Macy's to Hire 7,000 More Workers on Brisk Seasonal Demand

(Bloomberg) -- Macy’s Inc. could use some extra help dealing with the holiday hordes.

After announcing plans to hire as many as 80,000 seasonal workers back in September, the department-store chain now wants to bring on 7,000 more -- mostly for part-time positions. The company cited “high customer volume across our business.”

“Due to the strong traffic in our stores, we are adding associates in our stores across the country,” John Harper, Macy’s chief stores officer, said in a statement.

Macy’s -- challenged by the rise of e-commerce and rapidly changing consumer preferences -- is betting that a strong performance during the year-end shopping season will help spark a turnaround. Chief Executive Officer Jeff Gennette said on Black Friday that the company was off to a strong start, with chilly weather boosting outerwear sales.

Not everything went smoothly, however. Problems processing credit-card payments temporarily disrupted some sales as the company’s system dealt with a heavy volume of transactions.

Macy’s shares have fallen 34 percent this year through Thursday’s close. November was kind to the retailer, however, with the stock rising 27 percent last month amid forecasts for higher holiday sales.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Roeder in Mexico City at jroeder@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net, Lisa Wolfson

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