John Lewis Partnership wants to recruit more than 7,000 temps this Christmas or 2,000 more than last year to cope with what it expects will be a surge in shopping over the festive period.
Staff will be taken on in all parts of the business, the department store and Waitrose owner added, including delivery drivers for its online grocery division.
Getting new drivers might be a problem with an estimated 90,000 shortfall in HGV-qualified truckers and rivals having to raise wages to attract more staff.
Ocado, which is in partnership with Marks & Spencer PLC, said yesterday that paying more and bonuses to attract drivers would cost it an extra £5mln this year.
JLP said it wants to take on 550 permanent full-time drivers and warehouse workers across distribution centres and Waitrose.com and John Lewis.com sites.
New staff and temporary workers will be offered free food and drink to “help ensure we can attract the help we need”, said the retailer.
Nikki Humphrey, people director at the John Lewis Partnership, said: “We’re looking for people who can deliver extraordinary service to help customers get what they need to celebrate. We look forward to welcoming people into our team across the country.”
Stores will be decked for Christmas from October with 100 new products added to the range for the festive period.