Barnes & Noble Reviews

Pros

Good work environment and coworkers

Cons

The pay to stress ratio doesn't add up

Pros

The company is reacting well to the changing marketplace and is focusing on its digital products. Staff is very friendly and dedicated to working hard and helping customers. The companies focus is on providing quality customer service not using hard selling techniques. The company does a good job of trying to loop its employees into its strategy and keeping them up to date with information.

Cons

Growth opportunity is going away from its retail locations. Sales to employee hours worked goals are going up as actual sales for bookstores are going down (see Borders). This leads to being constantly understaffed and pushing just over minimum wage associates to do more with less. This also leads to limited opportunity for employee development as they are forced to be in two places at once.

Advice to Senior Management

Focus more on advertising and brand development for the nook and other digital products. Dont be overly reliant on foot traffic going through the store to develop buzz about your product because that foot traffic is going away.

Pros

The people who work here are great. Management is helpful and patient; fellow employees are fun, and most cutomers are really chill.

Cons

Baristas here are worth so much more than minimum wage. It's extremely fast paced, and trust me, they deserve every penny.

Advice to Senior Management

Please give us higher pay and more time off. Everybody is completely drained after just four hours of work, and more pay raises are deserved by everyone.

Pros

Very little turnover. Fair pay.

Cons

Little room for advancement for management.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't allow your stores to be run like a high school classroom

Pros

If you build a relationship with other workers it can be fun if the management allows it.
Good Benefits

Cons

Low pay low pay
No chance for advancement
On the retail level, most of the Managers are English majors. No thought for making money or success.
Management follows a book
Workers are not free to come up with ideas

Advice to Senior Management

I would start looking for managers that are more business minded. When you have an employee that worked there since he was 16 and is going to school for business he should have opportunities. Not to mention corporate recognition and taking over receiving managers job for four months. Not a smart company.

Pros

- friendly co-workers
- discounts on books and cafe!
- great experience for retail and food
- paid every Friday !

Cons

- managers overworked their employees
-There is no room for growth opportunities to move up
- seniors play favorites
- customers are sometimes not treated respectfully
- managers don't listen to their employees
- stressful
- lack of respect
- only hire girls

Advice to Senior Management

Managers place a very high expectations on their employees--making them work hard for less pay. Employees make mistakes too, we're not perfect, but we should not be constantly reminded of our mistakes, and not recognize all the hard work and effort. There is a huge lack of respect in employees from their managers.

Pros

They have good medical and dental benefits if you can get them. Only leads and Managers have access to the benefits now. I had up to a month paid vacation. Although I worked there for several years to earn that time off. They do promote from within, but depending on the position, it's usually a lot more work, for a very small pay increase. Very small.
My fellow booksellers and management team were great. All the managers except for my GM were promoted from within. So you can advance if want to make a career there.
Like most retail stores, it's a clean, comfortable place to work, casual dress, and you will get a 25 cent raise every year, as long as you have a pulse.

Cons

Nook Nook Nook. That's all they care about. Which is understandable, because without it, Barnes and Noble would've gone the way of Borders. The problem is, the more Nooks you sell, the more issues you will have with them.
 I was a bookseller for 15 years. Then overnight I was turned into Nook Technical Support. Which I thought I wouldn't mind because I consider myself a tech savvy person. However, Barnes & Noble provides NO training on how to deal with Nook issues! None! Zero! No tools, no manuals, no even full internet access to help these moronic customers who can't remember their passwords. And that's what you'll be dealing with everyday!
I would say 85% of the problems were user related. Either account issues, password issues, or library book questions. My store had 3 (self taught) employees that could successfully deal with the Nook issues. And we almost always worked opposite shifts. Totally frustrating and stressful for one person to have to deal with all the Tech problems.

This job is really for students or retirees now. There are NO full-time bookseller positions. If you're not a lead or management, expect to work 10 to 20 hours a week for just over minimum wage. And you better know the Nook if you plan on working there.

Advice to Senior Management

Either create a Nook Squad that only deals with nook issues, or at least give us full internet access to help these clueless customers change their passwords that they forgot.

Pros

As retail jobs go, Barnes & Noble isn't that bad. You get to read advances of books and rent out hardcovers for free.

Cons

The employee discount takes off less than just buying the book online, and it only works at list price. As a part time employee I wasn't granted four days off in a week when requesting time a month in advance, which seemed a bit ridiculous. You're required to cross-train, and so you have to work in the cafe, on the floor, in Nook, register, etc. but you still get paid minimum wage. If you have to earn that kind of money, just work somewhere where you can screw around. They don't let you read when you work the cash register, even when no one's in the store.

Advice to Senior Management

Let employees eat expired cafe items. It's so wasteful and frustrating to have to throw away so much food when you make $7.50 an hour.

Pros

- Friendliest team of coworkers and management I've ever worked with
- Engaging work, always something to do
- Knowledgeable managers
- Nice discount
- Customers are generally friendly and understanding

Cons

- Head manager is relatively new to the store, but already is somewhat abusive to employees and customers, isn't knowledgeable, and pressures us to sell Memberships and capture emails (IE berate the customer with annoying questions). When we do sell, we don't receive praise.
- Pressure to sell memberships that are NOT a good deal, and the customer can tell.
- Even with prior work experience, I'm getting paid barely above minimum wage

Advice to Senior Management

Pay more attention to who is chosen for management and their performance

Pros

I only worked part time for a few months before finding a full time job elsewhere, but overall it was a good work environment. I like staying busy at work and in the receiving department, you will stay busy. There are lots of incoming and outgoing orders, so you will always have work to do. Fellow employees were courteous and enjoyable to work with. If you are bibliophile, working in a bookstore is obviously a big plus and the employee discount is nice. It seemed like if you were competent and hardworking, there was a good opportunity to move up.

Cons

Typically, B&N doesn't like employees to have more than 35+ hours a week, because that's when health benefits kick in.

Advice to Senior Management

I only worked at B&N for a few months before moving onto a full-time job elsewhere, but my interactions with Management was positive. Management seemed to do a good job of keeping employees informed about expectations and new policies being implemented.