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The History of Christianbook.com

Christianbook.com is the online home of Christian Book Distributors, a company that started long before the World Wide Web had even begun to take its shape.  The company began as a small family affair when, in 1978, the elder of two brothers decided to start a mail-order business to earn a little extra money while attending Bible college.  At first, CBD carried only a few academic titles and offered them at discounted prices to students.  However, with the help of their father (a pastor) and mother, the two brothers soon watched their business take off. Orders poured in and the driveway, bedrooms, and garage of their small house overflowed with boxes and boxes of books.

During the following years, a number of challenges faced the young company.  Most notably, in the fall of 1980, Christian Book Distributors had a true make or break experience.  As a recent article explains: "Some 'astonishingly large' orders had been placed with the publishers.  At this time, the catalog was printed by the local newspaper, but due to a sudden shortage of newsprint, the catalog could not be printed.  If this catalog did not go out on schedule, how would they ever sell all those books?  Fortunately, a friend who happened to be a commercial printer offered to print the catalogs on white paper.  And with plenty of friends, ingenuity, and hard work, they made it happen, and a major crisis was averted."  1980 also witnessed another CBD landmark -- the first CBD showroom sale at the Holiday Inn in Peabody, MA.

In 1984, having held office space in a myriad of locations, CBD broke ground on its first company headquarters in Peabody, MA.  The company remained in that location until it relocated across the street to its current location in August, 1996.  As the company has grown, one challenge has always been in deciding how the company should choose its ever-expanding product line.  In a recent letter to customers, the president of CBD explained his stance on product selection.  "Our overall position…is to make available a wide assortment of products to a wide variety of customers---to let you choose what is important and useful to you, rather than to make that decision for you."  He continues, "[We] desire to serve our customers in the best way possible, by making available the resources and products that serve your needs."

Now, more than twenty years after the company began, Christian Book Distributors is a lot bigger, but its basic goals and principles are the same---to offer customers the very best in Christian products at the best prices and with the best service around.  CBD sends out more than twenty catalogs every year, and with the development of its internet site at Christianbook.com, CBD is now able to offer customers far more products than ever before.  During the summer we added an entire floor to our already enormous warehouse ( click to take a tour of the expansion ). The warehouse has swelled to hold over 70,000 different Christian books, videos, CD's, cassettes, gifts, toys, and games---and all of them are available at the click of a mouse!  Christianbook.com has also made it possible to provide customers with more of something else---information.  Without the space constraints of catalogs, Christianbook.com features author profiles, book excerpts, longer descriptions, author interviews, more general information, and wider selections to customers.  With all these advantages, Christianbook.com is fast becoming the place to shop for Christian products! If you'd like to learn a bit more about the basic philosophy behind our product selection, click here for a letter from our company's president.

At CBD, we are excited about how far we've come and where we are headed. Our president remarked on the twentieth anniversary of CBD, "As a company, we have a lot to be proud of – from the products we sell to the customers we serve.  I feel that we are a company that makes a difference for the world…The things we sell help people enable others through the tools we provide at reasonable prices."  

Contacting Christianbook.com

The online home of Christian Book Distributors

By E-mail:

You can use our Web site e-mail form to place orders, request catalogs, and get product information.  Click through to our "e-mail us" page to send an e-mail to the appropriate department.

By Phone:

Our helpful Customer Service Representatives are available Monday through Friday from 8am to 11pm and Saturday from 9am to 8pm (Eastern Standard Time).

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To place an order by phone, talk to a representative about product information and availability, or request a catalog.

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To talk to a representative about an order you've already placed (including web orders).

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To talk to one of our Product Specialists for information about our products.

Touch-Tone Ordering:

If you'd like to place an order using our Automated Touch-Tone Order Line, please have ready your customer and catalog number (located on the back of your catalog), your completed order form, and your credit card with expiration date.

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Call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

By Fax:

Our fax lines are open 24 hours a day for ordering and other faxing needs:

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By Mail:

To place orders by check or money order or for any other written correspondence, send to:

Christian Book Distributors

P.O. Box 7000

Peabody, MA 01961-7000