Arts and crafts retailer Michaels Companies Inc is hiring 15,000 seasonal positions ahead of the holiday season, down from the 20,000 it hired last year. One hundred percent of the new staffers will be serving stores, as they did last year, the spokesperson said.

Decades-high inflation is likely to drive many shoppers to hunt for discounts and bargains at physical stores. “Retail store traffic will increase over the holiday season, whereas e-commerce demands will perhaps remain steady,” said Corey Berkey, senior vice president of people and talent at human resources services firm Employ Inc.
“Retailers will need to react to that big shift and adjust their in-store staff.”

Of 3,600 consumers polled by retail research firm NPD, about 46% said they would do more of their 2022 holiday shopping in-stores, up from 42% in 2021. Forty-five percent said they would shop online in 2022, down from 50% in 2021, according to NPD.

Plans to shop at mass merchants such as Walmart and Target

Walmart is not hiring more seasonal distribution center workers this year because it is staffed up in that area, Jimmy Carter, a spokesperson for the company told Reuters. Last year, Walmart hired

The company also hired 20,000 supply chain workers to staff its more than 250 Walmart and Sam’s Club distribution centers (DCs), online order fulfillment centers and transportation offices. It did not specifically add call center and truck driver roles last year.

With annual inflation running 8.3% in August, Americans are projected to spend $915 billion, up 7.5%, according to Bain & Co