3 ms·

Queueing culture is hilarious. Indians > Italians (ok, Italians are probably more entertaining), brits (I imagined them trying to bring queueing to indians and

by throw7 8mo ago

Queueing culture is hilarious. Indians > Italians (ok, Italians are probably more entertaining), brits (I imagined them trying to bring queueing to indians and gave up... although india does have a semi-line culture in limited ways nowadays). As an american, grocery checkout queueing always angered me.

jazzpush2 8mo ago
Queuing culture is just baseline respect from my POV. Same with not littering, respecting shared (public) resources, etc. Actually quite unbelievable to see it considered hilarious.
- jchanimal 8mo ago
  Certain workflows prefer non-queueing, for instance the throng empowers the bartender to load balance different groups, delay drinks to over consumers, etc etc. So other cultures can have those workflows in places we might not expect, that is not necessarily a matter of respect. In pub culture, queueing disrespects the bartender.
  - jazzpush2 8mo ago
    You're conflating efficiency norms with respect norms. Never mind that the core reason for no queues in bars is space efficiency and historical norms, allowing the bartender to select regulars, better paying customers, etc. without being stressed for time. But in any case, your edge-cas applies when someone exists to manage the queue. That's not the case for e.g. elevators, self-checkout lanes, DMV lines, or, I'd argue, that vast majority of queues encountered regularly.
  - ajb 8mo ago
    It depends. Many places in the UK have a tradition of "virtual queuing" at bars; they don't stand in a line because that would usually block the space, but everyone remembers who was before them. Usually the barkeep remembers as well, but sometimes they ask "who's next" and people defer to those ahead. But load balancing also happens.
    - deleted 8mo ago
      [deleted]
- profsummergig 8mo ago
  > Queuing... not littering, respecting shared (public) resources Well, Indians are the pits in all 3, so your definition computes. Source: am Indian.
pmarreck 8mo ago
I hear the Chinese don't even have a word for it >..<
bsder 8mo ago
> As an american, grocery checkout queueing always angered me. It should, because practically everywhere in the US does it wrong. There should be a single entry queue that distributes to the multiple handlers. Instead, you wind up with multiple queues so that people get hung up behind someone causing slow handling. The one that infuriates me are bank queues. Look, folks, both queuing theory and experience show that you CANNOT have a single handler without your queue time going to infinity. So, how many active tellers do I always see on the unusual times I have to go into the bank? Exactly one. Always. And a queue that's backed up 6 deep.
- phainopepla2 8mo ago
  > It should, because practically everywhere in the US does it wrong Where do they do it differently? I've been in grocery stores across Western Europe, Asia and Latin America, and the only place I recall seeing the single entry queue was at a Trader Joe's in NYC
  - tasty_freeze 8mo ago
    The Barnes & Noble Bookstore (at least the two or three I have been to in the past 10 years) has a single queue. Fry's Electronics did it that way. The self-pay corral at HEB (a huge Texas grocery chain) with about 14 check-out stations does it that way. The Academy Sporting Goods store near me does it that way. The Austin Bergstrom Airport security gates are that way. I agree that many places have a queue for each registers, but the other way isn't entirely rare.
  - deaux 8mo ago
    Large grocery stores actually seem to do this the least, but many types of stores default to this in much of the world. Clothing stores, book stores, stationary stores. Many larger convenience stores do and those are close to being small grocery stores.
- toast0 8mo ago
  > There should be a single entry queue that distributes to the multiple handlers. Sure, that's more fair. But it also means everyone has to walk over to the queue entry. And often requires dedicated floorspace. If there's not good queuing discipline, it leads to larger gaps between customers at the registers and poor throughput. If there's a queue minder (which there probably should be in order to distribute people into subqueues), that person can steer customers to benefit their favorite register people: this was common at Fry's; register operators got a commission, so and some queue mindets would collude steer expensive carts to preferred registers. Multiple independent queues works fairly well and avoids extensive coordination. Even if people don't like it.

by throw7 8mo ago

jazzpush2 8mo ago

Queuing culture is just baseline respect from my POV. Same with not littering, respecting shared (public) resources, etc. Actually quite unbelievable to see it considered hilarious.

jchanimal 8mo ago
Certain workflows prefer non-queueing, for instance the throng empowers the bartender to load balance different groups, delay drinks to over consumers, etc etc. So other cultures can have those workflows in places we might not expect, that is not necessarily a matter of respect. In pub culture, queueing disrespects the bartender.
- jazzpush2 8mo ago
  You're conflating efficiency norms with respect norms. Never mind that the core reason for no queues in bars is space efficiency and historical norms, allowing the bartender to select regulars, better paying customers, etc. without being stressed for time. But in any case, your edge-cas applies when someone exists to manage the queue. That's not the case for e.g. elevators, self-checkout lanes, DMV lines, or, I'd argue, that vast majority of queues encountered regularly.
- ajb 8mo ago
  It depends. Many places in the UK have a tradition of "virtual queuing" at bars; they don't stand in a line because that would usually block the space, but everyone remembers who was before them. Usually the barkeep remembers as well, but sometimes they ask "who's next" and people defer to those ahead. But load balancing also happens.
  - deleted 8mo ago
    [deleted]
profsummergig 8mo ago
> Queuing... not littering, respecting shared (public) resources Well, Indians are the pits in all 3, so your definition computes. Source: am Indian.

pmarreck 8mo ago

I hear the Chinese don't even have a word for it >..<

bsder 8mo ago

> As an american, grocery checkout queueing always angered me. It should, because practically everywhere in the US does it wrong. There should be a single entry queue that distributes to the multiple handlers. Instead, you wind up with multiple queues so that people get hung up behind someone causing slow handling. The one that infuriates me are bank queues. Look, folks, both queuing theory and experience show that you CANNOT have a single handler without your queue time going to infinity. So, how many active tellers do I always see on the unusual times I have to go into the bank? Exactly one. Always. And a queue that's backed up 6 deep.

phainopepla2 8mo ago
> It should, because practically everywhere in the US does it wrong Where do they do it differently? I've been in grocery stores across Western Europe, Asia and Latin America, and the only place I recall seeing the single entry queue was at a Trader Joe's in NYC
- tasty_freeze 8mo ago
  The Barnes & Noble Bookstore (at least the two or three I have been to in the past 10 years) has a single queue. Fry's Electronics did it that way. The self-pay corral at HEB (a huge Texas grocery chain) with about 14 check-out stations does it that way. The Academy Sporting Goods store near me does it that way. The Austin Bergstrom Airport security gates are that way. I agree that many places have a queue for each registers, but the other way isn't entirely rare.
- deaux 8mo ago
  Large grocery stores actually seem to do this the least, but many types of stores default to this in much of the world. Clothing stores, book stores, stationary stores. Many larger convenience stores do and those are close to being small grocery stores.
toast0 8mo ago
> There should be a single entry queue that distributes to the multiple handlers. Sure, that's more fair. But it also means everyone has to walk over to the queue entry. And often requires dedicated floorspace. If there's not good queuing discipline, it leads to larger gaps between customers at the registers and poor throughput. If there's a queue minder (which there probably should be in order to distribute people into subqueues), that person can steer customers to benefit their favorite register people: this was common at Fry's; register operators got a commission, so and some queue mindets would collude steer expensive carts to preferred registers. Multiple independent queues works fairly well and avoids extensive coordination. Even if people don't like it.