Haywood County’s last Christian bookstore, Cokesbury Bookstore at Lake Junaluska will soon be closing its doors after more than 40 years in the community.

The company made the decision to close all 57 of its local retail stores across the country, which includes 38 full-line stores and 19 seminary stores.

“The decision to close the local stores was not taken lightly or without prayerful consideration of all of the factors,” said Amy Campbell Smith, CAO/Associate to the president and publisher.

Among those factors is the rise of online and catalog sales, the decline of in-store sales and the rising costs of sustaining store operations.

Smith said sales at Cokesbury stores overall have dropped by about 50 percent in the last 10 years, and although the store’s location within the Lake ...