The movie is definitely inspired by Clerks, but it's different enough that it stands on its own. The cast has a lot more employees with far differing personalities and the situations they find themselves in aren't terribly similar.
So many stories, so little time.

I don't appreciate your ruse ma'am.

Brilliant. This movie is on right now and I came her to make the same point. Don't know if I would say it's a rip off. Maybe just a loving homage. No one can deny that it's heavily inspired by clerks though.

Yeah, even though I enjoyed
Waiting
, the fact it's extremely close to
Clerks
stylistically and story-wise always really threw me off and are kind of distracting. (Hell, they even have overt surrogates for Jay and Silent Bob with Nick and T-Dogg)
And FURTHERMORE, this is my signature! SERIOUSLY! Did you think I was still talking about my point?

Both Clerks movies are way. way better.

Clerks is just a classic. It wins by a mile. But this is still a great movie and definitely original enough to not be considered a ripoff.

It is an interesting debate but Clerks wins by a nose IMO

Its a really good parallel and I think I like Waiting just a little bit more.
Sorry Brother.

The writer/director actually specifically thanks Kevin Smith in the end credits

Actually the poster is right. In many ways Clerks started a trend some 20 years ago. People that worked in menial jobs in their youth but would become film directors when they got older deciding to do a movie about that job they once had. Waiting and Adventureland come to mind. I'm sure there's more.
He's taking the knife out of the Cheese!
Do you think he wants some cheese?

What does Clerks have to with Waiting? A convienence store and a restaurant?