Best department to work in a grocery store?

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Has anyone else worked in a grocery store (particularly Publix, if you live in the southeast)? That's where I currently work, and I'm most likely going to try to stay for awhile (maybe not the rest of my life, but for awhile). I'm just a little unsure of which department might best suit me, especially if I were to try to move up some. I actually worked at Publix pretty briefly from the end of 2016 to spring 2017 while I was going to school. I was a front service clerk (bagger) then. I just got re-hired at a different store and now I'm a cashier, which I actually like better. I have good enough social skills to get by in the fairly basic customer service roles (again, cashier and bagger). Interactions with customers are pretty routine and you can mostly follow a script. What I didn't like about being a bagger was having to be pushy with customers (for those of you not familiar with Publix, they are known for their "premiere customer service" and baggers are always supposed to offer to take out every customer's groceries and load them into their vehicles). I do still get bagging shifts sometimes as a cashier, but at least this store seems a little more lax about it. My old store was kind of insane and really did expect us to be pushy and practically harass customers into letting us take them outside.

However, if I were to try to get full-time and make more money in the customer service department, I'd have to move up to customer service staff (someone who mostly works at the service desk, but occasionally operates a register or bags when needed), and then probably eventually a team lead/manager. The thought of working at the desk or being in management definitely gives me anxiety. Interactions with customers wouldn't always be as simple/routine and more unforseen situations could come up. I could see myself just freezing up and having a panic attack/shutting down while trying to deal with an overly angry or irrational customer (which again, really isn't something I've had to deal with as a cashier, or at my other job at a restaurant).

I have thought about maybe trying to transfer to the bakery. Definitely less customer interactions (though obviously there will be some). Like I said, I do have a second job at a restaurant and have been working there for years, and I actually really enjoy it. I'm front of house (cashier/food runner) but I have learned how to make pretty much all the food so I help out with it sometimes. But I do have quite poor fine motor skills, and that's my biggest concern with bakery. I can make salads and pizza at the restaurant just fine, but tend to avoid the sandwiches because I still have a hard time cutting the bread. I'm sure I'd have to cut a lot of bread working in a bakery. I also usually can't ice a cake that I make at home without messing it up, so I'd be worried about that too. Again, the good thing about bakery is that I wouldn't necessarily be interacting with people ALL day long, and I do enjoy prepping and making food if I can get pretty good and confident at it. The other good thing is that there are a couple skilled non-management positions (baker and cake decorator) where you can definitely be full-time and make decent money. I'd kinda rather not be a manager and have to be in charge of so many people. Cake decorating sounds like it would be fun IF I could get good at it. But considering my fine motor skill issues, that's a big if. My other concern is that I struggle with time management. I'd be worried that if I had a huge order to fill, or if I was decorating cakes (that often need to be picked up at a very certain time by the customer who ordered it) I'd struggle with getting it done on time.

I've thought of produce, too. Stocking doesn't sound too bad (and stocking in produce would be a bit easier and less physically demanding than grocery...few females work in the grocery department, because you have to be pretty strong, which I'm certainly not). Prepping fruits and vegetables might be ok, but cutting them could be a problem. But you do pretty much have to be a manager if you want to move up in that department.

One of my first jobs as a young teenager was working in a grocery store. I did that for about a year. I worked as a "bagger". I had more of a desire to study, figure out and fit in with people and more energy toward those ends, so it wasn't really bad.

I think you're right that working in the bakery would be a good department, but most of them work nights. Produce would be a second, but I would worry personally about having a greater exposure to pesticide residue every shift handling the produce.

I think the ultimate for me if I could work nights would be stocking shelves. Where I worked they would wear headphones and usually it was one or two workers in an aisle working by themselves to organize the boxes, jars, etc. neatly on each shelf.

I used to work at Publix many years back and there is another department to consider that is its own thing: Dairy department. The guy in my store was responsible for stocking the milk and other items in that area. It seemed like a good position for someone with ASD as long as they could tolerate the cold working area. I had worked as a bagger, and they did prefer for us to stand in front of the cart once we had packed it out so the customer would see we would bring it out to their car, but the customers didn't really like that, they were happier if we asked do you want us to take your groceries to your car. I know that they do have quite a few people with disabilities working as baggers a few hours a week, though I never met a full time bagger, while full cashiers were fairly common.

i've worked in a grocery store some years ago and got re-hired at the same store last year. i think the best department is probably dairy or even grocery when all you do is stock the shelves and show people where items are if they ask. if your store does the online shopping, you can shop orders for people who ordered online.

Probably overnight stock work.

Not a grocery store, but I worked in a home improvement retailer similar to Lowes or Home Depot. I started off as a cashier and eventually requested to move to pushing carts. People thought I was crazy but I absolutely loved it! When I was a cashier I used to collapse due to exhaustion when I got home but as a cart boy I would happily work longer. It did have it's downsides (like working alone on a Saturday in near freezing rainstorms) but overall I loved the minimal interaction.

On a related note, I was impressed the last time I was in a USA grocery store that they have baggers. Here, the cashier and the bagger are the same person (if they even bag at all) and it makes everything needlessly slow. I once saw a kid with Down Syndrome as a bagger (and he was incredibly good at it) but they laid him off once the government subsidy ended. Goes back to my point that many companies don't recognize talent that doesn't fit in their tiny box.