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Strand Book Store

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Strand Book Store Reviews

2.6

26% would recommend to a friend

(84 total reviews)

Fred Bass

9% approve of CEO

26% positive business outlook

Strand Book Store has an employee rating of 2.6 out of 5 stars, based on 84 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Strand Book Store employee rating is 26% below average for employers within the Retail and wholesale industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

84 reviews
4.0
19 Mar 2026

Normal

Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

work life balance was good

Cons

sometime too much work to do

2.0
17 Sept 2022

Low pay, Low (or no) reward

Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

It’s exciting to work in such an iconic book store in NYC and the majority of the coworkers are a blast to work with.

Cons

The pay is a joke. Your told you can attend and work events and then never get to. They try to throw extra responsibilities on you (working in Central Park, the upper west side store, holiday kiosks, extra OS knowledge, etc) with no incentive of extra pay. There’s a Union yet the pay rate is still minimum wage. Time off system makes absolutely no sense. The store manager never introduced himself to me after three months of working full time. The store owner is a money hungry millionaire who doesn’t care about anything but how many tote bags she can sell.

2.0
20 Jan 2020

For your mental health do not work here

Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

You get to work with some really cool people and meet weird New Yorkers. Unionized so you get PTO, health benefits, and vacation time after a year, two years, etc.

Cons

Tourists really suck. But the worst part about working at Strand is the management/upper management. The management does the BARE minimum for their workers. There are several people who work in the store that have been there for YEARS and management/owner does nothing to show gratitude for their hard work and loyalty. Show some respect to your workers and also there is so much you could do to boost staff morale that's not just a 10 minute chair massage one day a year. That's so dumb. Also if you even try to take time off during the holidays good luck. It will never get approved and you will never be able to spend time with your family. *DEEP BREATH* ALSO when hiring new full time staff they try to make sure you're not working on Mondays because most union holidays fall on a Monday and if you work on Mondays you get time and a half+ 8 extra hrs of pay. So since Nancy is running the store on "tight margins" she'll do everything in her power to make sure you get as little as possible. Okay one last thing and then I'm done. During my interview I was told there would be a lot of opportunities for upward mobility. If they tell you this, it is a bald faced lie. You have to be working there for years to get any kind of promotion. Or you have to beg and beg and beg.

Viewing 1 - 3 of 84 Reviews

Glassdoor has 85 Strand Book Store reviews submitted anonymously by Strand Book Store employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Strand Book Store is right for you.