Cashier
A cashier is a retail worker responsible for processing monetary transactions in various businesses, such as grocery stores, department stores, gas stations, and restaurants. This role involves greeting customers, scanning products, calculating totals, handling cash and credit transactions, and issuing receipts, all while maintaining a clean and organized checkout area. Cashiers typically work in fast-paced, customer-centric environments where they must demonstrate patience, efficiency, and strong interpersonal skills.
The job generally requires no formal education, making it accessible for those seeking entry-level positions, particularly high school graduates. On-the-job training is common, allowing new cashiers to learn necessary skills quickly. Cashiers often work full-time or part-time, and their schedules may include evenings and weekends, especially during busy periods. While the role can be rewarding in terms of customer interaction, it also presents some risks, including job-related injuries and potential theft. Overall, this occupation appeals to individuals who enjoy routine tasks and have a knack for working with numbers.
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Subject Terms
Cashier
Snapshot
Career Cluster(s): Marketing, Sales & Service
Interests: Mathematics, working with money, communicating with others, enjoying a routine
Earnings (Yearly Median): $29,720 per year $14.29 per hour
Employment & Outlook: -10% (Decline)
Entry-Level Education No formal educational credential
Related Work Experience None
On-the-job-Training Short-term on-the-job training
Overview
Sphere of Work. Cashiers, also known as sales associates or clerks, process money transactions in businesses such as grocery stores, gas stations, department stores, theaters, parking garages, and restaurants. Cashiers greet customers, process product returns, scan product barcodes or Universal Product Codes (UPCs), calculate money owed and taxes, make change, accept coupons, issue receipts, bag purchased merchandise, and handle cash, credit card, debit card, and check transactions.
Work Environment. Cashiers work in customer service areas of businesses. Cashiers generally stand throughout their shifts at assigned stations or checkout areas. Cashiers may work as full-time members of retail work teams or as part-time or shift workers. Overtime on weekends and evenings may be required during periods of increased business. Cashiers are at some risk from job-related robberies as well as work-related injuries, such as back strain and repetitive stress injuries.
Occupation Interest. Prospective cashiers tend to be friendly, trustworthy, and competent individuals. Those who excel as cashiers exhibit traits, such as patience, honesty, approachability, and efficiency. Cashiers should enjoy customer interaction and be able to stand for long periods. A preference for routines and proficiency with arithmetic are also important. Since there are minimal educational requirements for cashiering, this occupation may be an appealing entry-level position for those who wish to work in retail settings.
A Day in the Life—Duties and Responsibilities. The daily occupational duties and responsibilities of cashiers will be determined by the type of retail environment, the type of products sold, and the geographic location of the business. In general, a cashier is assigned one register or checkout area for the duration of their shift. The cashier is responsible for keeping the station clean and orderly during their work shift. Cashiers greet customers as customers approach the checkout area.
In businesses where customers buy many products and goods, such as grocery stores and department stores, cashiers scan product Universal Product Codes or barcodes, weigh items on scales when appropriate, process product returns, calculate money owed, make change, calculate tax, accept coupons, issue receipts, bag purchased merchandise, and handle cash, check, credit card, food stamp, and debit card transactions. In businesses where customers self-serve or buy single items, such as movie theater ticket booths or gas stations, cashiers tally the sale, authorize a gas pump or operate the ticket issuing machine, tell the customer what they owe, handle monetary transactions, and issue receipts.
Cashiers may also be required to assist customers, stock shelves, price items, resolve customer complaints, explain store policy, clean floors and windows, and prepare bank deposits. At the end of the shift, cashiers are usually responsible for tallying sales and checking their total against the day’s credit card receipts and cash tray.
Work Environment
Immediate Physical Environment. Cashiers work in customer service areas of businesses such as grocery stores, gas stations, department stores, theaters, parking garages, and restaurants. Cashiers generally stand throughout their shifts in assigned stations or checkout areas. Their work environments are generally brightly lit, loud, and busy.
Human Environment. Cashiers interact with customers, supervisors, and other store workers, such as supervisors and stock clerks, throughout their shifts. Despite the pace of the work, cashiers should be polite and patient with customers and accept direction from supervisors.
Technological Environment. Cashiers often use automated cash registers, credit card scanners, change-making machines, telephones, barcode scanners, scales, and calculators to complete their work. Some cashiers also need to know how to operate business-specific equipment, such as gas pumps or ticket machines. Cashiers should also be familiar with the correct procedures for processing sales through software on phones, tablets, and credit card readers that work with Android and iOS technologies.
Education, Training, and Advancement
High School/Secondary. High school students interested in becoming a cashier should prepare themselves by building ease with numbers. Typing, bookkeeping, business, and mathematics classes will provide a strong foundation for work as a cashier. Due to the diversity of cashier responsibilities, interested high school students may benefit from seasonal or part-time work with local retail businesses.
Postsecondary. Prospective cashiers are not required to have formal postsecondary training. Since experience is more important than educational attainment, high school graduates can gain potential advantage in their future job searches by securing part-time or seasonal employment with local retail businesses. Some may even find full-time employment as a cashier directly following graduation from high school.
Related Occupations
− Automotive Service Attendant
− Bookkeeper & Accounting Clerk
Bibliography
"Cashiers." Occupational Outlook Handbook. Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Department of Labor, 17 Apr. 2024, www.bls.gov/ooh/sales/cashiers.htm. Accessed 27 Aug. 2028.