When I started working at BN over 15 years ago, they offered benefits to all employees and their partners including part-timers. They were one of the first retail companies to offer domestic partner and same-s-x partner benefits. It was pretty impressive for a big company.
Now? Well now they're "laying off" full-timers just so they don't have to pay for any benefits. Right now it seems our cafe leads are safe, but for how long? I've suggested to EVERY part-timer that they start looking for jobs. We even have an assistant cafe manager at our store (rare, I know, but we're top 5) and he was shocked he wasn't let go. I hope no one comes back as a part-timer. They deserve better. In NY our minimum wage went up to $13 so there are very few employees making more than that (I worked 15 years to earn that much per hour!) so they could go anywhere and get any job and be making the same hourly. They deserve better.