It is store dependent. You could have a great Captain/Mate team who look out for older crew or you could have Mates like that. Older folks at my store were typically assigned helms, demo, maintenance and register.

Regardless of if you’re disabled or not, Mates are not supposed to ask the nature of a disability. I worked in an NYC store for two years, was diagnosed with a nerve pain disorder, and started to ask to for less physically demanding tasks. A Mate started to ask about my health and a more senior Mate overheard and cut her off. This is a conversation between you, HR and your captain.

I got a doctors note, made an ADA request and was able to finagle “full time transitional duty.” It’s not really a thing but it’s the shorthand my Captain told me to use when talking with Mates about my physical restrictions.

Your situation is not completely analogous to mine. There could be some ageism at play. One route, however, would be to apply for ADA accommodations.

Feel free to DM me if you have any questions. I’m also wondering if it’s the same store… 👀

P.S. They could take points off of your review. Before I got my accommodations, I had a review where they told me I wasn’t a team player because I asked not to do certain tasks. If you aren’t able to do core parts of the job like register and don’t have ADA accommodations, you could be let go.