While it’s not always sound to base “what’s happening” in a market based on your own experience, I found that in the 90s and early 2000s, I’d visit these stores frequently. Much of the time I’d get music there.
With the rise of on-line music, there’s just no need.
I think also, overall, the quality and impact of Christian music-—which admittedly only made up some of the FCS business-—has declined dramatically. Stephen Curtis Chapman, Michael W. Smith, Mark Schulz, the Newsboys, DC Talk (now broken up), Avalon, Point of Grace have either disappeared or have put out pretty unimpressive music in the last 3-4 years. What was, in 2003-2006 a real golden age of Christian music has tailed off into a bunch of sound-alikes.
This also corresponds to the waning of the Word of Faith movement, which (I know many Freepers don’t like it but tough) sparked an incredible outburst of Bible study and purchase of religious materials. For example, in the early 1990s, I remember buying not only Vines, but a Hebrew-Greek-English Bible, and an annotated/expanded edition of the Bible.
I’ll also add that I think Christian fiction, which was quite different at first with Frank Peretti fell back into very predictable stuff. And, remember, the whole “Left Behind” series boomed during that time, sparking sales.
So all these things combined to cut the legs out from under FCS.
Christendom is sometimes more polite and less outreaching than God wants it to be.
I have some understanding about the music factor, being an aspiring songwriter in that genre. We need stuff that will shine the light good and hard into the world. And uber polite music won’t suffice. It needs to have verve and zest and make no bones about what it is saying and not be all full of theological code words. Official Christian attempts to do rock and roll, for example, are wimpy. I don’t know why there can’t be Christian metal that will boot the devil in the rear.
But again I got attitude because of my life. I’m like a kicked pit bull ready to bite back.
One contributing factor is the mega churches who have their own bookstores.