Retail Store Manager

Barnes & Noble Education, Inc.; Wye Mills (MD); On-site; USD 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Employee discounts

Medical benefits

401(k) plan

Job summary

Barnes & Noble College seeks a Store Manager to lead a campus store, delivering exceptional customer experiences and driving financial performance. The role builds relationships across the campus and with corporate partners to strengthen the store's role in the community.

You will oversee operations, merchandising, inventory, and staff development, while recruiting, coaching, and managing a high-performing team. Evening/weekend work is required to ensure success.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of progressive retail leadership experience or completion of the Barnes & Noble College Aspiring Leader Program.
• Bachelor's degree in Business Administration or related field preferred.
• Experience recruiting, coaching, developing, motivating, and managing diverse teams.
• Experience with retail operations including merchandising, inventory management, and financial management.
• Strong business acumen with sales, budgets, and expenses responsibilities.
• Excellent customer service, communication, and relationship-building skills.
• Strong organizational and analytical skills to manage multiple priorities.

Responsibilities

• Lead daily store operations with an on-floor presence and a customer-first culture.
• Drive sales growth, manage financial performance and controllable expenses.
• Recruit, hire, train, coach, and develop store team members.
• Represent Barnes & Noble College on campus, building relationships with students, faculty, administrators, and partners.
• Lead merchandising, inventory, visual presentation, and workload planning.
• Analyze sales performance and trends to forecast needs and improve results.
• Champion initiatives, standards, safety, and loss prevention, ensuring policy compliance.
• Maintain a clean, safe, and customer-focused store environment aligned with brand.

Skills

Leadership

Retail operations

Budgeting

Customer service

POS systems

MS Office

Education

Bachelor's degree in Business Administration or related field

Tools

MS Office

POS systems

Job description

Store Manager

The Store Manager leads a vibrant hub of college life and learning, creating retail experiences that engage students, support faculty, and build alumni loyalty. Through strategic leadership, operational excellence, and community partnerships, our Store Managers help elevate lives through education.

Education – It’s in Our DNA

Barnes & Noble College is more than a campus bookstore—we're an integral part of the college experience. Our campus stores serve as vibrant hubs of college life and learning, creating retail and learning experiences that engage students, support faculty, and build alumni loyalty. Together, our teams help elevate lives through education.

The Store Manager is the leader of the campus store, responsible for the overall success of the business by delivering an exceptional customer experience, driving financial performance, and fostering strong relationships across the campus community. This role provides strategic and operational leadership across all aspects of store operations, including financial performance, team development, merchandising, inventory management, customer engagement, and campus relationships. As the primary representative of Barnes & Noble College on campus, the Store Manager builds trusted partnerships with students, faculty, administrators, client representatives, and corporate partners while creating an engaging retail environment that supports the success of the campus community.

How You’ll Make An Impact

• Lead daily store operations through an active presence on the sales floor, delivering exceptional customer service, coaching team members, and fostering a customer-first culture.
• Own the overall performance of the campus store by driving sales growth, managing financial performance and controllable expenses, analyzing business trends, and identifying opportunities to improve operational effectiveness and profitability.
• Recruit, hire, train, coach, schedule, develop, and inspire store team members while fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration, continuous development, and high performance.
• Serve as Barnes & Noble College's primary representative on campus by building strong relationships with students, faculty, administrators, client representatives, and corporate partners to strengthen the store's role within the campus community.
• Lead merchandising, inventory management, visual presentation, operational execution, and workload planning to ensure merchandise availability, an organized customer-ready environment, and the successful execution of company initiatives.
• Analyze sales performance, operational metrics, and business trends to make informed decisions, forecast future business needs, and achieve measurable business results.
• Champion company initiatives, operational standards, organizational change, customer service excellence, safety, and loss prevention practices while ensuring compliance with company policies and procedures.
• Foster a culture of operational excellence by ensuring a clean, safe, and customer-focused store environment that reflects the Barnes & Noble College brand.

What You’ll Need To Succeed

• 5+ years of progressive retail leadership experience, including managing business operations and developing high-performing teams, or successful completion of the Barnes & Noble College Aspiring Leader Program.
• Bachelor's degree in Business Administration or a related field preferred.
• Demonstrated leadership experience recruiting, coaching, developing, motivating, and managing the performance of diverse teams.
• Experience with retail operations, including merchandising, inventory management, visual merchandising, customer service, and financial management.
• Demonstrated business acumen with experience managing sales performance, budgets, controllable expenses, and operational results.
• Strong customer service, communication, interpersonal, and relationship-building skills, with the ability to effectively collaborate with campus and corporate stakeholders.
• Strong organizational, analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Proficiency with retail technology, point-of-sale (POS) systems, and Microsoft Office applications.
• Ability to work a flexible schedule, including evenings, weekends, holidays, and peak business periods.

Physical Demands

• Frequent movement throughout the store to access merchandise, assist customers, and support daily operations.
• Routine tasks may involve hanging and/or folding merchandise, stocking shelves, unpacking merchandise received, pulling and packing web orders for customers, pulling and packing merchandise to be returned to vendors, transporting merchandise within the store, assisting with the delivery of course materials to students within the store, completing data entry, or a variety of other physical tasks.
• Ability to remain in a stationary position for periods of time.
• Frequent lifting, carrying, pushing, and pulling of merchandise.
• Occasional reaching, bending, stooping, kneeling, crouching, and climbing ladders.
• May be required to perform routine housekeeping duties, including dusting, mopping, vacuuming, window cleaning, and trash removal.

How We Elevate Our Employees

Just as we're committed to supporting students, we're equally committed to supporting our employees. We believe your success is our success, which is why we offer a competitive total rewards package for eligible full-time employees, including medical, dental, and vision coverage, a 401(k)-retirement savings plan, life insurance, commuter benefits, paid time off, paid holidays, and more.

Eligible Employees May Also Enjoy

• DailyPay earned wage access.
• Generous employee discounts, including course materials and textbooks.

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

At Barnes & Noble College, we empower everyone. Our mission is to support students, faculty, and schools, serving as a catalyst to meet the evolving needs of the education system and a new generation of students. That starts with fostering an environment for our employees where diversity and individuality is celebrated.

Barnes & Noble College is an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affi ...

Barnes & Noble College provides reasonable accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities throughout the application and employment process. If you need a reasonable accommodation to complete an application or participate in the interview process, please contact [e-mail].