Barnes & Noble Reviews

Pros

Friendly co-workers, employee discount on books, ability to borrow books, employee discount at cafe, flexible hours, management will do all they can to help customers with problems, which makes your job easier.

Cons

They say they promote from within, but that is untrue. Employees who transfer from other stores are sometimes given more hours than employees who have been at the store for a longer amount of time & want more hours.

Advice to Senior Management

If you are going to tell employees that you promote from within, it would be a good idea to actually do that.

Pros

Worked my way up in this company. As long as you are flexible, have open availability, and embrace change, you'll do well.

Cons

The cons with B&N are the same as with any retail job. It's retail. You face the same challenges.

Pros

awesome discounts on products, 50% cafe, 25% books, and more. Great people with lots of respect for one another. Dress code is more lax than most, health benefits are average. works with local charities and the community :)

Cons

scheduling and lack of employees

Advice to Senior Management

break rooms could use some life

Pros

Management has 40 hour work weeks. No super early or late hours. Great store discounts. Good insurance and benefits. Family can use discount.

Cons

You need to know someone to get promoted. Low hourly pay means you are spending more time training than working. Its retail.

Pros

employee discounts are great, the atmosphere is very relaxed being around hundreds of books is always a plus,

Cons

the wages are horrible for everyone from the the store managers to the hourly employees, the expectations are always increasing and the goals set forward are almost always unachievable.

Advice to Senior Management

set realistic goals and hold others accountable, not just a select few who are always striving or pushing to reach the goals, those people always burn out quicker when they reach whatever goal was set and then they don't receive any type of praise for helping carry the stores who are failing to reach their goals.

Pros

The benefits package is great. Great health insurance. That is all.

Cons

Starting pay is very low. As a lead, I was getting paid less than several of the longtime employees that I was supervising. Also,I don't know if it was like this at other B&Ns, but at the one I worked in, employee input was not encouraged. Some employees were ridiculed behind their back. Management did not know how to handle favoritism, and some employees were allowed to disregard rules without repercussions, while others were picked on for the smallest infraction, like having a cup of water under the counter.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your employees. Address their concerns and treat them fairly and equally. When an employee needs help, do not reprimand them for asking for assistance. Above all, treat them with dignity, like a human being.

Pros

working with people was great, being around books was great

Cons

there is no incentive for selling memberships, except over the holidays-if you meet the high standard for holiday sales in the off season, they do not honor your accomplishments

Pros

Management was good at first, but later new management came in and with it came some very arrogant management replacements.

Cons

There was always a hierarchy in management and the lower level employees (managers and below) were not valued or praised.

Advice to Senior Management

Care about all of your employees, not just the directors and above. Don't continue an atmosphere of favoritism.

Pros

If you love books and have a passion for reading B&N is a great company. Great employee discount programs, terrific co-workers and for the most part nice customers.

Cons

New initiatives are pushing focus away from traditional books toward digital. The digital stuff is nice, but most of us started working at B&N because we loved being around books- It feels like the books are second-class citizens. Also not as many perks as there used to be.

Advice to Senior Management

Happy employees make for a happy store. Encourage anonymous feedback from booksellers at the corporate level. Let the perks stay, no one talks about unions unless the management is doing the wrong thing. No one is saying get rid of digital, but focus on books and book displays too.

Pros

There is a lot of room for advancement if you want it, the opportunity to relocate easily, great benefits package and vacation time, fun staff.

Cons

Low pay, starting just above minimum wage, yearly raises also low.

Advice to Senior Management

Take care of your good employees! Try not to micromanage.