Cokesbury To Close Stores, Move Sales Online - NewsChannel5.com | Nashville News, Weather & Sports

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - The United Methodist Publishing House will move all retail sales to its online portal and call centers, closing its Cokesbury bookstores.

The publisher and distributor of religious books, Bibles and other Christian resources is based in Nashville.

The publishing house board voted to close its 38 full-line stores and 19 seminary stores.

In a recent customer survey, only 15 percent of respondents said they shop exclusively at the stores.

The initiative, known as CokesburyNext, will be rolled out through the coming year with the last local Cokesbury store is expected to close by April 30, 2013.

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