I have seen Half Price Books slowly take shape into its current form for nearly 10 years. Bottom Line: This company is dying because 1.) The market is changing dramatically, making it difficult to be profitable and 2.) Half Price Books has failed miserably on all levels of management to see understand and acknowledge that its own practices have led to a quick demise than may have been before. Let me explain. Half Price Books, from my first days, has primarily been run by people who have little or not interest in seriously advancing in a meaningful or challenging career. The company actively seeks (and capitalizes on) relatively educated people who freshly obtained a degree in the liberal arts, but are unsure of where to go next. Take a look at the current application as of this writing. The majority of the questions are not about your strengths or weakness or what skills you may have, they are based on what types of books you read, what kind of music you like, what kind of movies you like. Your likelihood of getting hired is based on whether you like the same types of media as those you will be working with. Many of the people working there's highest aspiration is "Going into grad school sometime in the future." These are the people who are sought after (And I mean that literally) to work there because they are typically in for the long haul. After years of not upsetting anyone and fitting in with management (As you may have read from previous reviews, advancing in this company is actually and seriously difficult if you are not close friends with your immediate superior), an employee may be promoted. However, this advancement is not based on merit, work ethic, emotional intelligence, or most importantly, management skill, it is based on your longevity in the company and your outside interactions with your boss and your boss' boss. The reviews on this site have a very familiar theme of poor management (Some of which may be for superfluous reasons, as that is an easy criticism of any company you are upset with) and at the heart of it are what they seek as a company: Conformity. You are expected to fit in with a certain dynamic (Typically one many might consider a pseudo-intellectual, self-proclaimed movie/music critic, aspiring writer, or, yes, a hipster) For a company based on values of openness to ideas, free speech, and fair treatment of employees, they are notoriously closed off to these three components.
The immediate superior of most employees is the shift leader. This position is designed to be a management position, but its candidates almost always fail in every component of a manager you could think of. Their job is to report serious issues to the assistant manager, who's job it is to report to the store manager... The store manager is expected to wait until the problem is severe and meets the criteria for a Write-Up before actually acting on it. For example, I worked with a number of people who felt it beneath them to show up on time, who were consistently abusive to fellow employees, people without manners or professionalism, who used sexist and profane language in front of customers, and who engaged in extrememly inappropriate debates while on the sales floor (Politics, religion). Instead of confronting an employee about their behavior on the outset, the shift lead tells the store leader, who often contacts his superior on what exactly to do (Though to be fair, my store manager was a stereotypical coward and passive-aggessivist). The employee often (because they generally lack self-awareness) has no idea what they are doing until months later. And often instead of confronting them directly, the manager will bring up the issue generally and ask ALL employees to cease said behavior, leaving every other employee confused and the person who actually did it, more likely than not, still unaware.
Half Price Books has been a company for a long time. Around the time I started (mid-2000s) they were outrageously profitable. Profits came because they had a franchise model and cornered the market around the country, becoming the most successful chain of used book stores ever founded. Making money was extremely easy. Margins were ridiculous. However, not long after I started, the company's profits slowed and they became more restricted and far more conservative. Their idealism of providing free health care to all employees was one of their greatest benefits. You did not have to pay a dime for health care as an employee back then. However, once the money wasn't pooring in en masse, they realized health care for all employees is outrageously expensive. 2 years later they began charging for it. A modest cost, still beneficial. Then they changed providers: Every.Year. As you can imagine, the quality of these programs was less with each one, while the cost per employee steadily rose. However, benefits were incredible. But things were still good, we received healthy profit checks and christmas bonuses. A steady and persistent decrease with each year. What once may have been a couple thousand extra dollars per year amounted to less than 80% of that as of this writing, with 2 out of the 3 last quarters having no profit checks (perhaps no profits, however, it is a private company so who knows..Also, it is rumored these are being taken away as well). Holidays, sick days, vacation days... Those have recently been cut by 25% or more on all fronts. Everything that once kept the typical half price books employee happy was taken away or drastically reduced.
The bottom line is this company is finally realizing how difficult it is to successfully run a profitable business that is fair to its employees. They were able to do it when it was easy, but by the time they saw the dam cracked, they panicked and did what most people do when its too late: try to ease the pain of the inevitable. They realized how damaging it is to advance people with no experience or skill into very senior levels of management that often require advanced training to do successfully. They saw why companies struggle to offer huge perks, free insurance, and profit sharing to everyone they hire. They have finally been forced to acknowledge that the market is dying and that the gravy train has stopped. This company is a shell of what it once was, partially because of its own practices, but also part of just the way the book market has gone.
Barnes and Noble is managed by people with actual experience in the business world and is shutting down hundreds of stores in the next few years. Half Price Books is the story of 2 hippies in a laundromat accidentally striking gold. How likely is it that a naive, idealistic hippie, and a patchwork band of liberal arts majors can keep her parent's company afloat?
