Been with the company in various capacities for over a decade. This is by far the worst year I've experienced at bn. Stockrooms are overflowing with product, no rhyme or reason to shipments, model numbers, staff are forced to focus entirely on selling without any time for tasks necessary to maintaining a store. Despite Daunt's claim that store stock and displays will be individually managed, the options for store initiated displays have dwindled down to zero. Managers have talked about coming cuts to hours for all staff. I'm sure a number of stores will close as well. Daunt "turned around" Waterstones by cutting staff, not paying a living wage, and forcing publoshers to discount all books bought by the store. He is disingenuous at best, a condescending elitist at worst who has no respect for booksellers who shoulder the bulk of the labor in his stores. Never forget that BN is now owned by a private very ruthless hedge fund. Lipstick on a pig indeed.
A good post from @11TCFGml-2nlb