new fiscal year means first quarter closings. that's why the cuts happened in the fourth quarter of this fiscal year. anything you hear about new stores being built or a new labor model is b---s---. get out while you still can. there won't be severance when there isn't any cash left.
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Agree with above. We in the cafe, the most affected by the non-stop 'bounceback' coupons, have questioned the forethought of this since it began last year. The numbers look good because of traffic conversion, but there is no way in the WORLD that this makes sense at the real bottom line, when you look at the gross margin. It's like working at a discount store anymore, and it's felt desperate for quite a while. I've been told that, as cafe lead, my job is not in danger at this point, but I put no faith in that.
I've seen this coming for a while now.
I agree.
Especially about the coupons. I was so confused when they started print-out coupons from the registers last year. Coupons that didn't even make sense and very obviously caused the stores to lose money. Coupon examples from café: $2 off any Grande/Venti drink, but 1 get 1 free cookie, buy any drink get $1 off a pretzel. What even. They do not make any financial sense, or any sense at all. And the $1 any drink weekend was a disaster. We had one constant line both days until close, and we only made about what we'd make on an average day, yet we went through so much product/drink supplies (and Starbucks products are EXPENSIVE AF). They kept telling us to use add-ons and offer food, but neither make up for the $2-$4 you're losing on the drinks. It was just to lure people into the store. Nothing else. A lot of people abused it and only got a Venti drink. No add-ons. Nothing else. So we got a lot of transactions ringing up as $1.06.
Our store had also been pushing memberships hardcore the last year, and something didn't seem right. The membership is the store's way of getting quick money, regardless of if the customers save $25 throughout the year. It's a scam. I never ask anyone if they want to buy one. Being in café, they aren't so hard on us about memberships. In fact, I have never gotten one new membership in my entire time being there. No one expects it from me anymore, and I'm okay with that.
So everyone - fellow B&N employees - get the f--- out NOW. You can honestly probably go anywhere else and make the same amount of money or even more, because we all know B&N pays everyone close to minimum wage.