Macy’s asks corporate staff to help Black Friday
Retail sector struggling to fill over 1M job openings
Macy’s is asking corporate employees to volunteer for shifts in its department stores on Black Friday and other busy holiday shopping days, during a time when the retail sector is struggling to fill more than 1 million job openings.
Internal emails and a corporate memo reviewed by The Washington Post show that Macy’s is enlisting corporate workers to help fold clothes, clear dressing rooms and restock merchandise. The “Experience Elevation Elves” program calls on office workers to “lend a helping hand” at stores in the coming weeks.
“As a company, we understand that business continues to be different, and where we can, we want to influence our high traffic moments, finding ways to elevate the customer experience,” Macy’s said in an internal employee website outlining its “Holiday All Hands-On Deck” strategy.
The New York-based retailer has said it wanted to fill 76,000 positions at its Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s and Bluemercury stores, as well as call centers and warehouses, ahead of the holidays. Last week, it raised its starting hourly wage to $15 and began offering free college tuition to attract applicants.
The holiday shopping season — which accounted for nearly 40% of Macy’s 2020 sales — is critical to the struggling department store chain, which has been roiled by COVID-related closures and steep drops in mall traffic. Year-over-year sales have fallen for nine of the past 11 quarters, and the company has yet to recover from a $3.6 billion quarterly loss at the beginning of the pandemic.
The run-up to Christmas, executives said, could be a turning point.
“During the holiday season, our stores see incredible spikes in traffic volume,” they said in a Tuesday email to corporate employees. “With your support, our store colleagues will be able to stay focused on elevating the customer experience — helping them check every gift off their list, and maybe a few for themselves as well.”
Karina Frayter, a spokeswoman, said Macy’s has a long tradition of encouraging and facilitating volunteer opportunities. Corporate workers, she said, have helped out at holiday events and in stores for many years.
“Supporting our store colleagues is a great opportunity to build camaraderie with teammates and be a part of making the holiday shopping experience for our customers special,” she said in a statement. “This also gives our corporate colleagues a valuable opportunity to interact and get direct feedback from customers.”
The effort comes as the retail industry is in a scramble to hire: More than 2 million workers quit from July to September, according to Labor Department data.