Abstract
An evaluation was performed of musculoskeletal disorders experienced by supermarket cashiers and recommendations were offered for redesigning the workstation to eliminate the problem. The four stores chosen for study were owned by a supermarket chain and had a variety of checkout counter designs. The study population included 119 female cashiers and 55 other female supermarket workers who participated in the medical study portion of the research. An additional 41 workers, nine of whom were cashiers, participated in telephone interviews. An ergonomic evaluation was conducted by analyzing videotapes of cashiers processing normal customer orders and a standard cart order of 33 common items. The results of the study indicated that there was an association between working as a cashier and developing musculoskeletal disorders. Other supermarket workers also had ergonomic stresses in their jobs. The measured association was therefore deemed to be an underestimation of the true relative risk of work as a cashier compared with the work of people with fe w ergonomic stressors.