Grocery Store Job Skills Task Cards | Bagging, Carts, Produce + Safety

Grocery stores hire a lot of our students for their first job, usually as baggers or cart attendants. The work looks simple until a student is standing at the end of a busy lane with a leaking package of chicken and a carton of eggs. This set teaches the words, the steps, and the store rules for that job before students get there.

This set sticks to what is different about grocery work: bagging, carryouts, carts, produce, and the front end. Stocking and facing a shelf is already a routine in my Task Analysis Data Sheets, and general soft skills (being late, taking feedback, coworker problems) are in my Soft Skills Scenario Cards.

What's included:

• Teacher page with three support levels and a 2-week plan

• Job snapshot: jobs, a typical shift, and what supervisors look for

• 16 vocabulary cards and a vocabulary match

• 5 task sequence cards (bag groceries, collect carts, help with a carryout, rotate a produce display, handle a spill) plus a blank card

• Put-it-in-order worksheets for all 5 tasks

• 8 safety rules and a 10-item safe or unsafe sort with "do this instead"

• 12 procedure cards (what is the rule here?) and a procedure planner

• On-the-job checklist for student and supervisor ratings, with an IEP data note

• Answer key and blank cards to write your own

How I use it:

I start with the job snapshot and the vocabulary cards. Then I model each task card and have students act it out while a partner reads the steps. The procedure cards work best a few at a time as a warm-up or with role-play. Before a job site visit or work-based learning shift, students set goals on the checklist, and the supervisor or job coach rates the same skills afterward.

How this set is different from my other job skills resources: my Soft Skills Scenario Cards cover general "what would you do" moments that happen at any job, and my Task Analysis Data Sheets break down everyday routines with data sheets. This set is only about one workplace: its words, its tasks, and its rules. None of the scenario cards or routines are repeated here.

Part of the Job Site Task Card Series: one set per workplace, all in the same layout, so you can mix sites across your caseload and students already know how the cards work when they move to a new site.

Pairs well with:

• Money Math Task Cards (receipts and making change for front-end practice)

• Task Analysis Data Sheets (includes a Stocking and Facing a Shelf routine with data sheets)

• Soft Skills Scenario Cards (the soft skills side of any job)

• FREE Am I Job Ready? Self-Check (a quick starting point)

Who it is for: high school special education, transition programs for ages 18 to 21, vocational and CTE classes, job coaches, and work-based learning teams. Grades 9th to 12th and adult transition.

What you download: one printable PDF, 13 pages, US Letter. Answer key included.

Job tasks and rules vary by employer. Use this to prepare students, and always follow the training and rules at the actual job site.

From the author of The Transition Map (Jeremy D. Gooch), available in paperback and Kindle.

Written by Jeremy D. Gooch, a teacher with 20+ years in education. All student names and stories are made up.