Archived Cart Attendant or Cashier?

[xFutureCA]

Hey guys. I started working at Target a week ago and was hired as a Cart Attendant. I was trained as Cart Attendant first and then as a Cashier. I love both positions but a recently TL asked me what position I liked better. After 3 days as Cart Attendant and 3 days as cashier, I've decided I like Cashier more.

My main questions are:

1. Will I eventually be able to move to Cashier if I do a good job as a Cart Attendant? Can I change positions if they decide to keep me after seasonal is over?

2. Which position seems to be promoted more often? I plan to work at Target for quite a long time and was wondering which position has a better chance to get promoted.

I'd really appreciate and info on this topic even if just a quick reply.

 

[judgemental]

1. if you do good as a cart attendant they might want you to stay there, but that does not mean that you should be bad at your job to switch positions. do your job as is and if they ask again tell them that you'd prefer to be a cashier. if they want to change you or not depends on what they need. if they need a cashier they might switch you over, if they need a cart attendant they might keep you there.

2. i feel like cart attendants get promoted more often/it's easier for them. cashiers have the redcard weight on their shoulders and if you're not good with conversion you'll most likely be stuck. I was stuck just like that for two years until i finally got the chance to move stations as a cart attendant.

i personally like being a cart attendant cause i had more freedom. i was able to be friendly with everyone while still doing my job. i guess it just really depends on if you like standing in one spot for 4-8 hours or if you'd rather have more freedom and move around.

 

[NPC]

1.) Yes! At least at my store, I feel that Target is really big on cross-training people for multiple departments. An eagerness to learn and help out as a team player is always a plus pretty much. They might just have you do both, depending where they need people. I worked in two departments for a whole year basically, until enough people left GS, that I got to be there full time.

2.) Turn over is pretty fast. People are always leaving and moving around. As long as you're a good employee, promotion is pretty fast. However, if I'm not mistaken, I think the Front Lanes, Guest Service, and Cart Attendants get the same pay anyway. So going to cashier isn't really a "promotion."

 

[PassinTime]

Decide if you enjoy moving around better or standing in one spot all day. Also, how go you feel about RedCards? Can you handle the quotas your store has in place for the cashiers? If you cashier and can't make quota, you are stuck at cashier.


At my old store, there was ALWAYS the opportunity to pick up a cashier shift. However, all of the CAs (who get 20 or less hrs. a week) had awesome attendance. Therefore, if you went cashier, you likely wouldn't have the chance to pick up CA shifts for a little variety.

 

[buliSBI]

Hey guys. I started working at Target a week ago and was hired as a Cart Attendant. I was trained as Cart Attendant first and then as a Cashier. I love both positions but a recently TL asked me what position I liked better. After 3 days as Cart Attendant and 3 days as cashier, I've decided I like Cashier more.

My main questions are:

1. Will I eventually be able to move to Cashier if I do a good job as a Cart Attendant? Can I change positions if they decide to keep me after seasonal is over?

2. Which position seems to be promoted more often? I plan to work at Target for quite a long time and was wondering which position has a better chance to get promoted.

I'd really appreciate and info on this topic even if just a quick reply.

1. More than likely. You will be treated as a Cashier/Cart Attendant. You will cashiering with a shift or two as cart attendant. I worked only one store where I was strictly a cart attendant. Other stores, I worked both positions almost equally. But for your situation, it all depends on your store and how your Execs.

2. To tell you the truth, the Cart Attendant position is grunt or low totem position at a store. Its great to get your foot in the door but you have very little interaction unless they need you for something. But cashiers have more interaction with and recognition from the GSTL/Execs. Cashiers tend to get more responsibilities by working guest service and FoodAve/Starbucks

 

[antwan5544]

If you have a good store I would say cart attendant.but at my store it's cashiers because it's all about being seen

 

[Kartman]

Trust me... as a CA I am definitely seen. I am all over the place!

 

[Nauzhror]

Hey guys. I started working at Target a week ago and was hired as a Cart Attendant. I was trained as Cart Attendant first and then as a Cashier. I love both positions but a recently TL asked me what position I liked better. After 3 days as Cart Attendant and 3 days as cashier, I've decided I like Cashier more.

My main questions are:

1. Will I eventually be able to move to Cashier if I do a good job as a Cart Attendant? Can I change positions if they decide to keep me after seasonal is over?

2. Which position seems to be promoted more often? I plan to work at Target for quite a long time and was wondering which position has a better chance to get promoted.

I'd really appreciate and info on this topic even if just a quick reply.

I'd definitely rather work as a cashier.

In the ~3 years I've been at my store very few of either have been promoted.

We've had one cashier switch to Electronics. One cashier become a GSA (myself), and one cart attendant switch to a cashier/electronics/cart attendant hybrid (they quit several months ago though).

As opposed to judgemental's comment regarding redcards I'd say the opposite is truer. If you are great with redcards you will likely be stuck as a cashier forever. If you work hard overall, but are not necessarily great at selling redcards they may try and put you somewhere else in the store so long as they feel you are a valuable TM, just not one that's good at pushing redcards.

 

[CartboyMo]

Trust me... as a CA I am definitely seen. I am all over the place!

A cart att. Is FOR SURE the best route. As a cashier you can only stay in once place by the lanes, unless like my store if we ever have 1-2 extra cashier and it's slow, they'd send you to do abandonance but that's still not good enough to be seen. I have been a cart attendants for 2+ years now and in that time I ended up getting myself to cross train in:

Back room
Flow
Sales floor
Market/grocery
Pharmacy
Electronics
Guest service
Ha even in our Starbucks

As a cart attendants you can go out sroundt the store and actually do stuff more and more. I started off by doing cardboard I between getting carts in and doing other cart att. Duties then slowly just got myself around. And since I know all those different areas I pretty much always have 37-40 hours a week from picking up shifts or them actually just scheduling me. And the nice thing is I'm actually logged in a flow team member so I can get my pay raise in (50 cents haha) but my main actual position I 99% get is cart att. Shifts

 

[Kartman]

Word.

 

[BlueSide]

Get trained at the service desk and you'll never do carts again lmao.

 

[Nauzhror]

A cart att. Is FOR SURE the best route. As a cashier you can only stay in once place by the lanes, unless like my store if we ever have 1-2 extra cashier and it's slow, they'd send you to do abandonance but that's still not good enough to be seen. I have been a cart attendants for 2+ years now and in that time I ended up getting myself to cross train in:

Back room
Flow
Sales floor
Market/grocery
Pharmacy
Electronics
Guest service
Ha even in our Starbucks

As a cart attendants you can go out sroundt the store and actually do stuff more and more. I started off by doing cardboard I between getting carts in and doing other cart att. Duties then slowly just got myself around. And since I know all those different areas I pretty much always have 37-40 hours a week from picking up shifts or them actually just scheduling me. And the nice thing is I'm actually logged in a flow team member so I can get my pay raise in (50 cents haha) but my main actual position I 99% get is cart att. Shifts

I suspect that's more "you" than "cart attendant". Someone that shows initiative and wants to be trained everywhere can do so no matter where they start, whereas most people won't get anywhere near that much cross-training no matter what they start doing.

 

[Kartman]

Get trained at being a CA and you'll never have to work the service desk again.

ftfy

 

[Nauzhror]

Yeah, very few people want to move TO carts. In my store, and I'd imagine in most stores, it's considered the absolute bottom rung on the totem pole.

 

[Kartman]

Bottom rung = Flow team, IMO.

 

[BlueSide]

Bottom rung=cashier. Definitely.

 

[BlueSide]

Bottom rung = Flow team, IMO.

Flow team is a higher pay grade then cashiers, cart attendants, and sales floor.

 

[Kartman]

Pay ain't everything.

 

[tomthy]

A cart att. Is FOR SURE the best route. As a cashier you can only stay in once place by the lanes, unless like my store if we ever have 1-2 extra cashier and it's slow, they'd send you to do abandonance but that's still not good enough to be seen. I have been a cart attendants for 2+ years now and in that time I ended up getting myself to cross train in:

Back room
Flow
Sales floor
Market/grocery
Pharmacy
Electronics
Guest service
Ha even in our Starbucks

As a cart attendants you can go out sroundt the store and actually do stuff more and more. I started off by doing cardboard I between getting carts in and doing other cart att. Duties then slowly just got myself around. And since I know all those different areas I pretty much always have 37-40 hours a week from picking up shifts or them actually just scheduling me. And the nice thing is I'm actually logged in a flow team member so I can get my pay raise in (50 cents haha) but my main actual position I 99% get is cart att. Shifts

DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMN STRAIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[tomthy]

Oh, there is so much good stuff here. Why did I not join in sooner?

 

[Kartman]

It was in the last place you looked.

 

[Firefox]

Cart Attendant in my store seems like more of a dead end to me than cashier. There isn't really any room of promotion or opportunities to display leadership skills. Whereas cashiers are constantly pulled to help out the rest of the store if it's ever slow enough to spare them.

Or maybe my cart attendants are just lazy.

 

[SallyHoover]

"Am I the only one reading this, thinking, (Great) opportunities for promotion for either a cart attendant or cashier (or really any other TM position for that matter)???
It seems to me the only way to get any kind of a meaningful promotion is to give way too much of your life to Target and take several non meaningful but fairly stressful little promotions while still giving way too much of your life to Target."
She types with aching feet and exhaustion after a stressful BT and BF at Target.

 

[Nauzhror]

Cart Attendant in my store seems like more of a dead end to me than cashier. There isn't really any room of promotion or opportunities to display leadership skills. Whereas cashiers are constantly pulled to help out the rest of the store if it's ever slow enough to spare them.

Or maybe my cart attendants are just lazy.

I think cashier has more opportunities in my store as well. But I think those that request to do more will get chances in any position, and those that wait for them won't in any position. There's no doubt I'm far more highly trained across the entire store than any of our cart attendants for example, but I think if I'd started as a cart attendant I'd have changed workcenters by now as well.

 

[Kartman]

Cashier = dead end and a redcard PITA.