Books-A-Million Reviews

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

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

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

-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.

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

Discount on books, and cafe items

Cons

First of all, everyone starts off at minimum wage....regardless of the experience you have. Management does not care where you worked before! They just want you to sell the discount cards! I worked in a hospital before I worked here that was high pressure and really stressful and you know what!? This place was more stressful! I went home crying everyday because it was horrible. So much pressure to sell cards and half the time you are the only one at the register when its slammed. I sold cards and was just barely below my percentage every week yet somehow the woman who has work there for 15 years and hasn't sold a card in MONTHS gets no discipline whats so ever. My assistant manager would discipline me in front of customers, the head manager would raise her voice at me and belittle me. It was horrible. I received little to no training and when I was thrown out on the floor and not doing things correctly I got yelled at for it. This was my experience at store #663. I only lasted 2 months. I feel sorry for people that work here it is like being trapped in hell. This should be a relaxing peaceful place to work and it was the opposite of that. I tried contacting HR about my problems there (because I was basically being bullied) and got absolutely no response!

Advice to Senior Management

Stop with the stupid discount cards no one has money anyway right now! You are losing business! All of your customers are going to Barnes and Noble up the street. Hey here's a thought...treat your employees like they mean something and maybe you will have a better more successful company!!!

Pros

employees do have some fun on the sales floor and the tasty treats ( for buy of course w/ employee discount)
the book check out was the best part. since you are looking at books all day there does come a time when you find something new or old that you would like to read.

Cons

they hours that you are scheduled are terrible, they give you this nice schedule sheet saying put down the hours and days you want to work. and you are super happy thinking I have control over when I come to work. But the managers know if they dont want to come in every weekend at 530/6 am then their works dont either. Switch it up a bit I applied to work thursday - sunday but never got a thursday and only worked two fridays (and was with te company 5 months) I ended up leaving because I could not take another early morning weekend and then the last 3 weeks they started only giving me 1 day a week... While every one else was still getting 15-25 hrs.

and if you cant prove that you can sell the cards and mags on a few tries at the register forget the register you will be back at customer service.

the bonus that the cashiers make should be going to customer service as well. The cashiers are not running the floor searching for products for customers the customer service crew is!!

Advice to Senior Management

you can not fault the workers for not selling cards when most of the guest are from other countries without a BAM store!
give hours to workers who want to come to work. No one can live off 8 hrs of works a week...Its not worth the gas to come in.

Pros

-Book Check Out
-Friendly Atmosphere
-Expanding Company

Cons

Work Holidays
Pay Low Compared to other Book Retailers
Bare Bones Staffing