Seasonal/Part-Time Bookseller – The Bookstore at The Berry Center

Located at: New Castle, KY (Henry County)

The Bookstore at The Berry Center is looking for Seasonal and Part Time booksellers who love to read, are quick learners, and are able to provide excellent customer service.

Candidates with strong communication skills who can make customers feel welcome in our store will stand out. You will help identify customer needs, present and answer questions about our inventory, and make recommendations. A positive attitude and a desire to promptly resolve potential customer issues or complaints will make you successful in this role.

Ultimately, you will ensure that customers leave our store satisfied. Customers visit The Bookstore at The Berry Center from all over the country – going above and beyond to make them feel welcome, comfortable, and like they have had a unique experience is very important.

Responsibilities

Create a welcoming environment for customers where you engage with them, share your love and knowledge of books, and make relevant recommendations.

● Maintain and organize inventory on shelves, ensuring that stacks are neat, organized, and alphabetized.

● Assist with replenishing stock on shelves and locating items for customers

● Leverage key campaigns such as staff and catalog recommendations, preorders, shelf talkers, etc., to hand sell and engage in conversation with every customer.

● Educate yourself continuously on books and the industry, supporting the store with this knowledge to give customers a great experience when they visit and shop.

● Identify key titles and communicate with management on opportunities to tailor the merchandise selection to reflect the community.

● Keep the store clean, neat, and tidy, creating displays and ensuring the bookstore is always shoppable and inviting.

● Help with events and community outreach, including social media.

● Process POS (point of sale) and special order purchases, and complete register transactions accurately and quickly.

● Recognize and offer to help both customers and employees with urgency and care.

● Work on the selling floor, which requires physical activity (i.e., prolonged standing, repetitive bending, lifting, climbing).

● Maintain a high level of personal hygiene and dress professionally, closed toe shoes are recommended.

● Assists Director with on- and off-site special events.

● Check messages and return phone calls, take orders over the phone.

● Receive and update inventory through POS

● Pack and ship orders to online customers.

● Assist with annual inventory processing

● Provide accurate information – knowledge of and willingness to learn more about Wendell Berry’s work and the initiatives of The Berry Center are crucial.

Requirements

● Demonstrated retail experience

● Excellent customer service, communication, and interpersonal skills

● Love of working with customers in a retail environment

● Basic business computer literacy and math skills; ability to train on bookstore inventory and POS software, including processing of web orders and vendor or customer inquiries

● Ability to work independently and as a part of a team

● Ability to handle multiple tasks and priorities while maintaining a strong attention to detail

● Passionate reader and knowledgeable about books, the industry and the market.

● Must be able to lift 50Ibs. and stand for extended periods of time

● Kentucky agricultural or literary background a plus

● Square or other bookstore POS experience a plus

● Flexibility in schedule; Saturdays and some evenings and holidays are required

● Access to reliable transportation and a valid driver’s license

● Ability to complete physical tasks that may include: lifting up to 50 pounds, walking, loading and unloading boxes, standing and sitting, climbing stairs.

● Must love books.

About The Berry Center: 

The Berry Center is an agricultural nonprofit which is putting Wendell Berry’s writings to work advocating for farmers, land-conserving communities, and healthy regional economies. The Agrarian Culture Center and Bookstore at The Berry Center is one of four programmatic efforts of The Berry Center, and in addition to fundraising through book sales, it welcomes visitors from near and far to New Castle, Kentucky, and serves as both local retail space and smiling face of the Center as a whole. For many, the Bookstore is the most immediate source of information about the good work of the Center, and has been the site of many a long conversation about what we do here and why we do it.