Process merchandise returns and exchanges.

“Process merchandise returns and exchanges.” is a supplemental task performed by Cashiers. Among the occupation's 29 rated tasks, workers place it 4th by importance (#26 most important). About 73% of workers say it is relevant to their job.

This is a single occupation-specific task statement from O*NET. The figures below describe how central the task is to the job and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the task will be automated.

Work activities this task rolls up to

O*NET groups concrete tasks into broader work activities shared across many occupations.

• Execute financial transactions. in Performing Administrative Activities

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E2. Exposure with tools — software built on top of a language model (not the model alone) could cut the time by at least half.

Exposure measures whether a model could meaningfully speed the task up — it is an estimate of overlap with model capabilities, not a measure of whether the work will be done by software. The study's intermediate score (β) for this task is 0.50. Automation potential label: T3.

Other tasks in this occupation

• Receive payment by cash, check, credit cards, vouchers, or automatic debits. · importance 4.8
• Greet customers entering establishments. · importance 4.7
• Calculate total payments received during a time period, and reconcile this with total sales. · importance 4.7
• Issue receipts, refunds, credits, or change due to customers. · importance 4.7
• Count money in cash drawers at the beginning of shifts to ensure that amounts are correct and that there is adequate change. · importance 4.6
• Issue trading stamps, and redeem food stamps and coupons. · importance 4.5
• Assist customers by providing information and resolving their complaints. · importance 4.5
• Monitor checkout stations to ensure they have adequate cash available and are staffed appropriately. · importance 4.5
• Establish or identify prices of goods, services, or admission, and tabulate bills, using calculators, cash registers, or optical price scanners. · importance 4.4
• Post charges against guests' or patients' accounts. · importance 4.4
• Weigh items sold by weight to determine prices. · importance 4.4
• Compute and record totals of transactions. · importance 4.4
• Answer incoming phone calls. · importance 4.4
• Answer customers' questions, and provide information on procedures or policies. · importance 4.4

See all tasks on the Cashiers page.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-task-2417,
  title  = {Process merchandise returns and exchanges.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/tasks/task-2417}
}