Half Price Books reviews

You're part of a big, ugly machine that's killing off local bookstores across the nation, and guess what--it's not even going to be that fun. I'm not totally sure what working there looks like after laying off 75 percent of its staff, but it can't be any easier with only three people on the floor at a time in addition to crowd control/sanitation duties. The workload was always overflowing due to horribly incompetent management while I was there; I can't imagine it's gotten any better, even with limited buying hours. Either way shoving books around all day is going to wreck your thumbs, obnoxious customers--who are somehow both indignant about how you price books and aggressively pleasant/conversational when you're utterly overwhelmed with work--will haunt your every step, and management just won't be able or willing to help you. Shift leaders are pleasant but horribly trained; managers are usually nowhere to be found. You'll get assigned sections pretty quick, which basically just gives you something to be upset about when it inevitably fills up and you can't do anything and you have to painstakingly go through every book looking for something that you can just throw in the trash so you can put up another copy of the same thing. That's basically the job nine times out of ten. One of the most bizarre employee cultures I've ever been a part of; drama is everywhere, but everybody's kind of too shy and backward to really address it. Everybody was fun to hang out with in their own way but you get the sense that there are a lot of jilted pseudo-intellectuals in denial about working in what's essentially Pier One for gifted kids; when most of us got laid off we never spoke again. A lot of people come into the company thinking it's something they could legitimately do for years, but it's genuinely just a waypoint in between whatever you were doing before and whatever bigger thing will come 5-12 months down the line.

HPB claims they take everything when purchasing your books. They do take everything, but most of it ends up in the trash. You have to lie to customers at the buy counter every day about where their books are going. The management is a joke. The manager will talk down to you, yell at you, and make your life hell. She is a pushover who only cares about making upper management happy and will throw her employees under the bus any chance she can get. Management likes to throw a band-aid on a problem instead of actually fixing it. Management can not handle any sort of criticism. On multiple cases by multiple employees management has tried to guilt employees and play victim. Walking on eggshells was a common feeling in the workplace. Management can not separate life from work. Books were stacked so high on counters and in walkways. MULTIPLE employees have had books fall on them due to a lack of safety. Fire exists were blocked violating OSHA. When upper management showed up, we had to sweep everything under the rug and pretend we weren't drowning in books. HPB loves to cut corners. They would staff as little people as possible, have you work on a counter for 95% of your shift, leave you no time to shelve your section, then get frustrated when you didn't shelve as many boxes as they wanted you too. When Covid -19 happened and 2/3 of employees were let go we were told we would hear from our manager regarding benefits, and gathering our things from the backroom. Management NEVER called. Multiple employees had to call the manager to get information on insurance and collecting their things. Chasing down the manager is a common game.