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, 2 replies)

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)