Hastings Entertainment Reviews

Pros

Great discount, overall store environment was fun, ability to interact with customers and get to know them, great store associates who worked hard.

Cons

Way too many "new hires" brought in from outside the company to be upper-management who don't understand how things work on the store level. Corporate office is so far removed that they set unrealistic expectations without knowing the day to challenges that the stores face. Using a computer program to tell stores where to schedule employees instead of making sure the departments are covered which in turn make sure that customers are able to be helped and projects are able to completed.

Advice to Senior Management

During your "back to the field" days, actually visit the stores that are struggling instead of going to your top stores and do that store manages job for a day. Stop trying to fit 140 stores into a cookie cutter mold when only about 10% of them can actually fit it.

Pros

Good Discount, especially on books
My Book's Manager
Location
Regular Customers
Product
Some Co-Workers
Flexible hours for college students
Laid back atmosphere

Cons

Horrible Hours: I was hired on before seasonal help and now I am being told that work goes to seniority, especially since I was hired as seasonal help. But I was hired as a Book Associate. Never once have I heard that it is a seniority driven work atmosphere on who gets hours. It is RIDICULOUS.

Never off when scheduled

Gossip Mongrels: I cannot tell you how immature some of the people are working there. People talk about each other. It is sometimes as bad as high school and they are grown adults, some with children.

Rude GSM that does not even LIKE to act like a professional. Plus, a CSM that lets the power go straight to his head.

Double Standards: One person does one thing, another does it and they get in trouble.

Advice to Senior Management

Give your Senior Management enough hours for the size of the store! How are you supposed to make money with a store if the store doesn't have enough people running it? Getting told that since I haven't worked there as long as others, their seniority gets whatever hours are available is ridiculous. I haven't worked in two weeks and I'm being told that they'll "try" to schedule me in. If you're going to cut my work hours to get me to quit because you want me gone, then fire me so I can still support myself with unemployment!

Pros

Great co-workers, great customers, decent discount,

Cons

Required to do the work of 3 people in half the time it would usually take, and do it for very little pay. No full time associates except for upper management. Numerous positions have been cut over the years such as Video Guest Relations Manager, Boutique Manager, Magazines Manager, Guest Service Coordinator, and Software/Video Game manager. All these positions were cut and delegated to remaining departments which added much more stress to associates and decreased morale. Computer system desperately needs to be updated. Only search options are by title and author and have to be exact matches.

Advice to Senior Management

After coming back to work at Hastings following a 6 year absence, I have to say that the company as a whole is on an extreme decline. Morale in the store was awful, and there was a lot of blaming of others rather than a team mentality where everyone worked together to solve problems. My advice is that if you cannot find ways to get your associates to work together, you are going to fail. You need to take time to listen to all of their concerns and take them into account. We are people, not cogs in a machine. Our opinions and feedback should be valued by management and especially by corporate.

Pros

discount, co-workers, great product, good college job

Cons

poor pay
poor hours (even for full time employees)

Advice to Senior Management

appreciate those who have put the time in the company

Pros

I loved my coworkers.
Fun product.

Cons

I got paid less as a manager than entry level at most places. There was limited to no appreciation toward employees from their senior managers. Our store manager was being worked to death as well as our CSM and myself. There was absolutely no acknowledgement from corporate. Corporate was little to no help when it came to anything that was actually prudent to the operation of the store. Corporate expects their employees to take degradation for their mistakes.

Advice to Senior Management

To in-store managers, hang in there! To corporate, stop acting like your employees are slaves and show some respect.

Pros

fun product
enjoyable coworkers and employees

Cons

required by contract to work 44 hours weekly but on average worked 55-60 hours weekly
work schedule for store managers set by corporate dictate, no flexibility for time off
no work/life balance
terrible salary, not competitive and because of the financial state of the company raises have not been given for several years
no respect from executives for those in the field

Advice to Senior Management

The greatest dissatisfaction I felt as a store manager was that I was unable to show appreciation to my staff in anyway other than a thank you or a pat on the back. The company did away with the "star of the month" program which would allow each store to nominate and vote for an outstanding employee and that person was rewarded with a giftcard. It was a small gesture but in an age of no raises and increasingly dissatisfied employees this could have gone a long way toward goodwill among the staff. Also, corporate was very concerned with fraternization between store management and staff so any gesture i.e.. buying sodas or coffees for my employees was questioned and suspected as showing favoritism. It was very stressful situation piling onto an already stressful job.

My advice to upper management is to trust more. Trust the people you place in management to do their jobs. We are managers because we like to work with people. We strive to build connections and rally around a common goal. Allow us to recognize and reward our employees. Offer guidance and feedback and coach us to improve. Allow more flexibility in our schedule and understand that sometimes we need more than one day away from work. Our jobs are stressful. My hope is that at some point this company will begin to practice what it preaches to it's managers and allow more of a work/life balance.

Pros

Hastings is a fun environment to work in. Good benefits package. Staff are friendly and fun to be around. Overall an enjoyable place to work.

Cons

Dealing with customers in that area of town can be difficult. Relatively small casino so not as much room for advancement.

Advice to Senior Management

Would be nice to have more opportunity for advancement but being a smaller location this may be difficult. More corporate functions to show appreciation of employees.

Pros

It is a decent place to work if you are looking for a college job but if you are interested in anything else look elsewhere.

Cons

Very small pay, lots of busy work with very little recognition from management, not good training and a HORRIBLE computer system!

Advice to Senior Management

Work on telling your people what you really want done and how to do it rather than basic training and ditching new employees.

Pros

Great co-workers (with a few exceptions)
Decent discount
Cool product
Ability to put product knowledge to use
Room for advancement (if you can last that long)

Cons

No respect from senior management (including store level)
Lots of customer theft
Micro management from corporate
No positive feedback
Benefits are being slashed down to nothing
No raises ever!

Advice to Senior Management

Learn to pay attention to what your store employees are saying. Don't assume that a solution to a problem that worked at one store is appropriate for every store in the chain. Show some respect for the people who come in everyday and bust their butts in the trenches for those huge bonuses that you are getting while we cannot even get a 50 cent raise. It is a disgrace. If you want to keep quality people you need to treat them better and that includes a decent training program for new hires instead of one day of working with a CSM and then expecting them know everything. Learn to take the suggestions of the people who actually work in each individual location and know their market and customer needs as well as the needs of the people who work there.

Pros

discounts
some good coworkers
nearby to good fast food
good selection of merchandise
direct deposit available
regular pay
big parking lot

Cons

lack of decent hours and no respect for workers
bad behavior of customers who are mostly thieves
too many goals for too few people to finish
flaky management

Advice to Senior Management

take your worker's side for once
stop letting customers tear things up
stop the pay freeze
stop lying about the 49 cent rentals