customer experience representative

operations lead

general manager

customer experience leader

product manager

Indigo Books & Music Inc.

Terrible hours, terrible pay, but some great co-workers. They are the one and only reason to get a job here.

 2% raise a year, if you're lucky and they will not give you a raise if minimum wage increases, so an employee with 3 years of experience might quickly end up being paid the same as a new employee. Require you to have a pretty open availability even when they don't give you enough hours to pay the bills.  Workload will keep on increasing while you get scraps. They seem to have the mentality that telling you how great of a job you’re doing is enough. 

When it comes to cutting costs, you will be expected to take the hits for the company despite the fact that they love to waste money on useless junk and the CEO and board of directors get paid millions every year.

You'll have a 50/50 chance of getting some actual good managers. Managers are sometimes nice but are mostly there to pacify you with pretty answers. 

Working on the sales floor will include some of the nastiest customers you will meet, and seeing a ridiculous amount of theft that the company does not care to actively discourage. Tasking work is very physical, get ready to sweat and to be regarded as the employees who don't sell any Plum Plus, aka: the only thing that makes you valuable to the company.

Benefits are good at least. You get dental (around 80% of most costs covered), vision does not offer much but it’s there, mental health (also covers around 80% of a psychologist visit), among other stuff.

I can not emphasize how little this company cares for its employees. During the hack of early 2023 not only did they wait months to tell us that all of our personal information was stolen but afterwards they offered us only 2 years of credit monitoring, a service which did not work for a lot of people, and they did absolutely nothing to extra to guide us during this stressful time.

Company really loves to play the diversity and sustainability card but will only do the bare minimum when it comes to making a difference. Nothing that goes on in the back matters so as long as they have a pretty picture plastered on the front.

Great place to work at if you don't actually need to make a living and have a lot of patience. As someone who has worked there and seen how they treat their employees I will never interact with this company again.

I have worked for Indigo for over three years and have taken shifts at several locations in Ottawa. While some stores offer professional and supportive management, others struggle with communication, fairness, and employee support.

At certain locations, scheduling and evaluations can feel inconsistent. Some employees are closely monitored, while others receive more flexibility. Shifts are sometimes arranged in ways that limit access to breaks. If you’re not among the favoured staff, you may find your hours reduced, even while others are frequently called in.

There is strong pressure to sell memberships, featured products, and charity donations. Not meeting targets can affect your standing. Pay remains at minimum wage, responsibilities often increase, and recognition is typically in the form of in-store gift cards rather than wage increases. The busiest season for hours is the holidays; at other times, hours can be unpredictable.

Training in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) could be improved, especially in engaging with marginalized communities and creating an inclusive store environment. Interactions with vulnerable customers vary greatly depending on the staff member.

If you’re seeking a short-term role or student-friendly flexibility, Indigo can offer that. However, for those looking for a consistently supportive workplace and long-term growth, it’s worth researching multiple locations before applying.

When I first started this job a few years ago it was an excellent place to work, It had been a job that I had wanted and worked towards for a long time. At first it was great I was working in the kids section and having a lot of fun. Then after about half a year I was suddenly only ever on cash, I had been completely pushed out of my original position and I later found out I’d only been listed on the schedule as a cashier and nothing else. It was very frustrating that these changes were never discussed or considered with me and when I voiced my wishes to be in the kids section I was ignored. For the next couple years I made it work as well as I could, things weren’t so bad, however, in the last year the companies management style was changing and everyone was brought in for an annual review and instead of getting constructive criticism a lot of employees were told that they just weren’t doing well including middle managers who did most of the work while the upper management hid in the office to avoid doing the grunt work. They expect what was essentially essays as to why employees should be kept every quarter  which just happened to line up with university exams making it a lot of work without any time to do it for students. On top of this hours droppedb and so did benefits, expectations sky rocketed and the demands of th job were no long worth minimum wage. They also made a ton of excuses at the end of the year to avoid giving anyone raises. Before I loved the job but by the end of it I felt as though I was being pushed out along with a lot of other employees. They also were making a lot of changes including changing locations but refused to inform any employees of these changes.

I worked a seasonal position for Indigo for the winter season. I signed a “contract” outlining the seasonal position ran until January 26, however I was only scheduled until very early January and then had no communication or information from management regarding the end of my employment. Honestly, the work culture at the Indigo I worked at was intimidating and exclusive. The permanent employees often expressed their dislike of seasonal workers and always seemed unwilling to help. Permanent employees never included me in conversation and generally shunned me during my shifts. I felt intimidated to approach management about this as the only manager I had contact with during my short employment was friends outside of work with one of the main culprits. Indigo also expects you to download and access 3+ apps on your personal devices to use for work purposes. When I expressed that I was not comfortable having that many work related apps on my personal phone, no alternatives or technological support were offered to me to access the apps needed elsewhere. Throughout my entire employment with Indigo I felt excluded and in the dark information wise - our training consisted of a 3 hour conversation on general health and safety and then we were immediately thrust into the position with no other tutorials. I learned vital pieces of information days before my last scheduled shift as we essentially did self guided work the entire time prior with no direction or information. Ultimately, I am happy to no longer work here and as a prior Chapters shopper, I am scared to return and will be supporting other local bookstores moving forward. 

This Is A Company That Doesn't Have Any Employee Loyalty They Will Shift Your Postion From Full Time To Part Time Without Any Legal Notice Cut Back Your Hours Which Is Great As You Have Lots Of Free Time To Worry About How To Make Your Bills And Newer Employees Are Able To Bump You Out Of The Deparment You Were Hired For Just Because Of Favoritsm By The Management It Has A Great And Fun Atomsphere With Coworkers And Customers If You Love Books But You Must Love Them A lot In Order To Get Anything Out Of This Employer As They Falsely Advertise Benefits So Be Prepared To Wait A Year For Qualitfication As They Make Even Full TIme Wait For One Year Employees To Qualify Even Though Their Manuals Say 3 Months And Be Prepared To Have Your Hours Cut On A Regular Basis So That The Management Can Benefit From Less Employee Expenses So That They Can Make A Bonus From It And To Be Expected To Complete In 4 Hours 10 Hours Worth Of Work At First They Were On The Level Until They Shifted Me To Part Time Without Notice I Had To Call The Confidential Line To Find That Out As Management Assured Me I Was Under Full Time In Summation Its Ironic That This A Canadian Owned And Operated Company As Even The Worst American Companies Are More On The Level So If You Enjoy A Job That Doesn't Pay And Has No Employee Commitment Or Management Apply Today

I have worked for Indigo on three different occasions, and as retail experience goes, it's probably the ideal. Managers ensure proper training, are supportive of their front line employees, and employees are empowered to do their job well. Each day starts with a 10 minute chat from the MOD about what's happened in the store in the past 24 hrs so that you're not starting your shift in the dark - how sales have been doing, how close we are to certain goals, what the current promos are, any issues that have come up, etc. It's a good time to ask any questions or bring up any concerns of your own.  

Management are given what they need to support their workers. Workers are given the support they need to give good service. It works well.

It's a fantastic place to work if you love books, music, and helping people choose gifts.

In terms of work/life balance, it depends on your needs. Large format stores were great when I was younger, in university, wanted to nab any shift possible outside of school hours (6:00-10:00 a.m. stocking shift, 7-11 closing shifts). But smaller format stores were better when I had family responsibilities, because we were a smaller, tight-knit team, I had a close relationship with my manager, and the hours were closer to regular business hours.

Best part:  positive atmosphere, selling books and gifts, good clientele, good managers

Hardest part: same limitations as any retail job...minimum wage, usually have to work weekends, etc.

I enjoyed spending time at Indigo/Chapters for the most part. The other staff were amazing and extremely helpful when I had questions. The scheduling was quite flexible, even during the holidays. There were always multiple managers working at a time so I always felt like I had the support I needed, as I was learning on the job. The training was substantial, even for seasonal employees. I learned a lot about retail and merchandising in my short time there. There is a clear pride in the product from everyone who works there. The only negative of the job was working there during COVID-19 times, which caused me a lot of stress personally. We would switch the person at the front door every hour, and that person had to greet each customer and judge whether or not their mask was effective enough to enter. The rules seemed to be much more strict at our store than any other store in the city, so customers would come in with masks that weren’t allowed (face shields, gaiter masks, bandanas, masks with ventilation valve). Many people that entered with these masks were quick to get angry when told they had to switch to a disposable mask (which we offered at the door for free). The confrontation of this made me extremely anxious about going in to work, and I had a hard time enjoying life even when I wasn’t there. I’m glad I was a seasonal employee and only had to put up with it for a couple months. After Covid is over I would be happy to work there again, as everything else about the job was great. 

I worked for Indigo Books & Music for nearly 8 years, and were it not for a number of store closures and lay offs I would have continued to work for them even longer. It was a bibliophile's dream job.

Staff and management were usually comprised of a lot of creative types, eager to learn and generally pretty voracious readers. There was room for countless personality types throughout the store and they all found a niche where they could share what they knew and work among the subjects that they enjoyed.

As with any retail environment there are both pros and cons. The pros included the option to borrow books, discounts on products, access to all sorts of interesting books and other items, and the ability to talk about these things and share them with others on a daily basis. The cons included relatively poor wages and a constant scrambling for shifts as the option for full time work was relatively scarce. Working in customer service can always provide both extremely enjoyable and tremendously difficult experiences, and I don't think that Indigo is any different than any other retail environment in having a healthy combination of both.

In my eight years I worked in all areas of the store from cashier to shipping and receiving and I am grateful that Indigo's policy of ensuring all staff are extensively cross-trained has supplied me with skills I can take in to many different environments in the future.

This is a job for you to spend money rather than earning money...Work time is either in the morning from 5am to 9am or overnight from 10pm to 6am. The responsibility is to tidy up the store, open up boxes to take stuffs out, shelf books, toys and gifts onto the shelves. As mentioned in the summary, this is a very dull job that has no challenge at all. During the morning shift, we usually use the first 2 hours to open boxes and take things out and sort them onto different carts and the other 2 to shelf books. The overnight shift usually has something to do with big projects, such as inventory or changeover.
However, even the task itself is not challenging, it is still fun to work at this job. All the managers are very exciting and positive person, as well as most of the workers. The crew is mostly students or old ladies who are extremely friendly, so there's always a lot of fun things being talked about while working, and you have to noticed that as a member of the tasking crew, you are always the first one to know what is new and interesting arriving to the store and what is lately on sale. With your 30% employees' discount, I ensure you that if you like the store you will possibly spend a lot more money here than what you earned--happens to me all the time since I'm a real reader and I love pretty gifts. The better thing about the job, however, is that it is a part time job in the morning so you can always find a second job during day time.

Very easy job as you are mostly tailoring the store to whatever the Managers prefer to showcase. Benefits are pretty decent after you qualify for it, though that takes a while. Lots of e-Learning before you start. The seasonal holiday can be very stressful especially when the Managers and Leads do not give a helping hand and instead hide in their office all day sitting in their comfortable chairs. Some Managers will micro-manage you to the point of making you feel insignificant and moronic that you aren't following their direction for a minimum wage job. The pay is a joke for the amount of work you put in in comparison to the people on salary. Definitely clique vibes too because you are working mostly with young adults who still treat the workplace like it's high school and ostracized you if you don't play by their rules. No support from Management whenever you get a busy rush as they only schedule very little people on duty while they disappear from the sales floor. They also only consider a promotion if you live and breathe Indigo standards as they prioritize the ones they get along with the most.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Customer experience representative 46 salaries reported	$18.12 per hour
Operations lead 19 salaries reported	$20.95 per hour
General manager 17 salaries reported	$63,603 per year
Customer experience leader 13 salaries reported	$20.45 per hour
Product manager 8 salaries reported	$47,500 per year

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