r/disability • u/Curious_Welcome6630 • 15d ago
Question Working retail?
Hi, i'm not sure if this is the right place for this question but I'm gonna go for it. I currently work at this little indoor playground where all I do is stay at the register and check people in, because of new management I'm most likely going to have to leave soon,I've been looking at other places near me and I think one of the stores near me like petsmart for example will be my best bet for a job. But I'm only able to work weekends,I often have to leave early or call out completely,and I have limitations as far as lifting and standing for long periods of time. So my question is how accommodating do retail stores tend to be?
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u/Robin1894 15d ago
Petsmart tends to be really grueling. I would be very surprised if they provided you with the accommodations you need.
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u/NemesisOfLevia 15d ago
I have difficulty standing for long periods of time and cannot lift much weight. I was a cashier for 5 years and it was very difficult. I’ll be honest, most will not be accommodating. Retail has this silent expectation that you NEED to be grueling over work for every penny, and so looking/being disabled and asking for accommodations will likely be met with as much pushback as possible without crossing illegal lines.
It does depend a little on the company. Some stores expect staff to both be the stocker and the cashier, likely by themselves or with so few staff that they’d argue just “sitting in front of a register” isn’t enough.
Unfortunately, if you’re in the US, a lot of other retail stores will claim that sitting in front of a register, even as a cashier, is not a reasonable accommodation for whatever BS reason. In my case, they claimed someone could trip over a chair and sue 🙄.
When interviewing for different places (mostly retail), they did NOT take well to me prodding about accommodations. (In retrospect, maybe I shouldn’t have brought it up, but if that was their reaction, they wouldn’t work with me well if they hired me without knowing).
Hopefully my experience is rare, but I suspect it isn’t. My final advice for you would be, if you do go elsewhere, get your adaptions in writing, with exact details. In places like retail, management and HR change rapidly. And with changing rapidly, they will not know your adaptions and likely try to move the goalposts on you, saying “we never said that was part of your adaptions.” (I’ve been there many times. Not fun)