Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Wednesday it is cutting jobs in accounting and other back-office positions at about 500 locations in the Western region of the U.S. The move will affect two or three people per store, totaling as many as 1,500 workers, Wal-Mart spokesman Kory Lundberg said.

But those employees are expected to be offered positions that will involve direct contact with shoppers, such as working in the online pickup department or as pharmacy technicians. The goal is to get workers out of the backrooms and onto the selling floor where they can interact more closely with customers, Lundberg said.

As part of the strategy, the world's largest retailer and the nation's largest private employer is centralizing the invoice department for that region, and it's also using "cash recycler" machines that will automatically count money.