Baggers, cashiers, floor staff equally distributed where I am.
Yes, that’s something I noticed when I went to Spain next year. It made me wonder why in the world the cashiers in the US can’t sit down.
I work at a MegaHell and we have a couple of male check out guys. Several in fact.
Paging Bambi!
[Publix employee hat on]
Baggers are REQUIRED to take your groceries to your car. The policy is called 2x2-- two hands on the cart, two steps toward the door. They are not allowed to take tips because taking the groceries out is not going out of their way to help you, but rather a part of their job. Ever notice there are no cart corrals? That’s 'cause the bagger is supposed to bring back your cart after helping you to your car.
God help you if a District Manager notices carts on the lot or catches you not taking a customer with over 3 bags in the cart out.
[Publix employee hat off]
At the stores I go to there are both male and female checkout clerks, though I’d say it’s about 70% female. The male checkout clerks young, since the older ones are stockers. I’ve rarely seen women stocking shelves, but it does happen occasionally. though they seem to move up to the deli or bakery more often. All area Market Baskets and Shaws have baggers, but Hannafords usually doesn’t.
As an aside I’d add that these are the only chain grocery stores anywhere near here - I’ve never seen most of the stores you all are talking about. There are ones I keep hearing about like Whole Foods, but we don’t have them (well, there’s one going in in Nashua, eventually, but that still 60 miles away - which is how far the closet one currently is too. weird).
Cashiers here all sit down. I don’t understand why they would have to stand up unless they’re also packing bags.
Here in the UK there are both male and female cashiers most everywhere, and indeed this has to be the case (unless the company wants a visit from the sex discrimination police). However, in most of the major chains it’s true to say there are usually far more women than men doing the job, simply because more apply.
I worked for a short time at a food co-op for a short time, including covering the check stand, and we were allowed to sit between customers. Ditto when I cashiered at the university book store. I wouldn’t have taken either job if I were expected to be on my feet for the entire shift.
Here in the Pac NW, it’s about 50/50 for male/female cashiers. None of them sit down though, and are required to stand all day. When I first visited Europe, it freaked my shit out when I saw that cashiers were allowed to sit! My reflexive American indoctrination was screaming “Chairs? Next they’ll be wanting unions! And days off!”
I’m a dude and I used to be a cashier. And, if I do say so myself, I was pretty good at it. This was back in the Cretaceous period, with electromechanical cash registers.
You had to call out all the prices as you checked. You would place the bill on the shelf above the shelf as to eliminate any doubt as to what denomination bill was tendered, and count back the change. You had to look up the sales tax (I had the table more or less memorized). My drawer was only off about 5 times in two summers. I weep for America when I encounter the callow youth of today manning cash registers and being confused when you give them $5.03 for a $4.78 purchase after they have already rung up $5 as cash tendered.
Get off my lawn!
Darryl, it took literally months, maybe even a year for one of my pharmacy coworkers to notice that I just hit “exact change” for every customer. When confronted, I asked “Have you ever seen one of my drawers come up off?” which shut them up. (For the record, I have had a couple of drawer shortages, but that was back when I worked up front, so the pharmacy people never knew about it. 
I work in the banking industry and 99.8% of the tellers and book keepers are female. I think women in general have better hand/brain coordination than men do when it comes to entering numbers without looking at their hands. I have no evidence to support this, just my own experience.
I am a hunt and peck typist, so what do I know?