Retail Store Job Skills Task Cards | Folding, Fitting Room + Register

Retail is mostly customer questions and putting things back where they go. The students who do well know the store's words, like recovery and go-backs, and they know the rules that protect them: don't chase a shoplifter, don't hand out discounts, don't hide a short drawer. This set teaches those words, steps, and rules for clothing and big-box stores.

This set is for clothing and big-box stores: the sales floor, the fitting room, and the register. There are no grocery tasks (those are in the Grocery Store set). Greeting and helping a customer is already a routine in my Task Analysis Data Sheets, and general soft skills 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 (fold a t-shirt, size a clothing rack, put away go-backs, ring up a sale, work the fitting room) 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 with real clothes and hangers 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 (making change and reading receipts at the register)

• Task Analysis Data Sheets (includes Greeting and Helping a Customer and folding routines with data sheets)

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

• Job Interview Practice (retail hires a lot of first-time workers)

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.