bookseller

customer service representative

fellow

Half Price Books

Positions at Half Price Books at the individual store level include store manager, assistant store manager, several shift leaders, a store inventory manager, several booksellers, and temps.  At the time I left temps were hired both year round and seasonally, full time for periods of three months.
   Half Price Books is a nationwide chain of used book and media stores.  The chain is privately owned and based in Texas.  Most of each store's inventory comes from local customers who may bring items in to sell any time the store is open.  Each store also sells hurt and remaindered books and media (including gift shop items) acquired from other retailers.  Most recently, stores have started selling new release books, and this market appears to be growing.
   All positions at the store level are customer service and labor intensive, with little or no down time.  Employees should be able to lift loads of at least 50lbs.  Breaks provided are more than adequate, and include a paid hour long lunch and two 10 minute breaks on an eight hour shift.  Stores keep long hours, and shifts may constantly change between morning, mid, and evening.
   All employees and especially temps will be required to perform cash register duties.  Employees will need to respond to constant questions about books and media and will need to rely heavily on personal knowledge and internet resources to field these questions.  Basic math skills and basic computer skills focusing on web browsers are required.  A love of reading, movies, and music is helpful.
   Most employees and some temps will be required to purchase books from customers.  This is probably the most stressful part of the job.  On a daily basis each store is offered thousands of books and media items by walk-in sellers, often several times in excess of what the store could possibly hope to sell.  Although the company would like to resell every book available, market demand requires a measure of selectivity, and this can be upsetting to book lovers.  This is an excellent environment for those interested in acquiring books for donations, and several employees and customers have made arrangements with the company to provide books to libraries around the world.  An interest in this type of non-profit work is a definite plus.
   Half Price Books offers competitive benefits to permanent employees including healthcare, profit sharing, and 401Ks.  Temps do not receive these benefits, and some irregularities were noted including periodically switching insurance providers and raiding the profit sharing fund to pay off employee vacation time.
Half Price Books has a very generous employee merchandise checkout policy for permanent employees, although temps are excluded.

Something they first tell you when you start is that "everyone does everything" and they really take the time to train you and don't look down on you when you need help. It was a nice environment to be in overall. You meet some of the weirdest and coolest people while working there, and you start to build a pretty cool collection of things. I know a portion of my paycheck went to buying stuff every two weeks. HPB really has ruined me from paying full stuff for things ever again. 

Some of things you could do day in, day out range from register duties, phone, buying, running your sections, assisting customers, filing media, fronting (pushing books forward when customers have pushed them back, usually kids or the elderly) and other things I know I've forgotten about. I remember when I first started my feet took about 2 weeks to adjust from all the standing. You should always have something to do and if you don't just ask, they really appreciate that. If you're a temp, it's something they take into consideration if they're deciding to keep you on or not.

From what I heard, the majority work at HPB for the benefits - 50% off discount on almost everything except distro items (things we get new from publishers) and the health insurance - and either have a spouse or significant other making more elsewhere or they end up rooming together with another coworker. The pay was pretty good for a first job, $10 or so, and somewhat decent otherwise, but you really can't work there part time, at least at my location. I would have continued on there when I left to attend college if not for that.

I think one of the only and major things that sucked while working there had to be the last hours of the closing shift. Mostly because hardly anyone came unless it was the regular that always took their time hiding and put off checking out until after we repeatedly called for closing. But the music was a big factor, too. It just seemed to progressively drag you down during those hours (excluding the Harry Potter or Jurassic Park theme songs), but you were able to wear headphones at the end of the night when you're putting the store back together. And also, the fact that every store around us closed one hour before us and we had to stay open. I think I would have understood this better if our store were actually inside the mall and not across the highway, because I feel that that was a pretty big deterrent from people walking to our location or knowing about it at all.

I would definitely recommend working at HPB to anyone. There's people from various ages and walks of life, some who have been there almost from the start of HPB. It's a very diverse place to be and they take you as you are, so feel free to express yourself. There's no set uniform, by the way.

A typical day at Half Price Books involved two to four hours buying books from the public for resale, organizing the books and media, displaying merchandise, pricing the books and media for expeditious sale, answering customer phone calls, responding to customer questions, and maintaining a clean and orderly store.

Through my work at Half Price Books I learned the process of buying, pricing, displaying  merchandise.  I worked to promote sales by setting competitive prices and adapting to changing market behaviors.  As the book market changed, our store had to adapt its operations to fit a dynamic supply and demand situation. This means I learned to regularly adjust percentages paid on incoming merchandise to account for the daily changing supply and demand.

The management at Half Price Books was accommodating to employee needs regarding scheduling and life changes.  They are prompt in answering employee questions regarding benefits, vacation requests, and, most importantly, training.

My co-workers are a varied group of distinct individuals.  Because of the low turnover of employees at Half Price Books, I have worked with largely the same group of people for years.  I enjoy the group dynamic that has developed between the people that I work with. I think this situation creates and interesting place to work.  Having roughly thirty co-workers I have known for years has provided me and opportunity to develop meaningful relationships with the people I work with.

The hardest part of working at Half Price Books is fulfilling customer needs.  Buying and selling to the public creates unique and challenging customer service situations that have no uniform answer.  Everyday I encounter a different customer inquiry: Why is this book priced this way?  Why did you pay me that much for all these books?  What kind of books would I like to read?  These are just some examples of the myriad questions I have to resolve in a courteous and timely manner.  Making sure everyone is satisfied is a daily challenge I encounter at Half Price Books.  It is a challenge I excel at meeting.

My favorite part of my job is using my brain.  The process of buying and pricing books requires using my critical thinking skills regularly.  I enjoy using different resources to gather information on a specific piece of merchandise and coalescing that data into and accurate and fair price.  I truly enjoy putting my critical thinking skills to the test.

This was my favorite job and I was reluctant to leave it when I did. I loved everything about it. I got to pretty much wear whatever I wanted as long as it wasn't overly sexual or offensive, I regularly wore my nerdy superhero-themed T-shirts and regular jeans and shoes. I wore my hair as crazy as I felt and did crazy colors. The customers and my fellow employees loved all that I was. In this job I was extremely productive, but I can say that the fact that I was allowed to express myself and truly be myself helped put a smile on my face before every shift. The staff are still some of my actual friends I speak to, they're literally the best. So many invigorating minds, experiences, personalities, and viewpoints. We did not always agree on everything but we all respected one another. We were less of a company and more like real people. The minimum wage in the city where this store was wasn't great, but I worked full-time and thus was making a fairly decent living, at least for someone like me who still lives with family. The only reason why I had to leave instead of staying on as part time is because their part time was not really part time. For example, I could not simply work the weekends and I believe part time was technically below the full time hour amount, but that the part time people would get essentially just enough to not work full time hours. I even asked and my friends/managers let me know that with a full time school schedule that there would have been no way to work part time there as well. Otherwise, the experience was pretty legit, aside from the increasing homeless population in the area and consequently the more-than-occasional disturbed individual coming in to disturb the peace. But that was a fault of the area, not the company itself. Whenever stuff like that would happen or if we dealt with the politically incorrect and overzealous customer, fellow employees and managers alike were quick to respond. We had each other's backs.

Half Price Books wants to maintain the image of being the same seat of the pants, free thinking, hippie dippie, mom and pop shop it was over 40 years ago, but in reality, they've drifted so far their current practices have more in common with Walmart than Costco. In the span of a decade, I saw a company culture go from kinda nice, if a little lovey dovey for my taste, to going against almost everything it once pretended to stand for. When I started, the company celebrated it's creative intelligent employees as not only a big reason for the company's continued success but also creative and intelligent were preached as the main hiring criteria adding to everyone's special good vibes. A few years before I left, I started hearing things like anyone can be trained to do this job, and everyone is replaceable. This coming from District Managers always yelling at us managers for not considering every possible feeling every employee can have at any given time. Even before I left, they were already talking of breaking away from their staunchly held tradition of hiring mostly full time and hiring more temps and part timers to save money by not having to pay for insurance, but I've heard, unverified so call it rumor and take it with a grain of salt, they've already started with their store in areas that have already passed increased minimum wage legislation. When beliefs crumble so quickly like that, it usually means they were just for show from the start. On a personal note, I was fired after working there for over a decade for something I had been explicitly told wasn't against policy, directly from my supervisor and confirmed by their supervisor, but as often happens in the presence of HR, everyone'ss reality suddenly changes except, of course, that of the wronged party. Just once, I'd like for it to work on them too, so they can find peace in ignorance, like "Aw shucks, I guess I did do a bad thing. Maybe it really was me screwing the company over and not the other way around. I get so confused without them telling me. I deserved to get fired, but it'll be okay. I'll find a worse job with lower pay and longer hours with somehow even worse bosses, but at least I'll have the comfort of being told exactly how to act, what to think, when to feel, who to talk to, where to sit, and which wrong which brings which consequences. As always, no consequences for the rich."

Management and corporate made it this way.

It will take years to get the stench of the place off of your life. You're worked to the bone, which is... fine, generally,  except when it gets to the point where you're covering for multiple FULL sections of books from inventory, stocking, pricing,  and weeding AND told to mind the till and then told to learn how to evaluate items to be offered for sale in the same day. The part I loathed was being told to scan for the online store and having to deal with the uggo stock that came in from corporate that devoured your day, section plans, and space constraints, and then having to deal with my co workers sections due a variety of typically stupid reasons--real "fun" when one couldn't come into work, ever, but nothing will save you if you dare to come into work late. More on that in a bit. The best I can say is that it's a good temporary position, good pay until the expectations and rules get piled on top of you and then you start breaking under the pressure. Better hope you fit into the clique, because it could make or break your mental and emotional state. I have never, in any other workplace, been made to feel so unwelcome and out of place amongst co workers. I'm not lying when I say that the emotional toll this place had on me took years to overcome, it's made me hate this town and made me question my own work ethic. Leaving after having survived years of this place is like having PTSD.

Basically, never come into work late by even seconds, because chances are someone is watching the clock and will make note of it. Real "fair", given the terrible location, nonstop roadwork, and traffic in the area. They will shame and scare you by putting you on action plans (mind you, this is for being late by negligible amounts of time, seconds and minutes) which lasts for half a year, gives you only one or two "lates" then allows them to fire you for being less than as minute late. I know because I've witnessed it myself.

And sometimes the hour lunch break feels excessive, like it's just a way to keep everyone there for an extra half hour.

The good:
If you’re a book lover Half Price Books is a great place to work. The starting pay is comparable with other retail jobs, but there is a cap. The benefits are really great. Paid vacation and sick time accrue so you can save up as many hours as you want. Most often they won’t approve any more than two weeks off at a time, however. The insurance is good. The vision insurance is particularly great. More often than not coworkers will be like-minded, friendly people. Shift leaders are usually pretty chill and knowledgeable and always willing to help out. Employee discount is good. Customers are usually great but of course you will encounter grumpy or nasty people from time to time. 

The bad:
Your schedule is all over the place. Nobody has a set schedule other than management. Your shift will most likely be in the middle of the day so you can’t schedule anything unless you use PTO. Every store while “different” must follow the same procedures as every other store in that district, regardless if those procedures work well at a particular store. This can add to the stress level of the day to day, which can already be more stressful than one would think a bookstore job would be. It’s a toss up if the manager will be good and enjoyable to be around or a childish force of chaos. It’s best to let the latter dig themselves down because you will rarely get any help from the district managers or above. This company protects store managers above any other store employees. It doesn’t matter if bookseller ideas are innovative and proven, if the manager doesn’t like it it’s not happening. All employees are assumed to be petty and unprofessional if they have issues with their manager and their concerns will most likely be dismissed. Advancement can be very long as they only promote booksellers when a higher position opens up and that is infrequent. It could take several years. Also, unless you want to be in store management or work in Dallas, TX, there isn’t really any advancement available.

It’s a good place to work as long as you can work under pressure and don’t mind the day to day to be monotonous at times. I made lots of friends there. 

When people shop at Half Price Books, they're frequently amazed at the selection, the prices, and staff knowledge. Yes. Then they'll frequently comment, "This seems like an amazing, laid-ack place to work."  No.  It can be, it possibly should be.  It is not. 
Once upon a time, the job was pretty simple. On any given day, you could buy and price books, shelve books, or run the register.  The phone would ring, but there was debate on whether this should even be an assigned duty because it was rare, and there was no computerized inventory, so one just looked on the shelf.
That has changed drastically. HPB now sells video games, electronics, books, toys, Legos, and whatever ephemera they want to gamble on. There is a computerized inventory, that must be updated, and the phone sometimes rings incessantly, so the phone is an assigned duty, which is combined with fulfilling frequent online orders.  Despite the increase in duties, pay and staffing has not increased significantly.
This isn't fully realized by upper management, most of whom haven't worked in a store since the time when all books were priced with a pencil or a sticker-based pricing gun.  They couldn't survive a day in one of our modern understaffed stores, an in fact probably haven't seen one, since most of them are based in the upper levels of our Flagship store, which has more than 100 employees. Try working a week in a store with 14 employees, then take a look at our pay and policy.  Really, please do this.
Working in a store, aside from being very busy, can be a challenge because of both customers and staff. Customer service is always unpleasant at times, at any company, but when buying things from the public, it's of course more challenging because people often think their items are worth far more than they really are. Also, there are times when they're bringing in items that are a health hazard. Mildew and black mold are commonplace, as are living and dead bugs. Some staff have been bitten by fleas.
As for staff, some of them are excellent people.  Others are lazy, gossipy purveyors of drama who create a toxic environment chain wide, and management are typically unwilling or unable to handle the situation.
However, benefits are very good.

I started at Half Price Books in 2016 and immediately felt like I had found my home at a company that I intended to grow with and stay with for the long haul. My coworkers became my family, I loved working with books and got great performance reviews from my manager. The benefits and bonuses were amazing - I had worked retail all my life and never been so financially comfortable before. My manager at my store wasn't the best at everything, but they liked me and were easy to approach with problems or concerns. There were definitely stressful times, bad days, and unpleasant coworkers and customers, as at any retail job, but overall I was happy.

Then earlier this year I transferred to another store in a new district with new managers and new employees. Everyone was nice at first, but I started having physical problems which severely limited my ability to work as hard as I had at my previous store. No one at the new store seemed interested or even the tiniest bit concerned about how I was visibly struggling, they just assumed I was lazy and weak. The managers would accuse employees of not being productive enough, and meanwhile they would spend all their time chatting in the office about video games and watching us on the cameras. I felt paranoid, uncomfortable, and alone the entire time. Eventually they accused me of breaking a serious rule that I ABSOLUTELY did not break, they accused me of doing things I did not do, and let me go. I was distraught but honestly a bit relieved because they had treated me like ****. They didn't believe any of the explanations about my health I gave them, even though they were true, they admitted to watching hours of video footage of me and the only thing bad the video showed was that I a) sat down while shelving books (which is not against the rules) and b) used the manager computer in the office (I was a manager, so again, not against the rules). Basically they wanted to fire me because they thought I was lazy even though I was in extreme pain all the time, so they made up some excuse to get rid of me. It was bull**** and it was traumatizing.

Long story short - if the managers you have are great, you're in for an awesome experience. If not, you're screwed. Approach with caution.

Overall, I truly enjoyed my time at Half Price Books.  They genuinely care about their employees and provided as much as they could.

Everything about my position was very much on a schedule.  My typical daily duties included travelling from store to store within the district to train employees, give reviews, assist stores where needed, provide technical support (only because I am experienced in this field; it was not a requirement), and provide documentation/training materials.  On occasion I had to organize and host seminars, special events (such as author signings and donations), and conventions. 

During my time with HPB, I learned quite a lot about how to handle customers and employees in just about any situation.  I also greatly improved my public speaking skills as well as many other skills I used on a daily basis.  Because of my experience with them, I feel that I can handle any situation that may arise with an employee or customer, be it difficult, hostile, or pleasant.

The District Management team was also a pleasure to work with.  They allowed me to work a very flexible schedule, take holidays, and most importantly always had my back.  I knew, without a doubt, that if I ever needed their support - they would be there in a heartbeat.

The hardest part of the job for me was giving seminars.  I had no previous experience in public speaking, and the thought made me very nervous.  Luckily, I had a very supportive management team and people to guide me in the right direction.  

The most enjoyable part of the job was getting to travel from store to store to help people.  I am personally very motivated by knowing that I have helped someone and accomplishing that felt very rewarding.  I also loved being able to interact with the public more by donating and hosting events.  Nothing is as rewarding as seeing children's faces light up when you pull up to their school and hand them boxes of books!

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Bookseller 3 salaries reported	$19.37 per hour
Customer service representative 3 salaries reported	$15.67 per hour
Fellow 1 salary reported	$26.50 per hour

Working at Half Price Books: Company Overview and Reviews

Half Price Books

Half Price Books Ratings

Popular jobs at Half Price Books

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected