Clerks (18) at George Henry Lee

Don’t Cry, Shopgirl

Films celebrating Saturday jobs, going to school and the joys of working on the front line in retail.

I wasn’t even supposed to be here.

Dante Hicks, a 22-year-old retail clerk at the Quick Stop convenience store in Leonardo, New Jersey, is called into work on his day off by his boss to cover a few hours for another employee who is sick. Arriving at the store, he finds that the locks to the security shutters are jammed closed with chewing gum, so he hangs a sheet over them with a message written in shoe polish: “I ASSURE YOU; WE’RE OPEN.”

Then things go downhill.