History Main / WhosWatchingTheStore

** The most extreme case is the Original Series episode "Catspaw," in which Kirk, Spock, Scotty, McCoy, and Sulu all beam down, leaving Lt. DeSalle in command -- a character so minor that he only appeared in three episodes and was never given a first name. (If you're wondering why Uhura was not placed in command, you are not alone. She is also a lieutenant and, unlike DeSalle, is a bridge officer.)

* On ''{{Series/Newhart}}'', there were a number of times when everybody who worked at the Stratford Inn were away from the inn, and many times when Minuteman Cafe owners Kirk or Larry, Darryl, and Darryl were away from the cafe, with no additional staff. Subverted a bit in that before Larry, Darryl, and Darryl bought they cafe Kirk had them look after the cafe on two occasions.

* ''Constantly'' on the back of the mind of any owner/operator of a 24-hour establishment. Did the next shift come in?

* In the first chapter of ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone'', Dumbledore spends the day traveling through parties on his way to Privet Drive while [=McGonagall=] spends the day sitting on the Dursleys' front yard in cat form. This canonically happens on the first of November. So the Headmaster and Deputy Headmistress are absent for an entire day in the middle of the school year. Who's running Hogwarts?
** Given that the 1st of November 1981 was a Sunday, [=McGonagall=] had no classes to teach. Most likely Dumbledore assigned a teacher to be in charge for the day, since not much happens on weekends that another teacher couldn't handle.

* TheSimpsons uses this one with the Kwik-e-Mart numerous times. It's almost always answered as well. Either it's Apu's brother, or his infant nephew (he had a gun) or James Woods or... The one time Apu hasn't thought about it, Snake [[ExaggeratedTrope steals the store]].

** Given that the 1st of November 1981 was a Sunday, [=McGonagall=] had no classes to teach. Most likely Dumbledore assigned a teacher to be in charge for the day, since not much happens on weekends.

** Given that the 1st of November 1981 was a Sunday [=McGonagall=] had no classes to teach. Most likely Dumbledore assigned a teacher to be in charge for the day, since not much happens on weekends.

** Some FridgeBrilliance might suggest Dumbledore found someone else he trusted to be in charge for a day.

*** This was after hours as the call came in as the day was ending. Instead of going home Krabbs made them deliver pizza. likely Krabbs went home closing the shop.

* ''ComingToAmerica'': [=McDowells=] hires two people in one day, obviously needing the employees. Then, during the rest of the movie, most of the known employees of the restaurant are shown to be away from work.
* Parodied in ''{{Airplane}}'' when Ted Striker leaves his cab (which he is driving) at the airport just as a new fare gets in. Ted says he'll be right back and starts the meter running, but he instead gets on a plane. At the end of the movie, hours later, the man is still in the cab with the meter still running.
* ''{{Clerks}}'': Dante and Randall close their respective stores to play hockey on the roof and go to a funeral, among other things. However, they're fully aware of this trope--in fact, the game happens on the roof in case someone turns up, and the fact that no one will be watching the store is Dante's main argument for why Randal shouldn't attend the wake (though naturally that doesn't stop him.)
** It also happens in ''{{Clerks 2}}'', when Dante and Randall leave work at Mooby's and go go-karting in the middle of the day.

* Parodied in ''{{Airplane}}'' when Ted Striker leaves his cab at the airport just as a new fare gets in. Ted says he'll be right back and starts the meter running, but he instead gets on a plane. At the end of the movie, hours later, the man is still in the cab with the meter still running.

* In the ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'' episode "Hunting Trip", most of the cast goes on said on trip, leaving only April (an intern at this point in the series) in the Parks Department. While they're gone, April is tasking with calling the State Parks Department and reading off a number so their budget will come in. However, the State Parks Department puts her on hold for hours and April has a PottyEmergency with no one to take over in case they answer. She's rescued by Andy, leading to the two of them goofing around in the office for the rest of the episode. This is the first time April and Andy had significant interaction and thus the episode is credited with starting their WillTheyOrWontThey relationship.

* In the ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'' episode "Hunting Trip", most of the cast goes on said on trip, leaving only April (an intern at this point in the series) in the Parks Department. While they're gone, April is tasking with calling the State Parks Department and reading off a number so their budget will come in. However, the State Parks Department puts her on hold for hours and April has a PottyEmergency with no one take over in case they answer. She's rescued by Andy and two of them goof around in the office for the rest of the episode. This is the first time April and Andy had significant interaction and thus the episode is credited with starting their WillTheyOrWontThey relationship.

* In the ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'' episode "Hunting Trip", most of the cast goes on said on trip, leaving only April (an intern at this point in the series) in the Parks Department. While they're gone, April is tasking with calling the State Parks Department and reading off a number so their budget will come in. However, the State Parks Department puts her on hold for hours and April has a PottyEmergency with no one take over in case they answer. She's rescued by Andy and two of them goof around in the office for the rest of the episode. This is the first time April and Andy had significant interaction and thus the episode is credited with starting their WillTheyOrWontThey relationship.

* On an episode of ''Chicago Hope'', a man who owned a dry-cleaning business was injured and treated at the title hospital. All of his employees came to visit him one day and the first thing he asked was, "Who's running the store?" It's shown over the course of the episode that the man considered his employees a second family, but after he got hurt (he was impaled through the head by a piece of metal), the injury changed his personality and now only cares about productivity and profits.

* Two seasons of ''PowerRangers'':
** At least a few Rangers worked at a music store in ''PowerRangersMysticForce'', and the rest used it as their LocalHangout. This was played relatively realistically, as the boss often got annoyed at his employees running off and eventually brought someone else on to pick up the slack, and a music store doesn't need a large staff in the first place.
** ''PowerRangersJungleFury'' had the Rangers work in a pizzeria. They didn't have a problem with the boss as he was TheMentor, but there seemed to be ''no'' background employees; he seemed to run the place by himself before hiring the Rangers and one other girl in the pilot, and once he became a Ranger himself it apparently fell on the girl to keep things running while the Rangers saved the world.
*** This trope eventually came back to bite them in the behind, however, [[spoiler:as it became impossible to keep the girl from finding out their secret after leaving her to handle the pizzeria alone so many times.]]

* On ''TrueBlood'', one of the waitresses at Merlotte's is murdered, and a replacement is not found for several episodes. They also tend to all run out into the front lot from time to time, leaving a full house of customers inside.

* The 1980's show ''{{Alice}}'' had the entire cast leaving Mel's Diner a few times during business hours with no explanation given.

* ''StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' sometimes has a problem with this. They send the entire main cast on away missions occasionally, and it seems like that's everyone of any authority on the station.
** Other StarTrek installments have also appeared to do this. It wasn't a problem on the original series because they left Scotty and some competent secondary characters behind. On ''[=NextGen=]'', it was Captain Picard left behind -- but that show has sometimes come close to this. And ''Voyager'' and ''Enterprise'' have sometimes had the entire known command staff leave the ship.

* ''{{Clerks}}'': Dante and Randall close their respective stores to play hockey on the roof and go to a funeral, among other things.