Recommended Part-time Jobs at Supermarkets for Housewives and Students

It is a fact that the breakout of COVID-19 has influenced the income of most people. Increasing number of people are being laid off or furloughed, or salary reduced out of economic recession. Even finding a new job becomes difficult because many companies might not be hiring.

But there are also businesses whose needs for labor force keep increasing during coronavirus pandemic like supermarkets. As one of necessary businesses for nationals' daily lives, supermarkets keep opening even after emergency state notified which gives us work chances.

Actually part-time jobs at supermarkets are very popular among housewives and students. We are sure you will know the reason after we introduce their job types, work contents, average wages and advantages in this article. Also how to find these jobs, and available visa for foreigners to work at supermarkets will also be talked about.

Job types at supermarkets

Supermarkets provide various job positions while the most popular ones are as follows:

-Cash register

Cash registers may be the most familiar staff at supermarkets because they serve us a lot when we go there. Not just accounting quickly and accurately, as a work most close to the customers, cashiers are also required to serve customers politely and kindly.

-Preparing okazu (side dishes)

To cook and pack side dishes according to manuals, paste price sticker and put dishes on the shelves at food corner. This job is suitable for people who are not good at serving customers or enjoy cooking.

-Stocking shelves

To display products on shelves before opening, process expired products in time, or plan and change display positions according to hours to attract customers. This job may only work during specified hours. It is a good choice for people who don't want to communicate a lot with others or have interest in marketing.

Wage for part-time jobs at supermarkets

Hourly wages for part-time workers differ from supermarkets and job types. But in most cases hourly wage is the minimum hourly wage defined by the Labor Standard Law plus about 100 yen. The minimum wage is set by every region of Japan every year, which means that supermarkets at different prefectures will pay different. Tokyo has the highest minimum hourly wage as 1,013 yen in 2019, 964 yen for Osaka, 861 yen for Hokkaido, etc.

Also allowances will be paid for work during late night after 22:00, early morning, holidays according to the Labor Standard Law, so hourly wage for these hours are higher. For example, a supermarket at Saitama pays 926 yen per hour for normal working hours, and 940 yen for after 16:00, 1158 yen for after 22:00, and 990 yen for normal hours, 1040 yen after 16:00, 1240 yen after 22:00 on Sundays and holidays.

Why part-time jobs at supermarkets popular?

There are many factors making working at supermarkets attractive:

-Work nearby

Working at a supermarket nearby can save you time for commuting, which means that you get more work time. Also you may feel familiar with your workspace and co-workers because you may have go to the supermarket many times as a customer.

-Flexible shifts

Work schedules at supermarkets are designed to attract housewives and students to arbeit. A self-notify system is common at many supermarkets that part-time workers can choose working hours freely from Monday to Sundays, 10:00 to 22:00 one week or one month ago, so that workers can have priority in studying or taking care of family.

-High hourly wage at some hours

As said above, if you schedule your shift at late night, early morning or holidays, you will get a quite good pay.

-Variable work styles

Supermarkets may be one of the best arbeit choices for people with different work styles. They provide flexible working hours for housewives who can only work at noon, or students who can only work at night after study. Also they have jobs for both people who like human communication and the opposite.

How to find part-time jobs at supermarkets

Before the coronavirus breakout, we would recommend checking the posters at the store to find a part-time job at nearby supermarkets. But considering social distance should be kept to not catch or spread virus, we highly recommend you to find part-time job positions on the internet. Try official websites of chain supermarkets which usually have recruitment sectors, or job search websites like Quick Jobs Japan.

As a website specialized for foreigners, it provides most popular part-time jobs for foreigners including staff at supermarkets, convenience stores, food, light work at factories, etc. It serves at both Japanese and English and allows you to filter jobs by location, job industry and your Japanese proficiency from "I can't speak Japanese" to JLPT N1 level. New job notification is also possible if you register your mail address and save your job search conditions. You can use Quick Jobs Japan to filter job positions near your home.

During this special stay-home period, many stores also held online job interviews to reduce contact with people.

Visas for working at supermarkets

Lots of foreign workers can be seen working as salesperson in the retail business, for example convenience stores, supermarkets, electronics retailers and brand shops. For full-time employers, the available working visa is only Engineer/Specialist in humanities/International services, which has strict conditions on work contents that holder of this visa should only handle tasks requiring his or her skills, knowledge, experience such as interpretation, business management, engineering, etc, not simple labor tasks.

As a result only a few full-time foreign workers at supermarkets own a working visa, instead they own a specified visa like Permanent resident, Long-term resident, Spouse or child of Japanese national, Spouse of permanent resident which has no work limitations on holders.

For part-time foreign workers, besides the above visa holders, most of them are international students, who are allowed to work no more than 28 hours per week or 40 hours per week during holidays if a Permission to Engage in an Activity Other Than That Permitted by the Status of Residence Previously Granted obtained from the immigration office. Other working visa holders are also allowed to arbeit at supermarkets under the same work limitations with this permission obtained.