Books-A-Million Reviews

Pros

-Employee discounts.
-Intelligent co-workers.
-Flexible work schedule.
-Oppurtunities to move into certain specialist positions immediently after you begin the job.

Cons

-Discount Cards. You must sell a set amount of discount cards or you will be fired.
-Pay is low for retail.

Pros

It's a job. I like the customers.

Cons

Too much pressure and no helpful feedback.

Advice to Senior Management

They don't really care, make them their money.

Pros

20% discount, 30% discount on the 1st of the month
usually nice employees to work with
easily give yourself a raise (also see below)

Cons

the pay for this job is minimum wage ($7.31/hr here) and they justify that by saying you can give yourself a raise by selling their overpriced discount cards and their magazine scheme -- yes, people want to PAY to receive a discount (ha.)
seeing as how the store is open until 11pm, you often didn't go home until 1am or sometimes 2am on the weekends
we must've had 4 different assistant managers at the store which seems like a lot, a few in particular were hard to work with (but that's many retail jobs)
our store required an overnight shift once a month, but don't be surprised if you were scheduled 4+ weeks in a row, meaning you come in at 12am and work until 8am, restocking stuff from the truck (no extra pay received from this either)

Advice to Senior Management

stop with the discount cards, they're overpriced for what they do and its a big requirement for such a low paying job

Pros

Checking out the books for free.

Cons

Low pay, ineffective communication between corporate office and the store level.

Advice to Senior Management

Treat employees with more respect.

Pros

great staff, great dm (atleast in my area) new product

Cons

not enough "thanks". hours cut

Advice to Senior Management

walk the talk and have more incentives to encourage growth of staff

Pros

It is nice to be able to work with books and I enjoy having the chance to work with customers and introduce them to new books. The staff is very nice and works well as a team. It's also nice to be able to check books out and I like the discount. I also never had a problem getting time off or fitting the schedule into my school schedule.

Cons

This company really takes advantaged of it's employees. They pay below the industry standards and have be cutting hours right and left. At the store I am currently employed at each associate is only getting five to ten hours a week and the managers have to pick up the slack. This has caused everyone to be very stressed out. We have met and gone beyond our sales goals yet they continue to cut hours. The pay is awful and is not a very good incentive to sell cards or magazines. The people above management do not seem want to listen or don't care. I've seen salaried managers have to work six days straight from open to close and many of the associates had to apply for partial unemployment to be able to survive. It's very sad to see a company treat their employees like this.

Advice to Senior Management

My message is for those about management. Listen to the managers in the store, they often know more about the needs of the store than you. Stop taking advantage of those you employ.

Pros

Easy to get promoted from associate to manager which is great for people wanting some initial management experience
Can check out any book in the store for free
Experience in sales
Lots of great people and hard workers

Cons

Focus is almost 100% on selling memberships and magazine programs. Although these programs do increase sales and gain some new customers, it ends up driving off many, many others who do not like being hounded every time they go to check out.
Not customer focused
Industry is dying - unless BAM completely changes their brand their focus they will go out of business in the near future.
Upper management does not listen
Terrible pay

Advice to Senior Management

Listen. I can't count the number of times I have gone to management above me over specific issues only to be blown off. Especially since I am in management myself, it is frustrating when I go to my DM with issues only to have him end up talking the whole time and not ever address the issue. I have now had 2 managers above me fudge numbers in order to make their shifts look better (I wouldn't have noticed except they hurt mine) and when brought to the attention of my DM nothing was done. There is a lot of dishonesty in management within individual stores in order to get numbers.

Pros

Able to check out books and the okay upside on being able to sell those "discount" cards.

Cons

-After so many weeks the leader bonus starts over
-The pay is NOT ENOUGH
-pretty much everything about the company

Advice to Senior Management

BE AWARE OF THIS WEBSITE, see the reviews and try to change things! Give employees that WANT to WORK the hours to do so! Don't cut hours once they are over 40, that should be illegal anyway. Try working some of the jobs you force the lower working ants to do so perhaps you would understand the reality of doing them! I'm so glad you get your bonuses whilst we get the card and magazine sells. No raises? yet you take paid vacations CONSTANTLY?! Every bit of this company was a disappointment! Oh and to come into the ONLY BooksAMillion in this town and want to change it to a used books store is not fair, there is no incentive to lose more money!

Pros

If it weren't for my staff, I wouldn't have lasted as long at Books-A-Million. My co-workers all meant the world to me and I still make it a point to check in once or twice a week to see how they're/the store is doing. I put a lot of time and pride into my store and even though there were times where we were pushed a little too hard, berated by senior management, and outright lied to, it was honestly the best job I ever had. The 20% employee discount was sufficient, although was rarely used on books, more on general merchandise and cafe items. Even the 1st of the month/Christmas season 30% wasn't really worth it but was within industry standards. Our store received quite a few Advanced Reader books that made up for the discount in my opinion.

Personally, I never had any trouble with the Discount Card, a little price inflating here and there and maybe buying the customer a coffee or baked good and I was good to go. I was never worried I wouldn't have a job the next day. Magazines we my downfall but we had certain employees who shined so I really didn't have to worry about it.

Cons

Full time benefits aren't as good as with other companies and pay is lower than expected for the amount of work done on a daily basis. For those who took the initiate to beat down customers in order to achieve Discount Card percentages and Magazine goals, rewards were given as well as praise from senior management. For those who didn't, hours we cut and jobs were threatened. Fortunately, those decisions now come from the DM and not GM so it takes a little of the guilt out of the equation. They cut shipping and cafe specialist positions and put those duties on the MOD, as if we didn't have enough to do with constant conference calls, 1-on-1's and Store Appraisals. Monthly scanning for overstock was a constant hassle with a bare bones staff, usually 1 cashier, 1 cafe person, and the manager except on saturdays where we were allowed 1 extra person per shift.

Pros

-Interacting with customers on the floor
-30% discount on the first of the month
-Many jeans weekends for charity
-Flexible scheduling

Cons

-Those dreaded discount cards first of all. As everyone has said that is 100% of their goal. It doesn't matter how satisfied the customers are, or how helpful and friendly you were, if you don't reach that percentage you need, you're going to get chewed out. You're told to not give up on that card unless you get 3 "no's" from the customer. That's such badgering that it'll make them not want to ever come back! I also got a stern talking to at one point, because I wasn't selling enough magazine subscriptions.
-I was also told to put on a happy face for the customers all the time, even if it was fake. And while that's a totally resonable request, this manager issuing it was consistantly in a bad mood behind the register! Talk about hypocritical.
-Then they kept bringing in more and more former Border's employees/friends while cutting my hours. I was barely making enough to get by, and was totally open to more hours, but instead they hire their friends, and gave them way more hours than me.
-Then they eventually fired me for a small infraction

Advice to Senior Management

Value a good employee. Obviously, don't put so much importance on the membership cards. Don't let the store managers just hire all their friends.