Customer service jobs in supermarkets feel like a rite of passage in the UK. They offer an instructive and character-shaping congregation of work-placed nightmares. Whether it's the repeat shoplifters with odd nicknames, chancers who believe the warehouse should have every out-of-stock item available within seconds, or just the complainers unhappy that you've had the audacity to run out of ready-peeled quail eggs (that actually happened) we all have retail horror stories that linger in the mind long after other, more obviously important events, have faded. No wonder then, that upon finding the game One Minute to Close at WASD 2024, memories of working at a Waitrose in my student days immediately came flooding back.

SleepySwan Studios has chosen to explore the particular retail pain of customers who choose to show up right before closing. It's a common cruelty no matter which slice of the industry you work in. When you've had a long day stacking shelves or manning checkouts and the end is finally in sight, you just want to go home. "I only need a couple of things," you hear these people say while they wander aimlessly and delay your escape. The horror. Well, consider this payback, I guess. One Minute to Close doesn't just put you in the shoes of that dreaded late-night customer, it adds an inventive twist by turning the whole experience into a sandbox stealth mission.

Seriously. The game tasks you with finding six random items, giving you one real-time minute to search the store for everything you need. Grab a trolley and begin your late-night shopping: for those sixty seconds you can explore with total freedom. But when that time's up, the lights go out. You must then sneak towards the self-checkout after finding all six items, pay, and leave the building safely. It's easier said than done when your trolley's squeaking wheels clearly need some oil, and when the security guards roaming the aisles with flashlights are on high alert.

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