I made a stop at Bed Bath and Beyond yesterday to pick up a blanket, and I was reminded yet again why my initial thoughts of it being a fun trip always end up in disappointment.
BB&B is certainly not a discount store. While they send out plenty of large-postcard coupons for 20% off a single item, most of the merchandise there is nowhere near competitive with discount retailers.
I’m fine with that. A store can be what it wants. But BB&B isn’t really what I want.
Why?
Manhattan is a crowded enough place. Bed Bath and Beyond in Chelsea is a pretty big store (two floors), but there are consistently crowding issues. The store places goods in the middle of traffic paths. I understand that they are highlighting items of interest by displaying them in high-traffic areas, but my experience yesterday involved customers having to, on the spur of the moment, come up with a traffic control plan just to get around the store. I’m actually rather impressed by the way people came together to organize a bit, but quite upset with the store for making it that way. Aisles are obviously selected to give a path for traffic flow. When they’re not sufficient, the merchant is to blame.
As well, there must have been about 200 people in the checkout area waiting to pay and leave. While Amy was a bit upset that I was pissed off at the lines, I think that it’s justifiable to expect that when you’re paying a more-than-fair price for something that you should not have to have a subpar experience while in the store.
Amy said something about it just being busy, and that it wasn’t that bad.
I still contend that on a Sunday in late January (as opposed to November or December, or even early January), the store should be able to operationally scale its checkout system such that there isn’t a sea of humanity trying to spontaneously form the proper queuing structure to get everyone through in a reasonable amount of time. Management of BB&B bears the responsibility of the portions of my visit that they control, and… well… they failed.
I’ll be trying to remind myself just how bad it sucks next time I’m tempted to go there.
Oh, and Target, when the hell are you going to open up a Manhattan store?!?!?!
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I have always have had a great experience @ bb&b. I go for one things and get more then what i need, The prices are really high and i honestly can find some other things that smell good and are good @ the local wal-mart, but i keep going to bb&b because of the quaity of the products. recentl i haven’t went to bb&b because i have found everything that i needed @ the local wal-mart for a much lower price.
“my initial thoughts of it being a fun trip ”
Dude, go buy a skirt! My ex-girlfriend used to try and force me to stop there. That store is for girls!
You think its bad shopping there, you should try working there, it sucks much worse i assure you. It is an evil company much worse than wal-mart in regards to how they treat their emplyees. i have worked for both
I would assume that it sucks working there.
It appears that the problems are systematic, which means that it’s the fault of management. While oppressive management is horrible to work under, anarchy isn’t any better. And, quite frankly, at least the checkout area appears to be anarchy.
There’s little worse than being a customer somewhere and having an employee yell at you because you haven’t figured out the way that they want you to deal with the chaos.
I probably should start sending letters…
When I look at the difference between my paychecks and what I’ve got left at the end of the year, the amount of money I spend in a year is quite a lot. Rent eats up a big chunk, but there’s still a huge amount for food, clothing, stuff for the house, and discretionary spending.
It’d be nice if stores could figure out how to make me not feel dirty while spending it.
I agree completely that working there is absolute hell. I can’t wait to quit but they have nobody right now so I feel bad for some reason.
I have at least four managers telling me different ways of doing things and each one yells at me if I’m not doing it their paricular way.
I wanted a simple little job and they take it way too seriously. It is as if they are trying to make it my life. You have to take like 10 tests to see if you know what you need to know. Ridiculous. They are supposed to spend several hours training on various things but they only give me like an hour to apparently become an expert on the damn place.
Hours are awful and the lugging of super-heavy boxes up huge latters all-day is exausting. I would rather stick needles underneath my nails
I have to work tommorow. Wish me luck.
You should not feel bad about quitting. My BB&B was short staffed and I called in sick with obvious lies two days in a row before telling the management that I didn’t care what their secret shop numbers were, and I quit. I also told them that Bed, Bath and Beyond sold useless things that only suburban moms with ridiculous disposable income can afford. Useless, useless things.
I am actually have a very high work ethic, it’s just that BB&B destroyed my soul. Hauling heavy boxes up ladders all day and being yelled at constantly on a walkie talkie is bad enough, but as the person above me mentioned, they give you mini ‘classes’ on towels and irons and shit like that and they test you to make sure you know what ‘ion infused’ and ’1000 turkish thread count’ means.
Inane, horrible job.
Hey everyone pull up a chair and listen. I’m a amanger for Bed Bath and beyond let me give you the real low down on the company.
They pay thier hourly and the managers so little they can’t afford to be BBB customers.
Everyone I’ve met from the highest level to the part timers is unhappy and lookin for another job.
They care nothing about the customer only the shop score its the focus every month.
The only time the store is in a great condition to shop at is just before a visit from a VP or DM.
They do ZERO competitive shops not caring how high they are on anything.
The company has scaled back on payroll so far most stores have only 4 to 5 employees in the location at a time.
They think they are where Wal`Mart was 10 years ago? They have not got a clue!
They perform no background checks or drug test on employees because its to costly only when a problem pops up do they require any testing so” who knows what type of person you have waiting on you”
MAKES YOU THINK DOESN’T IT!
And Bridal Customers!!!!!!!!!!!! Guess what if you register at BBB they want all Bridel customers to scan or pick at least 400 items or more so it you only scan or pick less than the “MAJIC” number the store will scan where you left off anything they can find to make up the number getting them to thier goal and getting you abunch of gifts at your wedding you never wanted…………
I can’t speak for anyone or anything,but our local BB&B in Jacksonville, FL seems to be turning part of its store into a dollar store. That means it’s having big troubles.
I called Customer Service thru the “800″ number and she sounded as if I woke her up, and was anything but attentive to me.
So tomorrow, wife and I are returning our purchase and kissing BB&B goodbye.
With all due respect to the VERY NICE people who work at the stores!!
If you care about yourself as a person, don’t work for this place!
I agree that Bed Bath and Beyond is a horrible place to work. You bust your ass to in the end just get treated like crap and get sucky pay.
If you aren’t a brainless robot or a retarded chimp then BBB is not suitable for someone to work at. Remember kids, keep on smiling no matter what insignifcant crap your manager is exploding over this time!
I will be quitting tomorrow. BBB: SUCK IT!
I just googled “Bed Bath and Beyond Sucks” in a fit of rage, and this came up. I’m another employee who hates the job. I started working there because they work with my college hours very well, and every day that goes by I regret it. They keep cutting back hours and people, yet they bitch at the employees when shit hits the fan. Seriously? WTF is up with their concern over shop scores?
The only reason I haven’t called in Today or quit yet is because it would totally screw over some of my co-workers. I love my co-workers…and even most of the managers are nice. I’ll be leaving very soon, though.
As far as the store itself…I like shopping there. I have no idea why they think it is a great idea to stack goods from the floor to the ceiling.
I work at BBB. Well, I used to, I called in and quit about 10 min ago! I truly see no value in that job whatsoever. I’m an accredited college educated and experienced retail employee and somehow they thought 8.75 per hour was fair. I was working as many hours as some of my mangers for less than half the pay and no benefits. O and apparently I have to work more than 6 hours to get a break (extortion? Yes I was thinking that). I can’t see how I could be screwing them in any such way since they keep hiring new employees yet continue to cut back on our hours…..I fail to see how that makes any sense at all. So in a day or two they’ll replace me with some 17 year old and pay them minimum wage. See, we all end up ok. I don’t have a job lined up but I have many prospects. A few places told me to call back or come in so I’m just leaning on that right now, although it is risky. I figure tho this is a good way to save the money I don’t have because now I won’t be going out or driving much since I have no income…….good thing I still live at home. Damn Recession
I just got a call back from BB&B. I think I’m gonna go ahead and go to the interview. I know you guys say it sucks. but this is the first place that’s called me back for an interview in months!
I have worked at BBB for 3 years. It has been some trying times, definitely — most upper management sucks and from there it trickles down into lower management, I am lucky that at my store we just got a really great ops manager who’s freaking awesome, he could run the store single-handedly (and a hell of a lot better than our SM!) if he wanted to.
But what I really wanted to comment on to some of the other comments on here was about product knowledge classes…yes it can be annoying at times but I think that’s what sets BBB apart from other stores, our sales associates actually know what we’re talking about. I really pride myself on all my product knowledge and I have been able to help customers out more than sales people at other stores because of it.
Most of management is really crappy to the employees, that is not even a question, but some parts of it are not that bad. It’s retail!
Also maybe the BBB the OP went to was such a clusterfuck because it was in Manhattan. Manhattan is kind of a clusterfuck in and of itself, innit?
I too am an insider at the Empire…er, I mean Bed Bath & Beyond.
It’s true. The company is constantly pushing bridal numbers. They put so much pressure on everyone to push products on couple registries, especially fine china and luggage even if they don’t want it. And guess what if a couple says no, and then you get reamed by your customer service nazi or customer service nazi trainer about how you need to post better “well rounded registry numbers”.
So much pressure is put on you to score high on monthly mystery shops and scenarios. Managers and Dept. Managers are salaried at 45 hrs a week yet you work like 60 if not more, and unless your a dept. mgr you gett nadda…just volunteering your time. If your a dept mgr. you get what we call “Chinese Overtime”….in many instances if you factor in hours minus taxes you actually make just above minimum wage.
You work long hard hours, climbing up and down ladders, change displays sometimes daily depending on which DM’s, Mgr’s, Corp. person’s wishes of the day…and far too often you can litterally be told three different ways to do something and therfore change it multiple times the same day…lol.
If you get hurt…well, lets just say there is so much pressure not to report it. We would’nt want to show up negatively on a monthly corp. report would we?…No, of course not.
Truth about coupons: No they never expire. Of course we are not known for being a low price leader. Most everything we sell has a 50% or more mark up so what’s giving away 20%. Beyond Store orders: If you as a customer push the issue of paying shipping (we dont walk a sale) and will waive the ship fee.
Truth about Bridal: The bridal couple..and the bridal couple only… can return everything bought for: CASH (that’s a little secret..Shhh!)
Hours: Right now everything is being cut, while of course salaried mgrs are working long hours. People hired a couple of weeks to a week ago..well theyre not getting hours.
Customer Service: Well let’s just say we are told we can never say no to a customer. Scary to think that a customer may not like you and call the 800 number and lie about you, and yes you can be written up or fired!
God I hope jobs start opening up somewhere soon, this recession is awful.
The person above me said it best. As a employee of BBB I find some of the working conditions horrible. Number one they will pay you as little as humanly possible and give you no hours to work. The poor managers are told they only have to work 45 hours a week but do more like 60 hours. When you do the math they barely make anything for those extra 15 hours a week. In my store they come in at 12 or 1 and sometimes don’t leave till 3 in the morning!
Yes you can be written up or fired for a customer lying. I had a customer call a complaint about me that almost got me fired! However a few of the managers stood up for me and knew that the lies the customer told about me couldn’t be true. I’m always pleasant and friendly even to customers who are shouting in my face. But despite the fact they all knew I wasn’t the type of person to say to the woman the things she claimed I was written up for it and had my job threatened.
They focus so heavily on the mystery shop yet don’t give the hours to cover for the people that are needed on the floor to get the high scores. We get crapped on if we don’t get their perfect score of 100%. Even though half the time it is managers who screw up and don’t greet. Our last shop we lost points because we didn’t give a feature of the feature. How screwed up is that? Used to be give one benefit and one feature. Now we have to do a feature of the feature?
As for bridal registries we were told that 40% of the registry has to be fine china. Yes that’s right nearly half of the registry is just FTG items. And it doesn’t matter if it is a wedding with only 20 guests or 200 guests. You are expected to get an insanely high number of items added. We are told to walk the customer around and encourage them to add. But at the same time if it is at night we have to close down our department and be done on time with the rest of the employees who do not currently have a bridal couple.
Also Human Resources and district staff couldn’t care less about hourly associates. We had a store manager who had multiple customer and employee complaints lodged about him but nothing was done. By multiple I mean at least 20 or 30 of them. But HR just ignored the employees and the DM didn’t care how the SM was treating the associates and dept managers. It took a couple of employees getting together to write a letter of complaint that nearly the entire store signed . They mailed it in to a couple of the higher ups hoping something would finally be done. But instead of firing the SM they just moved him to another district.
One last thing they expect your drawer to be even when you ring but 2 on occasion more people can ring on the same drawer as you. So if one of them screws up and gives out an extra $100 you are all held accountable for the drawer. It doesn’t matter if you rang correctly. They also do random audits on the drawers which is no problem. But you have to sign off if the drawer was wrong even if you only rang one cash transaction and someone else rang all day on that same drawer. All because they did the audit on you not the person ahead of you.
I am a current BBB employee, working in the receiving department. I have been with the company for five years now and can’t wait to get out. The problem I have is that the company hires you to SPECIFICIALLY work in one department, but then they expect you to work in EVERY department, and they try to make it as if working for this company is the best thing that ever happened to you, and that you could never do any better. It’s like working at BBB is a lifestyle choice. BBB even wants to have all receiving crew personnel train to work on registers! I know that the economy sucks right now but I am tired of hearing ‘Just be lucky you still have a job’. All the company cares about is numbers, not employees.
I also am a manager at Bed Bath and Beyond, and my spouse is a store manager for the company as well. What i feel about the company could not be more opposite then these previous posts. Together we make well over 100K and the only complaint I have about money is we should be making more, but we were employees who were “promoted within” and those employees always get paid less. As for those long ours spoken of, it is not like that at every location, and there is a reason that almost every manager i know who has quit to go to other retailers, has since returned for our hours and higher pay! As for bridal numbers each store is given different goals…. yes I said goals not requirements…. these numbers help guests have an assortment of items to choose from. Are all 20 hundred items expected to be purchased… hell no but it gives your guests choices. I hate nothing more then a registry that has 30 items on it but 100 invited guests!! At my location only 15 items on the registry is expected to be fine china….. not too hard when casual china counts and its better then the damn sango selling on the shelf at 60 dollars a box. We are not forcing people to register for items you can’t make people do things they do not want to do. Oh and FYI we do not give cash back for bridal items. it hasn’t been that way for many years now. Next subject shop scores, once again not as big a deal as you people make it out to be. if you just do what you are supposed to be doing, you never have to go out of your way. As for the firing thing… I know someone who got a 30 on a shop and guess what still employed… mistakes happen. Being cross trained is very important if two people call off it is very important for receiving employees to also know how to ring. And if your merchandise planner worksheet only has you receiving for 4 hours hell yeah i’m going to put you on the floor for your remaining hours, otherwise you are waste and i will give the hours to someone who wants them.
As a former warehouse manager (no such thing) for 5 years, I was injured on the job no less than 16 feet from my immediate superior. I cussed (not allowed) and told him I really hurt myself, he said “gotta take care of those knees.”. Later on in the day, I continued to mention my discomfort and got the same reply. When I got home, my knee was swolled to the size of a cantaloupe. The following day when the pain continued, and I continued to complain, I took myself to the hospital. To make a long story short, BBB denied there ever was an accident, even tho’ my boss, the lying sucka’ was right there, and no acccident report was ever filed. Two years, with a lawyer that refused to give up after BBB’s many attempted delays, BBB paid me to “go away”. They NEVER admitted there was an accident because failure to file a report would get them into trouble with the state and OSHA. Managers are given rewards for “safety” and they get them because employees are bullied into beleiving accidents are their fault and they don’t report them. All for pizza parties and a pat on the back by district managers who don’t know your name. While I was employed by BBB, there was a store in another state held up as a shining example because they had not had an accident in 3 years. Anyone who works ANYWHERE knows this can only be accomplished by failure to report – an encouragement bu the “upper uppers” so subtley.
YES I AGREE BED BATH AND BEYOND SUCKS I WORKED THERE UNTIL I FINALLY GAVE IT QUITS. EVERYBODY HATES ON EVERYBODY AND IT JUST SUCKS WORKING THERE. THEY OVER CHARGE FOR EVERYTHING THERE PRICES ARE WAY TO HIGH. THEY TREAT THE EMPLOYEES LIKE SHIT. I HOPE NOBODU APLIES TO WORK FOR A BED BATH. THEY SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK..
i just quit bed bath today. the employes are all fucking snakes they all talk behind your back and they cant pay anybody enough to put up with there fucking bullshit. customers may think they really want to help you but the dont fucking care cause when there done they talk about all the customers and i did reciving in the store and with only one other person on the table where all merchindise comes in and the wouldnt give me a raise them dam assholes.i was hard work which was not worth my time at all. they wouldnt give me full time and i worked there for a year. o yea all there merchindise is shit! everything is cheap peices of junk it all breaks so easly ………fuck bed bath beyond there fucking snakes and snitches!
Yeah! Fuck them bitches yo!
Fuck them snakes! yeah!
I googled “Bed Bath and Beyond sucks” because I wanted to see how grateful I am that I left in March and now have a job that is a billion times better. Like my “name” says, they made me fold towels and wanted it to be “100% done” in 4 hours. (my entire workshift.) Many times I had to do it alone, the room looked like Hurricane Katrina came, and assist customers in every department. They treat college students like slaves, and they didn’t give a shit that my schedule was booked. My supervisor said “What do you mean ‘booked’?!” I meant “I have long classes.” I didn’t care that rarely came to work on time or didn’t call in when I was sick because I just hated it so much. My coworkers were just grumpy. The list just goes on.
I love the job I have now. I get breaks, my coworkers are nice, they understand I going to school and expect me to do my best even if it’s not 100% done.
Working at BBB is the worst thing thats ever happened to me..but I have kids, when I had to apply for foodstamps and medicaid..they were like oh its takes a month blah blah ok i needed help badly..it just makes me study harder, only a yr lefted for my BA and im gone
I have worked at Bed Bath and Beyond for 4 years (as an hourly employee) and I love it. The two different locations I have worked at have scheduled me around my school, athletic, and other job schedules. They have never tried to make me come in when I could not and they have always been nice to me. The other employees (and some managers) I have met have turned into friends of mine. Several even went as far as throwing a birthday party for me outside of work. The pay may not be amazing, but the work is good. I have never had problems with completing my projects or freight on time and I am always offered help from other employees and management if I need assistance. I actually enjoy going to work everyday. I have worked for other business’s and I have received much better treatment at Bed Bath and Beyond than any of the other business’s(CVS, Macy’s, True Value)
and so far I have never seen anyone at the two stores I have worked add items to someones registry without the bride or grooms knowledge and my home store has not had an accident in three years
I just went to bbb for the first time and was shocked at their prices. 30 dollars for a little wastebin for the bathroom?? I just moved and needed a shower curtain and laundry baskets. Not only are their prices ridiculous, but the selection actually sucks. I will never go back. Between Target and Walmart you can everything they have, better, and cheaper.
I will find out who you all are and fire you. If you already quit, I will call all my “contacts” and blackball you.
I am Satan and I rule. BBB is my domain. Bring me 3 sexy associates to do my bidding now.
Hugs and Kisses
Satan
first let me say that out of all these posts very few were positive. AS for jane doe – you are brainwashed and actually believe what they tell you. I was a sm for 6 years and finally quit before that job killed me – literally. they dont care about anything but money and if you believe otherwise you are an idiot. they keep employees like vivky perez who is the biggest loser going and is the worst dm i have ever worked for. she has no people skills because she is an old spinster who is reallllly frustrated. they will go out of business because of their arogant attitude and i will love it. the district staff is useless and they dont even work 40 hrs a week. they are so shady that they have asked me, a number of times, to set mgrs and employees up so we can write them up and fire them. i hate them and it took me about 6 months to get them out of my system – its like a cult over there! get out while you can!
ok.. where to begin. I F@#$%^& hate you people. 97% of you should never touch a computer or a phone. those that are capable of doing so without killing themselves amaze me. If you do not know how to use a comp. and are under 45 you should be shot. I work in the service center.. you know.. that 800 # you idiots call with your stupid questions. Its a business 1st and foremost. you can ‘take your business’ elsewhere. do you think they care. millions of people shop there everyday and multiple times a day.
if you leave.. someone else will come along. its retail.. wise up. i dont need to say good morning to you if you say it to me. its not a good morning when you people call at 9 am asking if the order you made 20 minutes ago will ship the same day. are you F@#$%(^ serious? also, if you cant read where to put a brides name on the website you need to drown in a tub. its very clear for people who can read. Update MY registry or,… GIVE A GREAT GIFT!!!! wtf is wrong with you people. i fear for the human race more than i ever have.
linens n things went under because they had a credit card they backed themselves. thats the only reason. look it up. oh and to the mothers out there, we dont care that your baby ius due in a week and you still havent gotten the 800$ stroller. we just dont. go cry to someone else.
I’ve been working there for 8 months and i worked my way through the company so quickly… I got as many in store orders as the full-time managers
Wow!!! I thought it was only like this in my store/district. I have worked at BB&B for a couple of years and have never worked for such an unethical company in my life. The dumbasses that run this company must haven’t got a clue. How do these people survive? “Don’t get a bad shop!” “Increase your sales and you get more hours.” “Build the bridal.” Lying sacks of shit. Oh, and about the high priced Made in China merchandise, Quit buying it!! Also, I love how a SM can bonus from inventory being good and then put on a shrink crate.
Listen people, they don’t care about you or me. It starts at the top. So you CEO’s, VP’s, Regional and district assholes (especially you district fucks), take notice and remember the golden rule.
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