The Little World

A. Never.

Hobbies can occupy 25 hours per day and enthusiasts need things ASAP. This means selling paint at 3:00AM. Use cheap staff and chain them to the till.

b. At the end of the day.

5:00 is the accepted end of the day unless you want to go to 6:00 in case there might be a late kit buyer. The awkward thing for the staff is the people who have day jobs in industries that pay them enough to shop at the hobby shop get off work at 3:30 and can then come round and lurk in the aisles or over the counter for almost any given period of time.

The use of a retail stiletto on them at closing time is tempting, but hard to justify in front of a magistrate…unless the magistrate works retail.

c. When everything is sold out.

This is impossible unless the virus lockdown keeps every container of kit and paints away from the state. Then people will be forced to buy up all the stuff they’ve been avoiding for years and the staff can go home laughing and doing high fives.

d. When the shop goes broke.

Depressing, but possible, as Stanbridges showed us. You can screw up the premier retail hobby outlet – one that survived for 50 years – if you try hard enough. Bloody hell.