Working as a cashier with Aspergers

Post Reply New Topic

A few days ago I was interviewed for a job at a grocery store. My interview went well and I as hired my orientation and training are coming up soon. Despite the fact that I wrote down clerk on my application I have a feeling that I will end up doing cashier. I know they will train but I'm a bit nervous. I am great with counting money and I have good memory. I think I'm scared to mess up when a big line of customers arrive Does anyone here work as a cashier or has in the past?

Sly does. Look for him in the Love and Dating section. I'm sure he could give good advice. There are others on this site who are, or have been cashiers.

I was a cashier back in the days of mechanical cash registers, back in the stoned age. I was not very good at it.

Yikes, to cashiering! I was thrown, due to poverty, into working at a Wal-Mart "Supermart" (sometimes up to 500 customers per day on certain days of the month/holidays). I could handle the $ and the computer/scanning (got highest honors ever in that last one). But, the stress of the interpersonal relations w/supervisors (most cranky Nazi types) and some super mean, deliberately denigrating customers threw me into the ozone. Plus, I was slaving into poverty and got very sick from the stress. Learn distance from others. Learn from the old pros who do not take it all "personally". Learn quick, "polite", but cutting quick come backs to situations. Learn that if you are being verbally abused, you close your register and walk away. Best to you!

I have worked as a Cashier at Wal Mart for 1yr on the 23rd of this month. It is the hardest job I have ever had. It was very hard to learn because the training at Wal Mart is just showing someone how to do things. I need hands on step by step instructions. So! it took me six months to learn the majority of the functions of the cash register. On some day's my sensory issues put me into mere meltdowns due to the noise and the lights.

I had to learn the best responses to customers questions and comments. How to greet the customer " Hello, have you found everything you needed today" Customer response: " I have found more then I needed" My response: "Glad to hear you have found everything you needed" For the longest time this one I did not know how to answer , I would not respond and would continue to scan and put there items in the bag before I asked another cashier what I should say to them. It has took me almost 1 yr to learn everything I need to say. I probably will never learn them all. Example: A lady was riding one of the motorized carts and drove up to me when I was taking a drink from a bottle of water and said " Do you know that fish crapped in that water ?" I had know idea what to say. It took me 30 to 60 sec and then I asked her what she would recommend me to drink that fish did not crap in. She said " Dr. Pepper " and laughed and drove away.

Counting change, I make sure to count out loud when doing this. Bagging, I hate doing this. Sometimes there is not a right way to bag anything. All customers have there own preferences so I would recommend asking them first how they want things before you start. Some people want there items all in as few bags as possible and don't care if you mix things up. Others get very upset if you put too much in the bags. Some people want double bagged others don't.

Fortunately, I could care less what customers yell at me about. A life of bulling has made me numb to it. As far as the other employees I have found it very difficult to work with many of them. For the longest time the CSS would forget about me and I would not get a break. This was not working for me. I had to go to HR and request special accommodation's in order to get my breaks every 2 hrs.

So! being a Cashier can be accomplished. One has to be prepared not to care if yelled at. If it bothers you tell them that you have Autism. That usually will shut them up. You have to say it loud enough for the other customers to hear it. If they continue to yell at you most of the time another customer will yell at them.

Have cashiered all of my life. However: ive never run a cash register at a grocery store. Every other kind of retail but that. Mainly at People's Drug ( before and after that chain got absorbed by CVS). Grocery store cashiering is probably a little more involved than what Ive done.

But even so its probably the same learning curve: Its terrifying for a couple weeks until you master it. Then its boring as all hell after that. You'll probably do Okay.

Did so in both the old era, and in the modern computerized era.

Right now I work for an inventory service and physically count stuff in retail stores with scanners and little portable computers. Basically Im a cashier who helps rings up all of the merchandise in the store (by scanning the bar codes on the merchandise the same way its done on a cash register). But I dont have to deal with the public, and dont have to handle cash. Just have to rack up as high a count rate per hour as possible. Like that better. But I survived cashiering back when I did it.

I've been a cashier on and off for years and years. I worked in fast food, grocery stores and convenience stores. The main things to grasp are:

-- No matter how many customers you have in your line, the one in front of you is the important one. Direct all your attention to that person until the transaction is over, and even the store being super-busy won't bother you so much. Ignore customers who try to complain about the long or slow lines. Just take the customers one at a time.

-- Customers are @$$holes. They feel superior to you because...well, I don't know why. But they do, and they will find every reason to treat you like dog $#!+ on their shoe. The VAST majority of the time, it's nothing you've done but rather they're just pissed off at someone else. Just let them talk and then forget it when they leave. HOWEVER...if they get truly abusive -- swearing, yelling, accusing you of cheating them -- just back off and call a manager. DO NOT get abusive back to them. Because of the old adage "The customer is always right," you will be more likely to get into trouble than they will. If I have a particularly hard time with a customer, I tell the manager my side of the story in case the customer tries to come back and say I was rude to them, when I know I wasn't. Luckily, most stores have cameras watching everything, so it's no longer your word against theirs.

-- There are differences with working in grocery stores as opposed to convenience stores. Each has its pros and cons (I prefer C-stores myself):

1) Grocery stores are less work -- you just stand there waiting on customers. But it can be LOTS of customers -- hundreds in a day, especially before holidays. I'm pretty chatty with customers, although no one says you have to be, as long as you're respectful, polite and efficient. But you are tied to your register in a grocery store -- you can't leave for any reason (bathroom, lunch, to take something back to the shelf) without permission. If you're hyper or need lots of bathroom breaks or smoke or can't stand for long periods of time, you might need to find a job somewhere else. There is some kind of manager around ALL the time, so if you have a hard time working with someone breathing down your neck all the time, grocery stores are NOT for you. A problem I'm having right now is the crazy scheduling. I never work the same schedule any week. I might work 2-9 one day, 11-8 the next day and 7-3 the next. I really need a regular schedule, but until I get my "Official" diagnostic report (been waiting on it for 3-1/2 months now) I don't have much leverage to change that.

2) In a convenience store, there are fewer customers and you're not tied to the register for the most part, but there is MUCH more work -- stocking shelves and coolers, sweeping and mopping floors, emptying trash, doing inventory. Plus some people may have a moral issue with it -- there are lots of sales of such items as beer, cigarettes and lottery tickets, mostly to people who can't afford it (I had a problem with this). What I like about C-stores is when you work the evening shift, you usually work minus supervision. Managers in C-stores always work the morning shift because there are so many vendors coming in and out all day. I much prefer to work at my own pace, so I'm more comfortable when I'm just given a list of things to do rather than someone following me around telling me what needs to be done and how to do it. One caution of C-stores that you don't get in grocery stores -- the possibility of getting robbed. It's happened to me and it's scary as hell.

-- You'll be handling lots of money, and that intimidates some people. The registers today are much easier than when I first started checking back in the 70s. Back then you had to count the change out of the drawer and then back to the customer. These days the register shows you how much change to give. I find that these days, lots of people don't know how to count change at all! I learned how to do it in like 2nd grade, so I don't know what the problem is. Anyway, if you just slow down and pay attention to what you're doing you'll be OK. Some customers will try to confuse you so that they get more change than they deserve, but that's rare.

Working in the grocery business isn't really a bad job, The stress is relatively low and it's not a job that you're going to "bring home with you". Once you're worked your shift, you're done. Hope this has helped you!

I think you will find the social aspect the most difficult. Fortunately, most people just want their items rung up as quickly as possible, and aren't looking for a mind blowing customer service experience. Just greet each customer, ask them how they are, ring up their items, and when you're done, crack a smile and tell them to have a good day. You will be fine most of the time.

You will find a lot of people like to try and practice their social skills when talking to cashiers. I suspect people relish the opportunity to talk to some one they know will be kind and polite to them no matter what. People will often try and tell you jokes, mostly really bad and/or corny ones. So you are going to have to learn to laugh at stuff you don't actually think is funny. Customers often get mad when you don't laugh at their jokes.

Other than that, just be as polite to people as you can.

Hi, I have not worked in that grocery store. But I was working as a cashier in a retail shop for last years. In that retail shop there are things such as Cash Registers, Cash Drawers which help me a lot in my work. Paper rolls are also used for the print of bill by which I can manage the monthly accounts report easily. I really thank my shop owner for purchasing these products from “Discount Till Rolls Ltd” which makes a good way for our work.

I am a cashier at Walmart. Everyone else has pretty much covered the basics of what you need to know. Its learning the "rules" of your interactions with the costumer and then your fine. I learned my rules from asking and watching the more experienced cashiers, plus a little trail and error that was not fun.

And no matter what anyone says as long as you are being polite and as helpful as you can be most of your costumers are going to be nice people just looking to get out of the store. Deal with the bad ones as they come And take one customer at a time.

Hmph, if you're told the same cliche I'm told about a certain area of my job what makes me anxious, then you might end up really disliking working there altogether. But it depends on what the firm is like, they might be more reasonable and understanding, and try their best to put you on anything other than cashier.

I got a lecture, coupled with a cliche I heard so many times, last week because I was anxious when being put on somewhere what makes me most anxious. The lecture was ''we all have certain things in our jobs we don't like or find overwhelming, but the thing is you're being paid to do a service and so you've got to do it, you can't always get what you want, especially when there are people off sick.'' Listening to that did not help at all. There are other jobs that need to be done in the workplace what is your contract, and it's like they keep the laid-back types of people on the quieter areas and put the most highly-strung people on the worst areas, and when you have anxiety-related conditions where it's even harder to put up with things, you then get yourself even more worked up and then not perform the job properly. At least when you're put on something what's more calmer for you, you feel more at ease and then can perform the job better. And it's not really about liking and disliking certain areas of the job. I don't go around thinking ''I don't wanna do that today because I don't like it''. It's more a case of ''I prefer not to do that too often, as it makes me really overwhelmed and anxious.'' That can obviously cause you to not like it, but it's not that you just decide to not like it in the first place just to be difficult. Some calmer tasks at work you may also not like, but if it doesn't make you feel upset or anxious, then you still won't mind doing it.

I've done it at McDonald's back in high school. It's not overly difficult. I was able to excel at it because I could memorize prices w/ tax & manipulate the pos system to record shorter/faster service times than reality (by telling the customer the price for their meal & letting them count their change etc before even punching it in) so when I opened in the morning my average order taking times were 01 second for the first few hours, which reduced the average times for the day a fair bit and made management look wonderful. They liked me for that lol. They couldn't figure out how we were posting such great times & came and asked me.. so I explained and showed them. They knew as well as I did that it was BS, but also that no one from corporate was going to analyze hour by hour numbers, so their lower average times made them look great and everyone was happy all around.

I was also extremely accurate with cash - to the penny almost every single time - as like counting cards I was able to keep a +/- tally in my head and ensure that my till remained balanced. I've done the same with bar tending.. to the point that one bar owner told me "No one is as accurate with cash as you are. You must be skimming & have some sort of system." I told her if I was stealing from her the till wouldn't be overflowing with cash & I wouldn't be the top selling bartender on shift - and that if she had any concerns at all she could feel free to check the video footage from the camera just above the till. I don't know if she ever did check, but she never asked/accused me again. I never stole a cent.

With retail cashier jobs, depending on how your memory works, it could be a breeze if you can easily memorize product codes and such.

Also, keep in mind that everyone makes mistakes when they're first learning something.. so if you do make mistakes in the beginning, it's not such a big deal. Just learn from them and move on.

Good luck!

I don' t think people with Asperger's/Autism should ever approach life on the basis of "things I cannot do." For more than 30 years I've taken café of life support systems in intensive care units. It was rough in the beginning and can still be rough at times. But that is true for NT's as well. You'll do fine. If you get flustered - just give yourself a break and go back to it.