Raleigh Online Bahá'í Book Source

Place Your Order thru Your BDS Rep and Claim these Benefits Today

1. You will pay less for your order (i.e. no directly billed shipping cost).

Here’s why. As BDS Rep I have set up a system to place orders on the 15th and the last day, 30^th or 31^st , of each month (or more as the need grows). The cost of shipping and handling (s/h) per item is reduced when orders are made in bulk, so in most cases you save $$ on s/h when you order through me (Note: there will be some exceptions for special orders or rush orders you place outside of the regular bi-monthly time schedule).

In fact you will not pay any shipping and handling charges on items ordered thru your BDS Rep. Why? Basically, the community receives a 10% discount on all orders placed through the BDS Rep. The resultant savings are then used to offset the s/h charge to you, which I estimate will average around 5 to 7% of the order total.

As an ex-staff member of the BDS in Atlanta, I can also tell you that this process helps the Bahá'í Distribution Service as well because it is much more cost efficient for their customer service reps to process one community order versus 10 to 12 separate individual orders.

2. Every order you place thru your BDS Rep builds up the resources available for the creation of an offline Raleigh Community Center Bookstore.

Here’s why: In benefit #1 above, you see that with each order placed, and after the Rep pays the s/h when ordering in bulk, there is a potential 3 to 5% surplus on each order (i.e. 10% discount given by BDS, minus the shipping and handling cost of 5 to 7%, equals 3 to 5% savings (or profit) on each order. This savings on the purchase through your BDS Rep can then be used to add more books and materials to our offline Raleigh Bahá'í Bookstore or Book Center.

Over time, this will allow the community to stock copies of the core Sacred Text, teaching brochures and pamphlets as well as other popular or requested book titles.  This means these books become immediately available to you for purchase in the community at the local Center. How convenient will that be? You can make it happen when you order thru your local BDS Rep.

Also, because the BDS sets up community discounts based on the volume/quantity of orders generated by a community, as our sales volume goes up, and exceeds a certain quota, the community will qualify for even greater discounts, which can reach as high as 35%.

Even without knowing the exact amount of orders needed to affect a greater discount, I think you can see the potential that this could have in speeding up the time it takes for us to build up a community bookstore. The more orders placed, the quicker we reach our goal.

Of course, the LSA could directly stock the shelves of such a bookstore in our Center if they have the funds, but you can lessen the direct burden on the Fund by placing your orders through the BDS Rep.

3. You get to tell your grandchildren (or great nieces and nephews) how you remembered when there was no local Raleigh Bahá'í Bookstore as glamorous as the one they have now, and how you helped to make it happen.

4. Did I mention that you pay less!  By ordering direct and eliminating your s/h charges, you can help build up our bookstore resources, making it possible to stock copies of the Sacred Text and various other teaching materials in the Raleigh bookstore or book center for immediate availability and purchase by the friends. Am I repeating myself? This helps the teaching work, as oftentimes when we have a seeker, timing is everything. Going to your local Bahá'í Center and being able to pick up a copy of Some Answered Questions or Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era could save time and give your seeker immediate access to the Word.