Pros
Well it depends, I can only speak for the particular store I worked for obviously. Our store was smaller compared to most others so we didn't have a huge staff, but I was lucky enough to get along with all my co-workers and bosses. We had a good mix of personalities and really felt like a team most of the time. On the right days, when everyone was in a good mood, and things were going smoothly, it could be a lot of fun working there. It was always rewarding to find a book a customer was looking for, especially if it was a challenge and they couldn't give you that much information to go on, like the title or author. That would give you a chance to play book detective. It was even more rewarding to recommend personal favorites to others and have an actual conversation with them about books and whatnot. When the conditions were right, it could be a decent place to work.
Cons
I thought the place suffered from poor management, not from the in-store managers, but the upper level executives. We had way too much inventory for our little store and every shipment was a huge struggle to try and find room for everything and make it look nice. We got too much of everything: books,magazines,candy, comics, trading cards. There were stacks of books everywhere, shelves ready to burst, it was pretty ridiculous and very frustrating. It made the store hard to navigate since it was so bloated with merchandise. To get rid of anything meant going through all this bureaucratic nonsense, and our efforts never went anywhere. The whole chain operates on this one size fits all philosophy and we never really had any degree of autonomy. Most of our attempts to personalize the store, or make any independent decision that deviated from their planograms and designs were frowned upon. Also, as an employee there, you're required to sell their membership card at every opportunity, which in theory isn't so bad. But when the price for the card keeps going up, and the benefits/perks for the customers keep changing, it can be a hard sell. And when the amount of cards the store sells affects your store's ratings within the company, and that in turn affects people's bonuses, it can lead to a certain amount of pressure. I also really disliked having to sell magazine trial subscriptions, where we also had a quota to meet. And then there are the customers. Most of the time they're ok to deal with, even pleasant. But it's the few bad seeds that can ruin your day, whether they make unreasonable demands, try to haggle with you, expect you to babysit their kids or are just downright rude. But luckily, that wasnt too often, and most of the customers were fine.
