general manager in training

2nd & Charles

The positive experiences I have from working here are solely because of the other employees and maybe a good manager experience sprinkled in. This was the first job I have ever created lasting friendships in, which is not easily done in a retail job. The employee culture is what you make of it. I was brought in with a supportive and caring, a very aware, sort of environment. We took care of and looked out for each other. Out of all of my retail experiences, this was the most supportive and caring on an employee level and for that I’m thankful. 

Management is very wishy-washy. The company does not like to promote within it’s own stores, but would rather outsource for managers and DMs, so there’s a lot of mixed messages between corporate to managers to stores because of a lack of knowledge and experience which differs from every location. 
In my experience, very few managers will help you. You will get better answers and assistance from your fellow employees, than asking anyone in a higher position. This job requires sound teamwork between employees.

The workload is worth way more than minimum wage. It’s very stressful between customers and managers constantly changing rules as well as the sheer amount of product you are expected to be familiar with, organize, and sell. On top of running yourself physically, unless you’re at the registers.

Much like any retail place, scheduling and flexibility depends on the current manager. My first 2 years there were consistent days and hours with the only extra days being inventory and if I offered to cover a shift. I absolutely loved it. The last 2 years were almost a constant fight despite a manager having to approve of it.

Concerns were rarely taken seriously. A lot of questions constantly went unanswered and we would have to figure out solutions on our own. Speaking of, training is not done well at all. New employees would be thrown an overstocked cart of books and be told, “Go shelve” with no direction.

Appreciation from managers to employees is pizza.

Being absolutely honest, the real selling point of this job is the employee discounts. The discounts are awesome during end of the year holidays and “employee appreciation month.”

Overall, the friends were worth it.

With this being my current longest held job, I have learned a lot in the past four years, and I am continuing to learn as I go. Most of our product comes from what we buy from customers, be it books, movies, music, comics, video games, or collectibles. It's quite literally something new every day. You learn the ins and outs of appropriately pricing items brought in from customers, going off of condition, stock, and popularity. Building rapport with regular customers and talking about anything and everything pop culture was always enjoyable.

As far as the store's management and workplace culture goes, it can be a fun place to work. My store's management looked out for us in every way they could, even if it meant butting heads with upper management. However, sometimes upper management's behavior and attitude towards their bottom lines left a lot to be desired. Instead of paying attention to each store's location and strengths, each store is expected to be a carbon copy of every other store, regardless of store size or performance. There are stores and managers in districts that are often corporate darling and receive preferential treatment. Promoting from within is seldom done unless you know the right people. Don't have high expectations for the pay, unless you like being gaslit into thinking it's livable.

Many red flags are apparent in their business practices. Long story short, this side of the company is most likely being used to prop up the parent company side since the parent company side isn't doing so hot. Not to mention promoting managers who had active parts in theft rings in other districts.

Lastly, the pandemic really showed the parent company's true colors, especially with a CEO who acknowledges the ongoing problems but refuses to take responsibility for them. You know it's bad when store managers are calling out upper management left, right, and center with upper management trying to twist their words around.

Stick around for the employee discount, corporate won't miss you when you leave.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The managers were super understanding and flexible with my college schedule. The hours were reliable and consistent. The atmosphere was positive and generally a good place to be around. Each staff member is generally assigned to work in the area where the have the most knowledge and interest.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
It is still a retail job, so having to meet the metrics could be stressful on occasion. Some customers were a bit much to deal with, but overall most of the job wasn't too bad.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
It is very friendly and light hearted. It is a smaller staff so everyone tends to get pretty close and familiar with each other.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
If you open, you show up, meet your manager, go with for a bank run, come back, log into the register, put away any over due holds, undamaged returns, or items that were left unpurchased at the register until open. Then, if it is slow, you stock the register, clean the que, organize the shelves in the back, or alphabetize the game discs. Once your register shift is over, you either help unpack truck, or work on shelving merchandise in your assigned area from the buyback department. If there were ever more than three people in line, hop onto register to help clear the line, then return to shelving. At some point you'll have a break then go home. Usually your break was right after the register shift, but sometimes it was later if you opened. If you close then you come in mid day, either you start on register or you shelve for a bit then take over register. Of you are the last register shift then you clean the que line, restock the drink fridge, wipe down the registers and counter, and sweep the que near close. Once closed, you get with your other closer(s) and decide who is cleaning bathrooms and who is vacuuming. Once paperwork is done, everyone signs out and leaves together.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The 40% discount is a major plus and they do 2 Employee Appreciation Months a year where you can purchase one used item a week for 70% off. But it’s all used as an excuse for the astonishingly low hourly pay. The store itself is great and the majority of the staff were good people who were mostly pleasant to work with.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
They’re constantly hiring and yet never scheduling. Every month and year, upper management boasts about how well the company is doing- higher profit margins, increasingly better performance per district etc. and none of that ever seems to translate positively into the stores. There never seems to be enough budget to schedule the people that are hired. Very frustrating and suspicious, to be honest. Makes doing your job efficiently next to impossible in some cases, particularly the buyback area which is ALWAYS busy. Also Store Managers are encouraged by corporate to do as little physical work as possible and delegate almost all tasks to co-mangers and associates, most of whom don’t get get scheduled enough hours to do the work, but will ultimately take all the blame for incomplete or insufficiently finished tasks. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The terms “helicopter” and “micro manage” are not only flippantly thrown around but ENCOURAGED. It leads to a very unnecessarily hostile work environment. Most of the associates and co-managers are generally friendly. But, EVERYONE is stressed out all the time from lack of coverage and backup.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
It depends on what you’re doing.  But weather you are at register, buyback or doing a co-manager task, odds are you will be extremely busy while the store manager sits in the office on their phone.

A typical day at 2nd & Charles entails making sure that all notes and plans are set for execution on the sales floor. Managing associates to make sure daily and weekly goals are met while disseminating projects/tasks to get product to the floor in a timely matter. I've learned quite a lot in my time with the company, mainly how to make myself a better manager by following the example of the great managers I've had and avoiding the tactics of the management who were not conducive to positive work environments. I've had the luxury of being able to see new stores be opened and learned how the best of the best merchandise, skills I've been able to take back to my own store and improve my ability.  That being said; working at 2nd & Charles has become less than ideal as the workload will exponentially increase and decrease depending on volume. Management from home office is slowly shifting the focus of the store to be more like the parent company. This has created a lot of confusion in what tasks are taking place first and what deadlines are the most important. This has also made it more difficult for lower volume stores with less staff to get the new used merch to the floor in a timely manner.  overall as a first job I will recommend, but the long-term will be a long road and the lack of fair pay makes it hard to recommend for a career, this is exacerbated by the fact that many stores are opening but higher management is prone to move managers from BAM and hire all new staff for stores versus moving leads and other associates to new stores for growth even when requested.

I felt like I was an unwelcomed guest there. Most employees only act polite-ish. I was sick for a few weeks and I nearly lost my job over it even though I was puking at work and once all over myself. The discount is also pretty much a worthless joke. I worked there for nearly a year and I wasn't even fully trained. We also had this magazine system that was just awful to deal with. We were told to tell customers the magazines were risk free and would never be charged but thats not the case if you talk to the regulars at all. Most people that came in often had horror stories for not being about to cancel them and their bank accounts getting over drawn from it and I always had this guilt asking people to sign up because of it. There were times that when a certain coworker would actually call me stupid to my face and called me a Karen when I just told him he did something wrong. Only one manager had the nerve to go up to him about how that was super innopropriate behavior months after the fact. They don't offer bags for free and yes, the customers will take it personally sometimes. I've never had people be so ugly to me over a BAG before. I felt like I was being set up to fail for this company. You can do better. Also it took me an hour to watch a 5 min training video because of the lame internet but I guess that's not their fault.

This place is cool as a customer, but horrible as an employee.

I was never given the position I was assured and initially hired for, and when I inquired about it,  I was iced out and encouraged to remember that the company "goes through employees like tissues..." 

Management wasn't often on the same page and would openly berate subordinates, creating unhealthy tension and animosity around the workplace. We had employees trying to get other employees fired so they could be seen as "more favorable" by management. This led to high turnover, walkouts, and even multiple employees having physical breakdowns because of this behavior and treatment.

Stocking was a big part of the job, which involved shelving media alphabetically. The only problem was that you weren't able to properly do so, due to endless piles of books and media being carelessly thrown around on the shelves... So you'd get reprimanded for fixing it because it took too much time and carts weren't worked through quickly enough... But then, STILL get reprimanded because you're not fixing the chaos and disorganization - It's a maddening, no-win situation.

Can't speak to any other locations, but this one was a surprisingly disturbing place to work.


This is the most toxic company I have ever worked for. They do not know what they want to be, or what they are, and because of this they are constantly changing their policy. How can you set your team up for success when you are not set up for success yourself? Training is an absolute joke. They just don’t do it. Then get angry at you when you go over in payroll, but then get angry at you if deadlines are not met. Corporate has no idea what they are doing. They rely on low paid workers in these stores to fix everything, and make changes, while they sit on their phone/computers and don’t actually offer to help on anything. They will see one person post a great idea, and then force all the stores to do the same thing. We are not all set up the same way. Older stores have different fixtures/tables/etc, there’s no way for every store to be “the same” instead they should be appreciating each store for their unique features. And you can forget about work life balance, it doesn’t exist in this company, especially the higher up you get. Phone calls, emails etc on your day off. They pressure you to take positions you aren’t ready for, and you beg to be trained, but nothing.

The job is easy enough and the culture/coworkers is the best I have ever had. Unfortunately the pay is far lower than most other retail, not enough for what the job is. Training is very minimal and often times I found I wasn’t told how to do most things unless I asked multiple times. Getting hours is difficult, and payroll is often low leading to hours being cut. There is no option for taking sick time. Corporate is constantly making changes and then switching up on them at the expense of the staff and the customers. Customers will blame you for questionable upper management choices. You have to push coupons and donations, with little to no benefit or recognition if you are successful in it, but management will be on you about it all the time. With all this being said, the coworkers are great and its extremely flexible with your availability. Would be a great place to work if you need a second job on the side, or if its your first job. You have to be 18 to work there, but it’s perfect for late high school or college students. It can be a very fun and casual place.

2nd & Charles is a sister company of Books-A-Million dealing in used items rather than new. For a more accurate understanding of what it's like to work at @nd & Charles, read some reviews about Books-A-Million as well.

The job was easy enough, with the exception of the software continuously being slow or entirely unresponsive.

There was only one manager in my particular store that was even worth considering a manager. As for the rest, I'm not exactly sure what amount of work they could actually put in the "finished" column, and the few things they could took them about 2-4 weeks too long to accomplish.

The only real undeniable good thing that came from my personal experience with this company was the people, minus the management, that made up the crew. If it wasn't for them, the entirte experience would have been horrible.

As for the hardest part of the job, there really wasn't one. All around, the work was relatively easy to get done. The only time it wasn't was when we were understaffed or the computer systems were down.

Again, the most enjoyable part of working at 2nd & Charles was my fellow employees. Hands down, the ONLY enjoyable part for me.

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