A book store is a great place to take your family to pick out books for their enjoyment. For younger kids, there is often a story time area. In that area at assigned times, a member of the staff will come out and read a story to the kids. It can be a fun time while you are out for your families.

Like in most other retail positions, there a flexible hours that can appeal to different groups of people. A student or someone looking for a second job can find this flexibility to be convenient. There can be seasonal positions that open up around the holidays, which is great for people who just want to make a little extra cash during that particular time.

Book stores can be a great place for high school students or other job seekers to find employment. There is no education level required for most positions in the book store. That means it is a great opportunity for first time job seekers for gain experience to move onto other careers.

With all these reasons, book stores offer an ideal opportunity for most people. There is a lot of room for people of varying level of skills.

Job Opportunities

Here are some employment opportunities you can find in this work field:

Cashier: A cashier is a person who assists the customer after they have completed shopping. They will check out the customer and receive their payment for their purchases. A cashier will also handle and returns or exchanges that need to take place. This means they should be well aware of their company’s policies on payments, returns and exchanges. The cashier will need to have excellent customer service skills, since they often answer phones at the book stores and are the main person in the store to deal with the customers. They will have to be able to handle customers who are unhappy about the product or something else in the store. A cashier does not need any special level of education to be in this career, but they will have on the job training. Typically, the cashier will only make the state’s minimum wage, $7-$10 per hour.

Sales Associate: While they often have the same functions as a cashier, most often they are out on the store floor to assist the customers. They should have knowledge of the layout of their store and the products found within it. The sales associate should be able to quickly locate the section of the book store that the customer is looking for and be able to assist them in finding the book they are searching for. In some places, the sales associate is the person who will read the story at story time for the child customers of the company. At mall locations, during the holiday season, they often open up mini-kiosks in the mall to sell goods like calendars. The sales associate will usually take responsibility of those kiosks. A sales associate does not need any specific education level to gain employment, but will need on the job training. These associates often make their state’s minimum wage, around $7-$10 per hour.

Loss Prevention: A person who works in loss prevention is in charge of protecting their company’s profits. One way to do this is to prevent shoplifting. Loss prevention specialists often work with their facility’s security to help place cameras and take other security measures to ensure no theft takes place. They sometimes will train security on the signs of suspicious activity so that they can be vigilant in preventing a shoplifter from succeeding in their theft. Sometimes in this position, the loss prevention specialist will look over the inventory and decide which products sell the best and which ones do not. This is in order to prevent an over ordering of inventory that will not sell, forcing the company to create a sale to sell the item for less of a profit or no profit at all. To work in loss prevention, there is no required level of education although a high school diploma is often preferred. Otherwise, they require on the job training and previous experience in retail. A specialist in this field can make around $10-$11 per hour.

Manager: A book store manager is responsible for running the daily operations of their facility. They are in charge of employees, including hiring, firing and scheduling. They train the employees in how to conduct business according to company policies and standards. They must fill in whenever they are short staffed. A manager should have excellent customer service skills, as they often have to deal with unhappy customers. It’s their responsibility to be sure that the customers leave the facility happy. In some stores, the managers are responsible for the inventory and ordering books as needed. To be a manager, you will need at least a high school diploma though a college degree might be preferred. Most often, a manager is promoted through the ranks after showing an excellence in their work performance. They can make around $14 per hour.

Job Outlook

The outlook in this industry is at around 11%. This is the national average of job growth. The reason this industry is growing is because often times their employees are low level ones who were looking to gain experience in the workforce. Once that experience is gained, they move onto other careers. There is also a lot of seasonal employment that opens up at holiday time that allows for extra employment opportunities for those who need it.