Best Buy's Holiday Hiring Set To Be Cut In Half

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Well, folks, once you cross that terminator that is Labor Day, summer pretty much boils off into a cloud and fall starts weighing heavily on people’s minds. And that means some places start thinking about the upcoming holiday shopping frenzy. After all, we should start seeing Black Friday deal sheets coming out in the next four to six weeks, and some places even have their decorations up already. Best Buy is starting to think holiday too, and if you’re looking to put gadgets on your holiday shopping lists, you may want to start thinking ahead, because they’ve announced plans to reduce their holiday hiring almost in half.

Last year, the folks at Best Buy tacked on an additional 29,000 seasonal workers to help get their stores over the hump that is holiday shopping (after all, it’s not just Christmas in here, but rather Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, among others). This year, they plan to hire on only 15,000 extras, instead asking permanent employees to work more hours to make up the shortfall.

Naturally, this is making a lot of people wonder about the concept of brick and mortar shopping in the first place, with plenty of people already migrating to places like Amazon to do their electronics shopping and the growth of events like Cyber Monday, so named because it’s the first day back to work for most people following the Thanksgiving weekend, and employees do much of their Christmas shopping online using fatter corporate pipes. To some extent, they’ve got a point, though with electronics there are plenty of people out there who’d rather see what they’re getting and get a bit of hands on time with it first, though free shipping and returns can be helpful there. And indeed, many people are blending the strategies, going to Best Buy to see what they want, and then going home and shopping for it at often reduced prices.

Either way, it’s bad news for job hunters, which is itself nothing new, but how about you guys? Anyone thinking about staying away from Best Buy for your holiday shopping needs? Or will you shop there no matter how many temporary employees they bring in? Either way, we want to hear from you, so hit the comments section and tell us what you think!