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> Some of these problems seems like the cause is because its hard to complain in person. I was recently in an airport in Japan looking to use the meal voucher

> Some of these problems seems like the cause is because its hard to complain in person. I was recently in an airport in Japan looking to use the meal voucher I'd been given due to a delayed flight. What was available locally was a coffee shop with a very long line (well, not a long line, maybe ten feet, but keep reading), which operated like this: - The person at the head of the line would advance and speak to the cashier, who would take their coffee order. - The cashier would then leave the cash register and busy herself making the order. - There were two other people on staff, who stayed away from the register. I'm not sure what they were supposed to be doing. They didn't take or prepare orders. As you might imagine, this made for a very slow-moving line. I wanted to use my voucher to buy some sodas from a refrigerated display in front of the counter. I had no trouble picking the sodas up myself and learning that the shop accepted meal vouchers. The voucher was exact change for the four sodas I was holding, so I hoped that that would be the end of things. Instead, on learning that I wanted to use the voucher I was asking about, to pay for the sodas I was already holding, the cashier asked me to please line up with everybody else. Since that would have taken at least 40 minutes, I went to see whether a separate wing of the airport might have something. That didn't work out, but I did run into my family (taking a separate flight), and after some socializing I went back to try and get sodas for everybody, since the competing store we'd found didn't take meal vouchers. This time, after several minutes standing in line, I realized that there was no possibility of reaching the head of the line before I had to board my flight. So I hailed one of the idle behind-the-counter staff, specifically avoiding the cashier, and asked about my meal voucher. They were still happy to take it. When I tried to make the purchase, the cashier butted in and asked me to please line up behind everybody else. And I shouted in frustration, "That takes so long!" At which point, they took my voucher and let me walk off with the sodas. The voucher was still exact change. I'm not sure what the solution was supposed to be. I find it hard to believe that you're supposed to handle deeply dysfunctional shop staff by yelling at them. But I have to note that this 'solution' saved me a huge chunk of time - and made it possible for me to make a purchase, and the shop to make a sale, that otherwise couldn't have happened at all - while not costing anyone else anything, except perhaps for wounding the cashier's heartfelt sense of propriety. One lesson seems to be that in some cases, complying with the rules serves no purpose other than to enable actively harmful rules to remain in place.

renewiltord 2y ago
That’s hilarious but entirely in line with my experience that most of these places are inefficiently run. The ones that become huge are just run decently and get all this stuff done. The staff are trained on what to prioritize and they have post its reminding how to work. When doing work, many of us need simple flowcharts and a good operator knows how to make his staff into automatons in places like this.
imp0cat 2y ago
I bet that " in Japan " (not the slashdot meme!) played a big part in this. They really take their queues and queue order (FIFO) seriously.
bell-cot 2y ago
Might that situation (very long wait for service, seemingly-idle employees) be partly explained (or at least rationalized) as a sort of social ritual, to make the establishment seem high-class, or the patrons wealthy leisure-seekers? I've seen similar situations in a number of American coffee shops and fancy sandwich shops. Workers can easily outnumber the waiting customers. The spare ones usually appear busy - with tasks that don't seem to related to getting anyone's order filled. Actually filling an order seems to be an intentionally-inefficient ritual performance. The (presumed) regulars don't seem to care.
- thaumasiotes 2y ago
  > Might that situation (very long wait for service, seemingly-idle employees) be partly explained (or at least rationalized) as a sort of social ritual, to make the establishment seem high-class, or the patrons wealthy leisure-seekers? Well, it's a kiosk with no seating inside an airport. Presumably, there are no regulars either.
nox101 2y ago
they let you do it to get rid of the asshole foreigner who doesn't know the local customs. waiting your turn, period, is part of Japanese culture. I get it can be frustrating. especially if your from the USA where increasingly no one waits their turn. Every day I see cars driving down the center lane to pass a few cars and then cutting back in.

renewiltord 2y ago

That’s hilarious but entirely in line with my experience that most of these places are inefficiently run. The ones that become huge are just run decently and get all this stuff done. The staff are trained on what to prioritize and they have post its reminding how to work. When doing work, many of us need simple flowcharts and a good operator knows how to make his staff into automatons in places like this.

imp0cat 2y ago

I bet that " in Japan " (not the slashdot meme!) played a big part in this. They really take their queues and queue order (FIFO) seriously.

bell-cot 2y ago

Might that situation (very long wait for service, seemingly-idle employees) be partly explained (or at least rationalized) as a sort of social ritual, to make the establishment seem high-class, or the patrons wealthy leisure-seekers? I've seen similar situations in a number of American coffee shops and fancy sandwich shops. Workers can easily outnumber the waiting customers. The spare ones usually appear busy - with tasks that don't seem to related to getting anyone's order filled. Actually filling an order seems to be an intentionally-inefficient ritual performance. The (presumed) regulars don't seem to care.

thaumasiotes 2y ago
> Might that situation (very long wait for service, seemingly-idle employees) be partly explained (or at least rationalized) as a sort of social ritual, to make the establishment seem high-class, or the patrons wealthy leisure-seekers? Well, it's a kiosk with no seating inside an airport. Presumably, there are no regulars either.

nox101 2y ago

they let you do it to get rid of the asshole foreigner who doesn't know the local customs. waiting your turn, period, is part of Japanese culture. I get it can be frustrating. especially if your from the USA where increasingly no one waits their turn. Every day I see cars driving down the center lane to pass a few cars and then cutting back in.