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Half Price Books

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Half Price Books reviews

3.7

70% would recommend to a friend

(718 total reviews)
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Sharon Anderson Wright

64% approve of CEO

55% positive business outlook

Half Price Books has an employee rating of 3.7 out of 5 stars, based on 718 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Half Price Books employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Retail & Wholesale industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

718 reviews
1.0
Aug 5, 2018

Nice for temporary job, not long term

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The discount is incredible and the work is super easy. The pay is decent for retail.

Cons

Everyone at my location hates it there. The management is awful. Our general manager is lazy, selfish, and is terrible at managing people. She actively avoids helping her employees. She doesn't support or communicate with her shift leaders. Every single shift leader in our store is stressed. I do not recommend moving up in this company. It's all politics in our district, as our DM has a very large ego and does not respond well to criticism of any sort. One person who was applying for a shift leader position was told if they wanted to be promoted, they should go to the DM's Christmas party. They don't address employee concerns. This company does not treat long term employees well. They've been steadily decreasing benefits for years. They force you to wait an entire year before the possibility of an incremental raise.

3.0
Aug 29, 2017

Book seller

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The job itself was very easy; shelving books alphabetically in assigned section, buying customer merchandise and running the register. That was about it. You can check out and buy books in the store for 50% off for employees which is great if you're a reader. Great benefits for a retail job!

Cons

A lot of nepotism and ignorance among management. The management and "shift supervisors" let a lot of outbursts and disrespect towards coworkers slide from employees of whom they fraternized with. They made first time employees shift leaders after four months of working there. Each and everyone of them took advantage of it; giving themselves higher discounts, paying their friends higher than usual for selling their stuff at the buy counter, abusing their authority over employees, getting people in trouble they "didn't like", etc. There HR was a joke, I had to send a complaint about a shift leader because of racist and sexist comments. They told me they would get back to me and never did. Instead, I got called into a meeting where both managers trying to shower me with intimidation and tell me to come talk to them instead if before I went to HR. But that was another problem, every time someone came and talked to them about something it either got handled then died down temporarily or got ignored and became progressively worse. It's clear this is a retail store that targets millenials. If you don't clique with the snobbish and very gossipy hippy mentality, they will most likely find ways to get of you or for you to quit. Which is why there was a revolving door for employees before I finally threw in the towel. The toxic work environment set by both managers and employees wasn't even worth the pay or the insurance.

2.0
Jul 23, 2017

The End is near...

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Paid days off "holidays", semi-flexible schedule, discounts on merchandise, and you can take home "trash" for free!

Cons

Low pay for the amount of work you are expected to perform, horrible communication from corporation to retail staff, benefits continued to be cut back every year, lack of consistency on company policies, lots of crisis management rather than pro-active planning.

Viewing 61 - 63 of 718 Reviews

Glassdoor has 759 Half Price Books reviews submitted anonymously by Half Price Books employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Half Price Books is right for you.