Some anecdotes about people regarding this: I paid for college by working at bars - security, bartending, cooking, eventually managing, etc. I came to the conc

Some anecdotes about people regarding this: I paid for college by working at bars - security, bartending, cooking, eventually managing, etc. I came to the conclusion that long lines were a good thing. To the point that some friends and I seriously considered "portable lines" as a business.[1] The general rational I was able to determine was this: 1. Customers don't want to go to a boring place - this means they want to go where there are people. 2. Customers have a "fear of missing out" that can be exploited - the line must mean this is the place to be! 3. People don't translate high price to "popular place" - they translate "lots of people" to "popular place", higher prices translates to "over priced, not as good as they are charging" in the long run particularly. 4. A consistently popular place attracts people in a different way than an expensive place... people are bad at putting a price on time - so waiting a bit is "worth it" but paying a bit more isn't, at least multiple times - extra cost translates to special occasion, but extra line means "good time, just plan a for a bit of a wait". I've watched places try higher pricing, and worked at places that upped prices, and it seemed to not work so well, they generally went back to cheaper pricing and made up for it in volume -- even say $.25 price increases had a serious negative effect! All of this is in context of popular bar spots where the competition was literally next door. The place with the line always won that night, despite prices being the same, including amongst regulars or frequent customers choosing the place with the line, even if they preferred a different place. There were of course always those people who would choose the anti-line strategy, but profits and sales were low compared to the nights you could get an early line going. Final observation: there was one place that I'd see people driving or walking past waiting for there to be a line before they showed up. There was no talking them into "come in now before the line, because it will happen and you won't have to wait!". [1] The model would be this: hire "portable line inc" to popularize your evening's event. They get a bunch of people to stand in a line out front of your establishment - say 50 or so. Each of the people has to go through the line a couple of times, and in exchange they get a voucher for a free drink or two. The liners also hang out and socialize for say 10 minutes before the second time through the line. If you time it right (which is generally predictable), they will be a good draw and other folks will generally get worked in as well. (there are some algorithmic efficiencies to work out too), but they will provide the "this is happening!" atmosphere before actual customers get inolved in appropriate numbers to be a self-perpetuating line.