Life at B&N: straight from the trenches

[fjtorres]

http://bn-booksellers.livejournal.co....html#comments

Some stores report lots of sales, others massive cuts in staff hours.
All gripe about management.
Three jump out:

Our store does not have enough seasonal help. So we are always backed up at cashwrap and customers are not happy to be waiting. We are selling lots of toys, games and gift items. Also, our membership sales are good. Always pushing gift cards and we are somewhat behind plan. Forget about the nook -- it isn't even spoken about. For some reason our managers seem optimistic, but I think that is just a "front". I've been around a long, long time and have never seen it this slow. I think we are makng plan only because our plan has been lowered. Just going to wait and see how it all shakes down. This season almost has a "this is our last stand" feel to it. I don't know why, but it just seems like that for some reason.

The store where I currently work suffered mass exodus of long term employees and they just this week hired holiday help so the few of us remaining are trying to train the herd of newbies. There have been multiple visits from district manager and other big wigs, resulting in orders to reset promos which take forever to accomplish because our store is thankfully busy at all times. Also seeing plenty of customer/external theft. Now we finally have enough cashiers but pulling product from receiving is hopelessly backed up. We are seeing plenty of sales but in 10 years I have never seen such massive pressure to push gift cards and memberships.

I just recieved a call from one of my ASMs. He said the SM just got off a regional call and was told to cut hours for the rest of the year in order to make payroll budget. I was told not to come in tonight, and given my adjusted schedule that cuts my hours in half from the prior posted schedules. I don't know what I am going to do now. I was counting on the $ from my schedule to pay for my kids Christmas presents. With my cut in hours, I won't earn enough to get the kids their gifts.

I don't know what to do but cry

------

I'm the poster who had hours cut after a regional call to make payroll for the year.

UPDATE: I've spent the last couple of days loking for another job (since I have the time from my cut schedule at B&N).

There must be a Christmas angel!

I was offered a job at the McDonalds up the street: +$1 over B&N pay and 40 HOURS!!!! They can only guarentee 40 hours through January, and then they will adjust them to a permanant level based on my performance.

My brother is going to lend me enough $ to get my kids some Christmas presents. Christmas is saved!!!!!!!

I start at McDonalds on Sunday. I'm stopping at B&N this afternoon to quit on the spot. That will be the last time I will ever set foot in B&N. I'm having someone pick up my last checks!

Not sure what to make of those or the rest.
Much more at the site.

[toddos]

I haven't worked retail in 15+ years (though my wife did manage a used bookstore up until ~4 years ago), but most of that sounds par for the course -- managers who aren't helpful, district manager pushing high margin items (gift cards and such) and setting quotas, understaffed, overworked, etc. It sucks being in the trenches, and I feel for each and every one of the employees, but you could take those rants and put them in 1996, or 2003, or pretty much any year you like and they'd still be more or less the same.

If anything, the number of people talking about how busy their stores are is an encouraging sign for B&N. It means people are still shopping their stores rather than buying from Amazon.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by toddos

If anything, the number of people talking about how busy their stores are is an encouraging sign for B&N. It means people are still shopping their stores rather than buying from Amazon.

I hear ya.
What I don't get is the timing: cutting staff hours during peak shopping season isn't par for the course, especially when the cuts impact busy stores.

And people buying at B&N doesn't mean they're buying books. Some of the reports say they're selling everything but books... That can lead to massive returns, messing up the publishers who are already dealing with the november collision of event titles...

That kind of site is for venting by the disgruntled so caution is needed, but I see red flags and parallels with Borders. At a minimum it sounds like some stores (maybe the ones already slated for closing) are being triaged.

There's more to the story...

[Rich_D]

It's been 20+ years since I worked retail but it's encouraging to see that some things never change.

[toddos]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

I hear ya.
What I don't get is the timing: cutting staff hours during peak shopping season isn't par for the course, especially when the cuts impact busy stores.

From the outside, that looks weird. But from the inside, that's literally exactly how retail works. Busier == more people working == more payroll needed. But there's a set budget, and stores are encouraged to come in under budget. So rather than sucking it up and giving people hours and making up the difference in sales, they put the same amount of work on fewer people and hope the store doesn't completely fall to pieces in the process.

And people buying at B&N doesn't mean they're buying books. Some of the reports say they're selling everything but books... That can lead to massive returns, messing up the publishers who are already dealing with the november collision of event titles...

A sale's a sale, whether it's a book, magazine, or other. If B&N didn't forecast properly and over-bought on books, they'll learn. B&N has been at this long enough that I doubt that happened, though.

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

I hear ya.
What I don't get is the timing: cutting staff hours during peak shopping season isn't par for the course, especially when the cuts impact busy stores.

And people buying at B&N doesn't mean they're buying books. Some of the reports say they're selling everything but books... That can lead to massive returns, messing up the publishers who are already dealing with the november collision of event titles...

That kind of site is for venting by the disgruntled so caution is needed, but I see red flags and parallels with Borders. At a minimum it sounds like some stores (maybe the ones already slated for closing) are being triaged.

There's more to the story...

It sounds like normal holiday patterns, especially for weak stores.

As for the other sales... it's actually better for them to be selling everything but books. It's a lot better for them to clear out the stuff that isn't returnable and be sitting on a ton of returnable stock than the other way round.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

It sounds like normal holiday patterns, especially for weak stores.

As for the other sales... it's actually better for them to be selling everything but books. It's a lot better for them to clear out the stuff that isn't returnable and be sitting on a ton of returnable stock than the other way round.

Is a bookstore that makes its money on "everything but books" still a bookstore?

I guess I'm antsy because what pushed Borders over the edge was publishers refusing to take back returns.

[LovesMacs]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

It sounds like normal holiday patterns, especially for weak stores.

As for the other sales... it's actually better for them to be selling everything but books. It's a lot better for them to clear out the stuff that isn't returnable and be sitting on a ton of returnable stock than the other way round.

Whether BN sells books or other items, I hope for the company's sake that it is selling the Christmas merchandise NOW, when it can charge full price, rather than post-holiday at the inevitable clearance prices.