Michigan’s only Cokesbury retail store will close its doors for the final time on Jan. 11, 2011, but the state will not be devoid of the rich memories its helped create over the last 70-some years.
Store manager Joan Mueller, who has been at the helm of the business at its several Plymouth locations, has a firm grasp on what Cokesbury has meant to people over the years.
“I just had two ladies in (one) morning (who were in their 80s) who remembered being (kids) and shopping in downtown Detroit at what at the time was called the United Methodist Publishing House, not even Cokesbury yet,” she said.
The original Michigan store was the sixth Cokesbury retail outlet opened in the United States and the store moved around from a bevy of Detroit locations to Livonia, before ending up in Plymouth.
Mueller smiles at the thought of one regular customer who has been visiting the store for years, in part to relieve some of the stress caused by work.
“We (recently) had a woman in named Victoria and she was so disappointed we were closing and she shared that where she works is very stressful and she’s thankful that often there’s enough time between when she gets out of work and when we close that she can come in and spend 15 minutes sometimes, other times an hour,” Mueller said. “And she said, ‘It’s my sanctuary, it puts me back together.’”
Mueller, whose mother is a retired pastor, had years of retail experience at grocery and clothing stores, but she said being part of Cokesbury was truly her own “ministry calling” for a variety of reasons.
“The people coming in here have a need to fill — they’re missing something and they’re trying to find that something to help them spiritually.”
She said some of her most enjoyable times with Cokesbury were when confirmation classes came by the store to “help stock shelves, get walkthroughs and learn a little bit about the company’s history” as part of service projects.
Her colleagues at Cokesbury have been as diverse as the business itself, which sells books and products from a variety of other publishers to cater to as many communities of faith as possible.
As well as being full of fervor, the staff also knows what it’s talking about.
“It’s a blessing that we have one of the guys on our staff, Joe (Evans), who we call ‘The Bible Man’ because he can tell you every translation that’s out there, when it came into print, what the mindset was when they developed it….so when he’s talking to someone, he could niche them right into (the right version),” Mueller said.
It was not out of the ordinary for people to come to Cokesbury for their first Bible, nor was it odd for experienced pastors to make new friends while browsing the shelves.
“We don’t just get to meet other people; ‘Tom’ will come in and ‘Henry’ will come in, not knowing each other, wind up in the same aisle, start talking over what books they’re picking up or what their sermon ideas are and they strike up a friendship,” she said. “And then with having Zoup and a Coney Island and other places around they just carry it on and go have lunch.”
Mueller said she understands the book business is changing because of technology but a lot of customers say they are going to miss “picking up and seeing a book before they decide whether or not to purchase it.”
The Plymouth store will continue to sell deeply discounted merchandise and run specials until it closes, and fans of Cokesbury can always purchase items from www.Cokesbury.com.
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