Waldenbooks Reviews

Pros

Friendly environment, close relationships between employees

Cons

Low pay and little responsibility

Pros

Co-workers were usually fun and competent. Working in a small book store like Waldenbooks was great because you really got to know everyone you worked with, and knew everyone's strengths. So if a customer asked for an esoteric book, there would be someone who would know what the customer was talking about.

Some of the immediate supervisors were really good and very competent.

Cons

The upper level management did not communicate well. Some higher level staff in the store abused their positions in various ways. There was a lot of favoritism.

Being a small store, it was hard to get a promotion, even when one worked very hard and very diligently for several years. The only way to get ahead was to move to another store location, and only if they had an opening.

Some managers were inept, but kept in place by high sales due to the location of the store, and not due to their management style. Corporate never bothered following up on complaints by employees and even customers about said management.

Advice to Senior Management

Waldenbooks merged with Borders, and that's why our location was closed. Management should have prepared the employees better for the move that ensued. But instead of communicating, we heard about the closure of our store from our customers who had read it in the news. Some of us were retained at the larger Borders store nearby our little Waldenbooks store, but perhaps the better quality employees would have stayed and not looked for jobs elsewhere, had they been told that not all employees would be let go. No communication.

Pros

working with books
most the customers were fairly decent
store manager was pretty competent
laid back atmosphere
relatively stress free
discounts on books
could borrow books for 7 days
flexible
understanding when you had to call in
the store manager and asst. managers at the time were alright to work under, they were willing to give you days off as long as you asked ahead enough in advance, was understanding if you were sick and couldn't work, and otherwise kept the work atmosphe pretty relaxed.

stripping paperbacks to return was a con, but a pro was we'd be taking home boxes of free books (as long as you didn't mind the lack of covers)

DM only came by once a month or so

Cons

district manager was completely clueless, managed to get the whole staff's hours cut down to only 4 hours a week so her boyfriend could get our hours, messed up the store any time she came in, rearranging shelves so noone could find anything, and they'd go from a general alphabetic order, to a complete mess, cancelled orders on us, demanded we put xmas decorations and books out a week before halloween, as we get annoyed parents looking for Sleepy Hollow for their kids after a school play, the DM had us return all haloween books for xmas ones.
constantly sending pointless memos about the carpeting.
She also managed to anger a customer, telling them as they were talking to an employee about a book they were looking for, that said employee needed to work and could not chatter.
DM rearranged the store on a monthly basis

store manager was a little spineless

push to sell rewards cards

parents leaving their kids while they had their hair done

stripping covers off unsold paperbacks to return

the ordering system was next to useless if you didn't have a book's ISBN number, titles and authors were often mispelled or oddly shortened

no horror section

Advice to Senior Management

District Managers: don't try to fix what isn't broken, special orders are made for a reason, store orders are made for a reason. 4 hours a week is not full time. if books aren't in order on the shelves, then none of us, customers or employees, can find anything.
let the store managers manage the stores, you just deal with the district

Pros

Customer Interaction, Flexible Scheduling, Involvement in Book Community. I enjoy the freedom of my shifts, when I am completely in charge. I generally spend my time interacting with customers, and fixing management errors.

Cons

Management is generally comprised of people who have hung on for many years, rarely seems to be hired in as already competent workers. Locations I'm familiar with all hired at minimum wage. Current (2 year) hold on raises.

Advice to Senior Management

It is necessary to invest your time in making sure your employees are happy. It can make all the difference in what kind of staff you have.

Pros

Generous discount on books, flexible hours, never too early or too late, customer interaction, small store with fewer employees creates a closer work environment.

Cons

Never-ending changes to merchandising (completely new store look literally every day), being treated like a superstore then punished when sales don't meet superstore expectations. Corporate management ignoring store needs because of the smaller store size.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay attention to the small stores, they still bring in revenue and shouldn't be shuffled to the side. Stop treating small stores like superstores, and stop working 3 employees like 7.

Pros

All the books you care to read

Cons

Domineering, micromanaging district manager who put customers over employees even at the expense of company policy

Advice to Senior Management

Better benefits for non manager/asst manager employees

Pros

Employees get half way decent discounts on their purchases and they also get to keep up on all the latest titles and new releases.

Cons

The salary is really low especially compared to the national average but isn't all of retail low paying?

Advice to Senior Management

They should have to wear the shoes of lower level employees more often and see what it's like.

Pros

Most of the people I worked with over the seven years I was with the company were some of the most educated, enlightened, and personable people I have ever known. Most were very helpful in the ways of getting to know the company and behaviors needed to succeed.

Cons

Possibilities for upward promotion were next to nil within the company. Many upper positions were not vacated for decades, let alone years. Much of the attention was paid only to one side of the company, while our side, the Waldenbooks side, was neglected to the point that many stores become simply unappealing to not only work in, but shop in. Much of the attention paid from upper management was minimal, and usually without much impact on day-to-day business. Many of the employee reports were simply copied from month to month with no new information to encourage growth or change.

Advice to Senior Management

Make the attention and income to both Waldenbooks and Borders are equal and competitive. Ensure that not only the interior but also exterior of the stores are up to par and welcoming. Make sure more hands-on goes on between Upper Management and Store Management. Be more consistent with goals and what employees should achieve. Use mall traffic and other influencing factors a part of the Sales Planning process. Allow employees to have a Management rating system to ensure fair treatment goes in stores.

Pros

Waldenbooks had achievable sales goals for their booksellers, no membership program any longer to try and sell which is a plus, they were fantastic about working around school and personal schedules.

Cons

Almost no room for advancement, retail based with long working hours, little communication between upper management and store level management.

Advice to Senior Management

Better communication is a must!

Pros

The discounts on books, and the customer interactions.

Cons

Waldenbooks was a great place to work when I first started their, but after a few years they got it in their head that every thing needs to change. They would in-list outside companies to do research and surveys on things that the field management had already figured out. Their was to much change for the customers and employees. Every 3-6 months they would change what the focus was and the card program.

Advice to Senior Management

Look to the field management more for information that you need instead of spending millions a outside company to tell you something that you could get for free. Evaluate the DM's potions. Put them in the stores more often.