Walmart is adding so-called “holiday helpers” to its 4,500 American stores for the holiday season.
In what is perhaps an effort to continue improving its chronically weak customer satisfaction scores, Walmart is inviting employees to be "holiday helpers" by wearing yellow vests, Santa hats, and red sashes and assist consumers in reducing check out time. Their responsibilities will include helping patrons find the shortest lines, unload shopping carts, working the cash registers, and retrieving items customers may have intended to buy but forgot to pick up.
“The Holiday Helpers are actually a great combination of a little bit of retail-tainment to bring fun back into the store, and it serves an incredibly practical purpose,” said Walmart U.S. Chief Operating Officer Judith McKenna to Fortune during a press briefing on Wednesday in Teterboro, New Jersey. “That’s the #1 thing that customers told us; they want faster checkout.”
Walmart has had considerable business success by improving its customer service. After learning that shoppers complained about slow checkouts, Walmart decided to add more cashiers. When that resulted in a rise in sales (which has now lasted for eight consecutive quarters), they doubled down on emphasizing customer service, from bringing back its door-greeters to spending $3 billion on raising store workers’ paychecks.
Despite its recent successes, Walmart still has an unsavory reputation among progressive communities. It has been particularly criticized for pushing out local businesses and mistreating its own employees, particularly through inadequate pay and unsafe working conditions.
By Matthew Rozsa
Matthew Rozsa is a professional writer whose work has appeared in multiple national media outlets since 2012 and exclusively at Salon since 2016. He received a Master's Degree in History from Rutgers-Newark in 2012, was a guest on Fox Business in 2019, repeatedly warned of Trump's impending refusal to concede during the 2020 election, spoke at the Commonwealth Club of California in 2021, was awarded a science journalism fellowship from the Metcalf Institute in 2022 and appeared on NPR in 2023. His diverse interests are reflected in his interviews including: President Jimmy Carter (1977-1981), Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak (1999-2001), animal scientist and autism activist Temple Grandin, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright (1997-2001), director Jason Reitman ("The Front Runner"), inventor Ernő Rubik, comedian Bill Burr ("F Is for Family"), novelist James Patterson ("The President's Daughter"), epidemiologist Monica Gandhi, theoretical cosmologist Janna Levin, voice actor Rob Paulsen ("Animaniacs"), mRNA vaccine pioneer Katalin Karikó, philosopher of science Vinciane Despret, actor George Takei ("Star Trek"), climatologist Michael E. Mann, World War II historian Joshua Levine (consultant to "Dunkirk"), Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (2013-present), dog cognition researcher Alexandra Horowitz, Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson (2012, 2016), comedian and writer Larry Charles ("Seinfeld"), seismologist John Vidale, Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Lieberman (2000), Ambassador Michael McFaul (2012-2014), economist Richard Wolff, director Kevin Greutert ("Saw VI"), model Liskula Cohen, actor Rodger Bumpass ("SpongeBob Squarepants"), Senator John Hickenlooper (2021-present), Senator Martin Heinrich (2013-present), Egyptologist Richard Parkinson, Rep. Eric Swalwell (2013-present), Fox News host Tucker Carlson, actor R. J. Mitte ("Breaking Bad"), theoretical physicist Avi Loeb, biologist and genomics entrepreneur William Haseltine, comedian David Cross ("Scary Movie 2"), linguistics consultant Paul Frommer ("Avatar"), Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (2007-2015), computer engineer and Internet co-inventor Leonard Kleinrock and right-wing insurrectionist Roger Stone.
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