Target workers say they walk as much as 20 miles a day, a sign of how physically demanding retail work has become.

• Working in retail in the age of e-commerce and curbside pickup can be surprisingly physically demanding.

• Whether employees are picking orders or restocking shelves, their daily activities add up quickly.

• Target employees say their Apple Watches and other trackers show daily step counts of 20,000 or more.

Modern retail work can be surprisingly physically demanding.

Walmart Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey said in June that warehouse workers were walking “up to 10 miles a day” and lifting thousands of pounds — work he said was increasingly being assisted by artificial intelligence-powered robots.

The industry has generally always required retail workers to spend long hours on their feet, but those costs can add up quickly, especially for workers tasked with picking online orders or restocking shelves.

In addition, with the use of activity trackers such as Apple Watches, Fitbits, and even smartphones themselves, it is becoming increasingly easier for employees to see how much effort they have exerted during their shift in a large retail store.

Target employees on Reddit posted impressive numbers, often exceeding 10 million, which caught the attention of Walmart’s CFO.

The typical Target is about 125,000 square feet, or a little larger than two football fields. And of course, as track and field athletes can attest, each lap around the field is about a quarter mile.

It’s not uncommon for users to share screenshots of their daily step count reaching 20,000, with some claiming to have topped 40,000 during peak periods like holidays or Target Circle Week.

“This week I broke my personal record and walked 40,000 steps in one day — I love Circle Week!” one user on the Target employee subreddit wrote in July.

For an average-sized person, 20,000–40,000 steps equates to walking 10–20 miles or 40–80 laps on a typical treadmill.

“My highest score was 24,790 in a 4 hour shift,” said another commenter. “I literally don’t know how I did it, but the fulfillment made me lose a TON of weight.”

By comparison, a Tennessee mail carrier working for the United States Postal Service told CNBC in 2021 that he typically traveled 14 miles in a day.

Specialist shoemaker Clove identified nine other jobs that involve a lot of steps. Healthcare workers topped the list, saying some hospital workers could walk 60,000 steps, or 30 miles, during a 12-hour shift.

Of course, this does not happen simultaneously, and data from personal devices does not distinguish between steps taken during the day and outside of it.

A Target spokesperson told Business Insider that while the company estimates time and distance when assigning tasks, it does not track individual workers’ movements throughout the day.

Additionally, like many employers, Target has mandatory mid-shift breaks during which employees can sit down, eat something and drink water.

And while the distance may seem tiring, one employee told Business Insider that fulfilling online orders is “a more active type of walking compared to stocking,” adding that “for some people (myself included), it may actually be more comfortable.”

One Reddit user asked for shoe recommendations, saying, “My Converse aren’t comfortable enough for the 20k+ steps I take in a shift.” Several commenters suggested shoes from Hoka and New Balance, while a few endorsed $10 running shoes from Walmart.

It’s unclear where those numbers are headed, given that fitness trackers have only recently become mainstream, but online and app sales data suggests they could be growing. Target said it fulfills 95% of its digital orders from its stores, rather than fulfillment centers like Amazon.

After all, if more and more people use apps and sit in their cars, someone has to run around the store on their behalf and deliver the order to the parking lot.

Read the original article on Business Insider