Warehouse Associate is the new title for what used to be a Packer. They can’t use equipment like forklifts and mostly just take boxes of things that stores don’t need full cases of and divide them into other boxes. They can be sent to other departments to help, but only in roles that don’t require equipment.
Warehouse Workers are the people who unload trailers, put things into racks for storage, pull things out of storage, load trailers, etc. They use forklifts, order pickers, pallet riders, etc. The job is more complicated and physical which is why it pays more.
Which position you get is completely based on building need. There used to be a strength and endurance test that warehouse workers needed to pass, while those that couldn’t pass it became packers, but they don’t do that anymore.
What to expect your first day depends what department you get put in.
Inbound or Outbound you’ll pretty much get thrown into the job right away. MBP or Warehousing you’ll probably start with order picker training.