4 ms·

You're not factoring the perception of the multiple shorter lines vs a long line. It's can be the difference between someone glancing who might/might not want p

by taude 8y ago

You're not factoring the perception of the multiple shorter lines vs a long line. It's can be the difference between someone glancing who might/might not want popcorn and jumping in line (which ends up taking longer, but they're already committed) vs looking at a single LONG line, and deciding not to bother.

bobthepanda 8y ago
A Whole Foods near me used to have a system with a global queue, where you would sort into multiple lines (e.g. A, B, C, D) and there would be a screen saying which line's turn it was to send someone (A first, then B, then C, then D, rinse and repeat). It was pretty quick and nobody seemed to mind it much You can have your cake and eat it too, it turns out.
- setr 8y ago
  Fry’s does the same thing with the screen (used to have a human for it), with a single global queue. Same thing; never had a concern with it. But whole foods and fry’s are bigger and I end up spending a good deal of time there just shopping uaually, so queue length isn’t as concerning as when I’m in a smaller grocery, just grabbing a gallon of milk
- mynegation 8y ago
  The problem I noticed with the system like this is that cashier is idling for a bit while the next customer walks from the head of single line to the specific register. Depending on the layout this can be a significant distance. There’s no such idling in multiple lines. That is why some places started to use hybrid system. One single line until very end where someone marshals you at the end of many very short lines.
  - bobthepanda 8y ago
    I should be clear; there are actually multiple lines and multiple registers. It's just that no line corresponds to a specific register. Imagine four lines arranged next to each other, at the head of eight registers arranged similarly to a self-checkout area. There will always be four people at the head of the lines. The first person in the first line gets to go, then the first person in the second line, then the first person in the third line, then the first person in the fourth line, and then it cycles back. Because in practice it is extremely rare for four out of eight registers to simultaneously open up, the next person is always at the front of their line already, which avoids this particular travel distance problem.
- reidacdc 8y ago
  I also regularly go to a Whole Foods with this system, it initially felt like a good compromise between "one slow cashier shouldn't hang up a lot of people" and "people react negatively to long lines, even if they're fast-moving". The way this particular one works is with color codes -- there are four color-coded lanes, and when a cashier becomes available, they are announced by the system, which cycles through the colors. It has some failure modes. In the "dilute limit", if a customer approaches the lines and there's nobody else there, there's no indication of which color was last called or which is next, so they have to guess. If they guess wrong and someone else shows up and guesses right before a cashier becomes available, they might lose out. This effect goes away once the system acquires "memory", by having people in the queue who have seen the last cashier announcement. At moderate congestion, it can be hard to assess which lane is shortest, because people don't space themselves evenly, and sometimes go up in groups. People have a pretty strong sense of fair play, and I've seen people grumbling when the system breaks the expected FIFO dynamic. But, generally speaking, it works better than I thought it would when they first set it up.
  - bobthepanda 8y ago
    I should be clear and say that the Whole Foods I was at used this color scheme; I just used letters for illustrative purposes :) The Whole Foods that I live near now uses a single line heading to multiple express registers, as well as traditional checkouts. This seems to be the worst of both worlds; not only can I not tell which traditional checkout will finish first, I also can't really tell how long the single express queue is actually moving! Are registers opening up at a regular pace or are they opening in waves? It's honestly the worst.
- roryokane 8y ago
  I had an awful experience with this system the last time I went to a Whole Foods. The problem was that there was insufficient signage explaining the system, and the computer announcer was quite vague about who should go up. When a register was free, the computer spoke “next”, not “A” or “D”; if there was a screen with the letter, it wasn’t easily visible. In fact, I didn’t even notice the tiny signs labeling each line while I was standing in line. As a result, when I was at the front of line “A” and the computer called “next” after the other lines had gone, I went forward, but another customer did too. The other customer ended up cussing me out for going ahead of him – it turned out he was in a “D” line that, from my “A” line, looked like part of the “C” line. Being yelled at for not understanding the rules of a poorly explained system made for a unpleasant experience.

by taude 8y ago

bobthepanda 8y ago

A Whole Foods near me used to have a system with a global queue, where you would sort into multiple lines (e.g. A, B, C, D) and there would be a screen saying which line's turn it was to send someone (A first, then B, then C, then D, rinse and repeat). It was pretty quick and nobody seemed to mind it much You can have your cake and eat it too, it turns out.

setr 8y ago
Fry’s does the same thing with the screen (used to have a human for it), with a single global queue. Same thing; never had a concern with it. But whole foods and fry’s are bigger and I end up spending a good deal of time there just shopping uaually, so queue length isn’t as concerning as when I’m in a smaller grocery, just grabbing a gallon of milk
mynegation 8y ago
The problem I noticed with the system like this is that cashier is idling for a bit while the next customer walks from the head of single line to the specific register. Depending on the layout this can be a significant distance. There’s no such idling in multiple lines. That is why some places started to use hybrid system. One single line until very end where someone marshals you at the end of many very short lines.
- bobthepanda 8y ago
  I should be clear; there are actually multiple lines and multiple registers. It's just that no line corresponds to a specific register. Imagine four lines arranged next to each other, at the head of eight registers arranged similarly to a self-checkout area. There will always be four people at the head of the lines. The first person in the first line gets to go, then the first person in the second line, then the first person in the third line, then the first person in the fourth line, and then it cycles back. Because in practice it is extremely rare for four out of eight registers to simultaneously open up, the next person is always at the front of their line already, which avoids this particular travel distance problem.
reidacdc 8y ago
I also regularly go to a Whole Foods with this system, it initially felt like a good compromise between "one slow cashier shouldn't hang up a lot of people" and "people react negatively to long lines, even if they're fast-moving". The way this particular one works is with color codes -- there are four color-coded lanes, and when a cashier becomes available, they are announced by the system, which cycles through the colors. It has some failure modes. In the "dilute limit", if a customer approaches the lines and there's nobody else there, there's no indication of which color was last called or which is next, so they have to guess. If they guess wrong and someone else shows up and guesses right before a cashier becomes available, they might lose out. This effect goes away once the system acquires "memory", by having people in the queue who have seen the last cashier announcement. At moderate congestion, it can be hard to assess which lane is shortest, because people don't space themselves evenly, and sometimes go up in groups. People have a pretty strong sense of fair play, and I've seen people grumbling when the system breaks the expected FIFO dynamic. But, generally speaking, it works better than I thought it would when they first set it up.
- bobthepanda 8y ago
  I should be clear and say that the Whole Foods I was at used this color scheme; I just used letters for illustrative purposes :) The Whole Foods that I live near now uses a single line heading to multiple express registers, as well as traditional checkouts. This seems to be the worst of both worlds; not only can I not tell which traditional checkout will finish first, I also can't really tell how long the single express queue is actually moving! Are registers opening up at a regular pace or are they opening in waves? It's honestly the worst.
roryokane 8y ago
I had an awful experience with this system the last time I went to a Whole Foods. The problem was that there was insufficient signage explaining the system, and the computer announcer was quite vague about who should go up. When a register was free, the computer spoke “next”, not “A” or “D”; if there was a screen with the letter, it wasn’t easily visible. In fact, I didn’t even notice the tiny signs labeling each line while I was standing in line. As a result, when I was at the front of line “A” and the computer called “next” after the other lines had gone, I went forward, but another customer did too. The other customer ended up cussing me out for going ahead of him – it turned out he was in a “D” line that, from my “A” line, looked like part of the “C” line. Being yelled at for not understanding the rules of a poorly explained system made for a unpleasant experience.