Retail stores hiring for holiday season
Companies to push to get shoppers to start buying earlier this year.
Retail stores are already gearing up for the holiday shopping season, and this year they’re hiring thousands for distribution jobs to keep up with the demand of consumers heading online for
gift shopping. Companies such as Target Corp. and Bon-Ton Stores Inc., the parent company of Elder-Beerman, are already hiring for seasonal positions this month, and the retailers will push hard to bring customers into stores earlier this year. The holiday season is crucial for retail stores because this is when they bring in more than 40 percent of their revenue for the year.
The retail industry supports one in four American jobs.
Holiday retail sales during November and December last year in the U.S. were $658.3 billion, a 4 percent increase over the previous year, according to the National Retail Federation
Stores such as Walmart, Target and Toys R Us released
their “hottest toys” lists in early September, alerting shoppers to the items that will likely fly off the shelves this year. Last year, shoppers searched to get their hands on Hatchimals, a hatching egg toy that sold out at toy stores before Christmas. Hat- chimals made the lists again this year, along with plenty of Star Wars-themed toys and other electronics. “With a little over three
months until Christmas, we want to help parents get ahead of the holiday hunt for the hottest toys and find the best deals,” said Anne Marie Kehoe, vice president of toys at Walmart U.S.
Target is already gearing up for the busiest shopping season of the year, hiring 100,000 people at more than 1,800 U.S. stores. That’s up from 70,000 seasonal hires in 2016.
Besides the 100,000 hourly hires for stores, Target also has opportunities for thousands of seasonal employees who will fulfill online orders.
The Elder-Beerman par- ent company is looking to hire 10,000 associates for all of its store locations, and it will hire an additional 500 workers for distribution centers and its e-commerce ful- fillment center.
“Bon-Ton plans to increase our staffing for the holiday season so we can provide an exceptional shopping expe- rience to our customers,” said Bill Tracy, chief oper- ating officer of The Bon-Ton Stores, Inc. “Hiring additional staffing will ensure we deliver fast, friendly service
and meet customer expectations in our stores as well as online.”
Brands have already started preparing for the impact that the changing industry landscape will have on the holiday season — focusing on convenience and speed to make holiday shopping a good experience for consumers. About 76 percent of U.S. consumers expect theirs interactions with a brand to be easy, while 60 percent of shop- pers ages 45 and under say they look online first, then buy products in brick-andmortar stores.
The hiring announcements come as retail sales declined in August compared to July, according to the National Retail Federation. The sales decreased by 0.2 percent, the NRF said this week. Online
and other non-store sales decreased 1.1 percent season- ally adjusted from July but increased 8 percent unadjusted year-over-year.
“Retail sales for August were truly a mixed bag, with monthly gains in July reversed in August,” NRF Chief Economist Jack Klein
henz said. “The bottom line is that consumer spending is uneven but remains resil
ient and the key contributor to U.S. economic growth.” Contact this reporter at Kara. Driscoll@coxinc.com.