DALLAS  Family Christian Stores, the nation's largest Christian retail chain, announced it will begin opening on Sundays, starting with its 17 stores in the Dallas area, according to the Dallas Morning News.
Family Christian chief executive Dave Browne said the decision was influenced by direct competition from churches, many of which operate bookstores on Sunday.
"We believe we're missing an opportunity to get inspirational products into people's hands," Browne said.
The 325-store chain will implement the policy nationwide this fall.
The Sunday hours  noon to 5 p.m.  were set to avoid morning and evening church services.
Browne told the newspaper the chain polled its customers about their weekend shopping habits and found that 80 percent shopped on Sundays and 89 percent of those said they would shop at Family Christian if the stores were open.
"Customers tell us that they work Monday through Friday, are occupied with soccer and the kids' activities on Saturday," Browne said. The Grand Rapids, Mich.-based retailer surveyed a cross-denominational pool of churches with bookstores and found that 96 percent of church stores were open on Sunday.
"This was a decision that we took very seriously," Browne said. "But after prayer, study and seeking the counsel of others, it became clear to us that the ministry opportunity of opening on Sundays vastly outweighed the operational preference of the status quo."
In response, an official at Nashville, Tenn.-based LifeWay Christian Stores, which is owned by the Southern Baptist Convention, said LifeWay stores would remain closed on Sunday.
"LifeWay Christian Stores has never had a practice of opening on Sunday and there is no intention of opening on Sunday across the chain," said Bruce Munns, director of retail store operations in a statement to Baptist Press. "Even orders which are placed by customers on Sundays through our Web site are not processed until Monday. We see Sunday as an important day for our employees to spend in church and with their families."
