Is fast food considered retail?

Last Updated on September 19, 2023 by Dave Farquhar

Is fast food considered retail? Only if you spin it. If you’re asking the question, that’s probably what you need to do. Here’s how to do just that if you’re looking for a change.

The secret of changing jobs, fast food to retail or otherwise

When you put a resume together or fill out a job application, you need to always match your experience to your next job’s requirements. The job duties you performed are more important than the names of your previous employers, and even what category they live in. Fast food isn’t considered retail, but the two have some overlapping job duties.

Retail jobs include a number of different job duties: running a register, answering customer questions, solving customer issues, setting up inventory displays, and unloading trucks. In fast food, you may very well have done all of those things too.

is fast food a retail job
If you want to move from a place like this into retail, play up your experience that mirrors work duties in retail. Don’t mention things like washing dishes. Include a line “other duties as required” instead, but only if there’s room.

So even though retail and fast food are different worlds in some ways, a lot of the experience in one transfers over to the other. For best results, when you move from one of those worlds to the other, find a job that uses the skill you’re best at. If you were good at handling customer problems and resolving conflicts, apply for a job at customer service. Or if you were really good at explaining the differences between menu items and suggestive selling, apply for a job in one of the sales departments. Finally, if you were good at running a register, apply for a cashier position. You probably get the idea. Play up the job duties that transfer over, and how good you are at those.

What you probably won’t have to do in a retail job is wash dishes or mop floors or any kind of food preparation. So there’s no reason to mention those kinds of duties, since it’s irrelevant. Just lump them into a single line item: Other duties as required.

Tailoring your resume or your job experience on the application is key. I used to write down everything I did at every job, in an effort to show versatility. Sometime in my mid 30s I realized this was hurting me. In hiring managers’ minds, if I listed five job duties and three of them weren’t relevant to the new job, they assumed I spent at least 60% of my time doing work that won’t help them.  “Other duties as required” doesn’t come with that mental baggage. It turns it into a positive. It suggests you’re willing to learn to do the things they don’t remember to mention in the interview. And if you’re running short on space, just leave it off.

The magic of leaving experience off

Let’s talk a bit more about leaving stuff off.

I once had a hiring manager tell me he considered not hiring me because my resume said I had worked at Best Buy. I’d worked five other places since then and showed increasing job responsibility at each one. But he got hung up on Best Buy. Had the other candidate he interviewed given off a good impression, I wouldn’t have gotten the job. His impression of me would have been better if I’d found a way to make that experience relevant to him. Or I could have left it off entirely, since that job was more than 10 years before. You only need to go back 10 years. If that helps you save space on your resume or job application, leave the old experience out.

Leaving old experience off leaves room to elaborate on your recent job duties and accomplishments. It can also avoid problems. If you had a gap in employment 15 years ago, suddenly it becomes irrelevant. If you don’t mention it, then you don’t have to explain it.

Dealing with gaps in employment

What if you have gaps in employment that did occur within the last 10 years? Here’s help on how to account for the period between jobs. A gap in employment can put you at a disadvantage, but if you’re careful how you handle it, it won’t.

Questions to ask in an interview

And finally, here are some worthwhile questions to ask. Most of them apply to corporate office jobs, but I think #1, #2, #3, and #12 are wise to ask about retail. And most applicants won’t ask any of them. Interviews are a two-way street. And asking the right questions helps you make sure you’re finding the right match, and intelligent questions can help set you apart as well.

And once you get an offer, here’s some advice on how to quit a fast food job without burning bridges.

This is an example of applying for a job without experience. It probably won’t be the last time you do it. Keep moving onward and upward into business-to-business sales.

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