Originally Posted by JonathanHunt

I was a member of a large church in london which has a big bookshop which runs as a business and has a paid staff - except it does not make profits, it just pays for its premises and salaries. However, on saturdays for four hours and sundays for one hour after the evening meeting, it is staffed on a voluntary basis.

The church discourages members who could purchase on other days from doing so, but recognises that many come a distance and have no other opportunity due to their busy schedules etc. Mostly folk meet in the 'shop' to fellowship and talk about books together. The church also withdraws from the shop anything that is secondary - like book covers, pencils, bookmarks etc - just for the Lord's Day, so that they can say that people are only purchasing what they need and could not defer to another time.

I tend to agree with this balanced approach.