Grocery stores employ hundreds of thousands of cashiers and stock clerks.
The typical annual salary for several positions at grocery stores is below $30,000, based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Employees in management positions and those who have specialized skills earn significantly more. In any case, grocery stores nationwide employ more than a million workers in many different occupations.
Cashiers and Stock Clerks
Cashiers hold the highest number of jobs in grocery stores, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. About 34 percent of all grocery workers are cashiers. The second largest group of grocery workers includes stock clerks and order fillers, who hold about 17 percent of grocery jobs. The BLS data show that an estimated 838,260 grocery cashiers earned a mean annual salary of $20,800 in 2010. Nearly 423,700 stock clerks and order fillers earned a mean salary of $22,560 at grocery stores that year.
Food Preparers
Grocery store food preparers include butchers and other employees who cut and package fish, meat and poultry for sale. Grocery bakers also prepare and package breads, cakes and other baked goods for sale. Nearly 112,300 food preparers worked at grocery stores in 2010, based on BLS data. They earned a mean salary of $22,020. Grocers are among the largest employers of food-preparation workers, after restaurants and other eating establishments.
First-Line Managers
First-line managers at grocery stores supervise employees in specific departments, such as the meat or bakery department. First-line managers are usually responsible for training employees and creating their work schedules. The managers place orders to keep their departments stocked with goods and they ensure that sale prices are accurate. Grocery stores are among the top employers of first-line managers; they employed about 130,260 of the managers in 2010. Their mean salary that year was $39,130, according to the BLS.
Other Workers
Grocery stores employ workers in several other occupations, which include office clerks, bookkeepers, accountants and pharmacists. Grocers again are among the top employers for some of those occupations. For example, just over 22,500 pharmacists worked at grocery stores in 2010, based on BLS data. Grocery pharmacists dispense medication to patients prescribed by their doctors, and they advise patients on use their medications. The mean annual salary for grocery store pharmacists in 2010 was $107,530.
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