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Cool. I'll gladly be marked down for a day, then.

I'm up for it, too - is there any ongoing storylines that need to be adhered to or can we do our own thing?

When are the idiots who run these businesses going to click on to the fact that CUSTOMERS DON'T LIKE TO BE HARRASSED?

I attended a convention last year where I met an online friend from the Netherlands. We headed into town to get a bite to eat one lunchtime, and we stopped outside one curry house to look at the menu in the window. Every single member of staff in the building was suddenly staring back at us through the window, all lined up and standing to attention like a bunch of meerkats. And we hadn't even gone inside!

I wish the idiots that run my place read this forum. We try to tell the bosses all the time that customers don't like this form of service, and the fact that we have so much repeat custom shows the way we were doing things before were just fine. But none of this logic must penetrate the walls of their mansions, sadly.

But on and on it goes, to the point that I now have to be dragged in there.  That's me, complaining bitterly about going into a games shop to watch a wargame with my son.  Not the best marketing result ever.

Yup- I'm in the same boat. My two like looking at the painted figures and watching the guys playing in the shop.
But the worst one was when we went in before Christmas last year and the fucking staff started to explain to my eight year old how he could make up a wish list in the shop and his dad could buy it for him...

God, that's absolutely awful. I thought we were bad at my place, where each customer gets greeted by four members of staff one after another on a slow day, but that takes some beating.

how can you sell stuff if youre not behind the till?

It's part of their insinuation - they being the permanent members of staff - that any newbie is a lazy moron incapable of doing anything, who will stand around behind the till doing nothing if no customers are about. Pretty offensive, really.



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I don't think berating staff in front of customers and other staff is allowed anywhere in any workplace. The management could be dragged through hot coals, legally, if not then it is just bad practice. That is why the One to One system was introduced for disciplinaries.





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My thoughts, too . . .but when you're a new person at work, what can you do?

Not something actually said, but something pinned up in my wall at work: "anyone caught behind the till will be reprimanded, very loudly, on the shop floor, in front of customers." Yep. Fantastic and professional behaviour. This on top of trying to make staff pretty much harass customers and then try to sell them a bunch of rubbish that they don't really want. And they wonder why everyone prefers to do their shopping online these days . . .

I'll take a space, too, if any are still available. Looking forward to having a crack at it.

Just got the new issue today - they had a bunch of them in my local FP. No Rex Royd this month, but The Pro by Garth Ennis in its place. It's quite a good issue, in spite of the wait.

Yeah, I'm digging it. DON'T SPOIL THE ENDING! Sorry to shout. And as we're on a 'reading thread', wonder what Rimbaud would have made of it?

Thus far, it's right up there with 'Desperation' & 'The Stand' - great books.

I'll try not to.

If you like "The Stand," I'd recommend "Swan Song" by Robert McCammon, too - that's well worth a read, if you've not come across it yet.

"It" is awesome - I first read it when I was a teenager, and that and "Salem's Lot" got me into horror for life.

Just finished the new Dean Koontz book. Thankfully, it's a great return to form. Not quite up there with "Velocity," but I'm not sure he - or many other people - will be able to top that one.

I second Grover. For some reason I always feel the need to call characters that when I'm writing things, so that will make it nice and easy.

This is an awesome idea all round :-) have e-mailed across my idea.

I've read The Outfit, it's great, not as good as the book, though - mind, very little is. Not got The Hunter yet, looking forward to finding it.

Sounds like a great idea - I'd be up for writing scripts for something like that, should it ever come to fruition.