Blockbusters
Many moons ago, between finishing my A-levels and heading off to uni, I was fortunate enough to get a job in Blockbusters. This wasn't any old Blockbusters but in fact one of six flagship stores based in Sainsbury's stores across the country.

Because we were based in Sainsbury's this meant that we opened at a far earlier time than most Blockbuster stores do - 8 o'clock each morning. Now most people tend to want to watch movies in the evening and indeed this was when we most busiest. Before seven in the evening we'd barely serve a soul, before midday we would rarely even see a soul. Cue many, many hours spent in the staff room eating popcorn, listening to the radio, reading the papers and keeping an eye on the security camera in case a stray customer came in.

Of course if the manager was around during the day then we would actually have to do some work (the bastard!). He, however, left after three months (maybe it was the stress of the job?) and they couldn't replace him.

After a further nine months of doing largely no work and deservedly getting a pittance for it I moved to Oxford to go to uni. I managed to transfer to the Cowley Road store. Cue three years of actually having to work (the bastards!), deal with students (could people be more unpleasant?) and spend my time trying to stop the crack addicts from stealing our ice-cream (a losing battle).
(Red Morning Light, Sat 10 Jan 2009, 14:36, 6 replies)

You should've gone for the London Rd branch
It's slightly less scummy, and that's where I go!
(The Kwyjibo A big, dumb, balding North American ape., Sat 10 Jan 2009, 17:00, closed)

why is it
crackheads always seem to want ice cream?
(Balue Free From Tetanus, Sat 10 Jan 2009, 18:08, closed)

Quick question
You said that if your boss was around, you'd "actually have to do some work".

However, if there were no customers.. what work was there to be done anyway?

It sounds like you were simply underworked due to lack of customers. Not actually skiving off.
(EuroSong I love horse meat: best of all the animals, Sat 10 Jan 2009, 21:21, closed)

Some managers hate to see their staff not being busy.
Which usually means said manager invents a pointless task to do.
( Slippery Mick ‏, Sat 10 Jan 2009, 23:27, closed)

Re: Quick Question
Ah my friend, you evidently haven't worked in the wonderful world of retail. There are plenty of tedious jobs to be done regardless of the task of serving customers, namely but not limited to:

Pricing
Stock taking
Preparing stock for the following week
Setting up store displays
and my personal favourite - Cleaning

As Gormo says there are also plenty of pointless tasks designed to make staff look busy. This sound management technique probably comes from the idea that idle hands are the devil's tools.
(Red Morning Light, Sun 11 Jan 2009, 11:57, closed)

Cleaning!
Always with the cleaning. Always.. Even when the snow got so bad that the local bus company has stopped the buses, we still had to clean the shelves..There were no customers you see..
Cleaning..
(Beer Elf Thought this was like a campfire, anyhow, on, Mon 12 Jan 2009, 11:10, closed)