunteers, which was necessary given the increased demands of the new location and hours: "Our hours have expanded from our old location, because we only had three volunteers, and we were running a five day shift. Our hours have now expanded, plus our times. We're open six days a week, rather than just the five that we were and we were noon to four, and we are 11 to five now. So that's been a wonderful change, but with that, we have needed those volunteers, and God has provided, and need more."
Along with higher traffic coming through the store, the new location also has created the opportunity to provide a meeting space for the public. In the back of the shop, a small area has been set aside with a table, chairs, coffee machine, and other niceties for people to meet and pray, do Bible or book studies, or just sit and read. The shop encourages donations, but won't be charging for its use.
Mark Davis had previously been the manager of the Family Christian Bookstore, which was in the mall for many years until the chain went bankrupt. At the time of the store closing, he felt that God was calling him to open another shop, this one a non-profit with no paid employees. He attributed this turn of events with the change of the business model for retail. Malls previously charged high rent for premium shopping space. With the advent of internet shopping, brick and mortar retail outlets have had to change their business models. Putting an outlet in the mall is now a less financially daunting proposition. Mark was quite positive about the degree to which management worked with them to open the shop.
Regarding the success, Foot of the Cross has seen so far, particularly in the face of those changes, Mark explained: "I think it's the grace of God that that has helped us in that particular facet. Also, most of the items that we carry in this store are very much of a tangible nature. The Bible is probably my best example. Most people want to come in and buy a Bible from us. A Bible is a very personal thing, and people want to come in and be able to touch it, feel how it feels for them, how it looks for them, what it has in it, does it meet their needs. That becomes really difficult with online purchasing because of the fact all you're seeing is a picture, and you have no idea what the true item is until you get it in the door. So, here it allows us to go ahead and offer that tangibility. Plus the fact that being 100% nonprofit, we're not in this business to make money; we're able to keep our costs low. We're able to go ahead and offer specials and prices and things that you would not normally find in a store of our type. You know, most profit businesses are all based on that bottom line. We only care about the the ability to give. This truly is God's store. We don't own it. We simply are here as servants for His purpose."
Mark described the coming Grand Opening week: "The grand opening will be the week prior to Easter. So that entire week, each day, we'll have different specials throughout the store. We'll have opportunities for people to come in. We'll have cookies and cake and candy and things like that set up back here in the room. So if somebody wants to come back and sit and just enjoy themselves for a while, they certainly can. The one thing that I think that's really critical is that people understand that this isn't just your common retail store. When we say this is God's store, we really mean that, and we feel His presence here every day with us. So if somebody wants to come in, and just sit and read a book and enjoy the presence of God, this is a great place to do it. It really is important that people understand that we aren't here to make money for anybody other than God himself. And being able to do that, we're blessed, of course, and we hope to be able to bless others as well."
