Store Manager

Barnes & Noble is an innovator in publishing, retail, and digital media, including our award-winning NOOK® products and an expansive collection of digital reading and entertainment content. We welcome creative, dedicated, and service-oriented team members who are passionate about being an integral part of our dynamic community and helping it thrive.

Whether your expertise is in retail, merchandising, publishing, marketing, technology, or finance, we have a place for you at Barnes & Noble.

As a Store Manager (SM), you are a business owner who leads and manages your store, ensuring that it operates consistently within our bookselling culture, world-class customer service focus, digital initiatives, operating and merchandising standards. You plan and allocate all resources to maximize store profitability and efficiencies. You model, coach, and teach your team to deliver the four core service principles, maintain merchandising direction and uphold operational standards of the company. You motivate your team by communicating and explaining the company strategies and initiatives. You hold managers accountable to develop talent and to manage performance. You select, hire, assess, and develop managers, ensuring a talent bench which reflects the communities we serve.

Essential Functions:

• Deliver consistent positive financial results through efficient management and execution of our four core service principles: put the book in the customer's hand, offer to order, offer the Member program, and fast cashiering.
• Control the store budget, ensuring the correct appropriation of the payroll to achieve the sales per hour (SPH) goal and all operational expenditures.
• Understand and execute Integrated Store Operations (ISO) standards to drive sales and productivity and teach your team to do the same.
• Customize and execute the Visual Merchandising Standards (VMS); optimize sales through merchandise placement and responsible inventory management (orders and returns).
• Coach and communicate with the store team about our all products and services, enthusiastically model selling behavior, share technical knowledge, and provide recommendations about ways to connect our customers with the right solutions or products.
• Drive sales by identifying and acting upon opportunities in the community, institutional sales, and bookfairs, thereby establishing a community relations network and tailoring your merchandise selection to local customers.
• Select and develop managers, coaching them to interview, orient and develop talent to drive sales, control expenses, and achieve goals.
• Recognize, anticipate and confront performance issues and take appropriate and timely corrective action in partnership with your district manager and in accordance with human resource guidelines.
• Prepare and deliver performance reviews and create learning plans to build a consistent and viable talent bench in the store.
• Protect company assets, controlling internal and external shrink for your store in partnership with your regional loss prevention manager.
• Maintain a calm demeanor and manage employee and customer issues professionally and according to store operating and company standards, setting a positive example.
• Act with integrity and trust, promoting our bookselling culture and core values.
• Maintain facility's conditions and take immediate action to correct any building maintenance issues with the regional facilities manager, contractors, vendors, or mall and property management.

Requirements/Qualifications:

• You are a business owner who is analytical and uses your knowledge of the industry and competition to consistently identify opportunities and deliver sales results.
• You are a problem solver who can accurately assess situations, use feedback to customize solutions, and communicate your plans to your store team and partners.
• You recognize the abilities and strengths of team members and ensure the appropriate placement of talent within your store.
• You are able to think through the impact of your actions, ensuring integrity in your interactions with others.
• You build teams by creating strong morale in your store, communicating wins and successes, and consistently holding people accountable. You manage performance, conduct feedback discussions regularly, and resolve problematic situations timely, respectfully, and quickly; you help people to succeed and act compassionately when they fail.
• You maintain a fair and equitable workplace and encourage an environment where members of the store team can express their concerns and ideas.
• You build collaborative relationships by fostering open dialogue and listening effectively.
• You can coordinate, communicate, and balance multiple projects simultaneously, while being flexible to conditions and remaining focused. You gain insight from mistakes, are open to feedback, and can translate feedback into actionable steps to consistently deliver results. You comply at all times with the Standards, Policies, and Code of Business Conduct and Ethics set out in the Bookseller Handbook.
• You should have a college degree or related work experience.
• You should have strong written and verbal communication skills.
• An internal candidate should have successfully managed all components of our business, ideally in more than one store.
• An external candidate should have successfully managed a store of comparable volume and complexity, preferably more than one, for at least three years.
• You are expected to work a majority of your time managing the store, including but not limited to cashwrap, cafe, receiving and the selling floor, which requires physical activity.
• You may spend approximately 5% of your time traveling to and attending client meetings outside your store.

Barnes & Noble is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer and is committed to providing employment opportunities to minorities, females, veterans, and disabled individuals, as well as other protected groups.