Walmart to give more hours to current staff this holiday season

Walmart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT) said on Wednesday it would not hire temporary workers this holiday season and would instead offer the extra hours to its current employees.

This is in sharp contrast to the plans of other retailers such as Target Corp and Macy's Inc, which have said they would hire thousands of more workers during the busiest shopping season of the year.

"These extra hours will help staff traditional roles like cashier and stocker, and newly created technology-empowered positions such as personal shoppers and Pickup associates," Walmart U.S. Chief Operating Officer Judith McKenna said in a statement.

"This is the same approach we took last year, and we heard great feedback from our customers and associates," she said.

The Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer also plans to revive its "Holiday Helper" program by increasing the number of "helpers" in stores this season.

"Helpers" are employees dedicated to assisting customers get through the stores faster by finding the shortest checkout line, opening registers and grabbing items customers might have forgotten.

Several analysts have noted that retailers have in recent years lost sight of basic in-store customer needs as they scrambled to compete better with Amazon.com Inc by cutting costs through store closures, offering more mark-downs and pouring millions into building out e-commerce platforms.

(Reporting by Subrat Patnaik in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)