Allan38103

Look at it this way. You didn't lose your place in your line, (unless someone jumped ahead of you, then you might have a legitimate issue). You're exactly where you were before the second line opened. You come across as upset by the fact that someone else moved to a second line and you weren't fast enough or resourceful enough to take advantage. Take a breath and move on with your life.

seadog83

Found this thread after googling line jumping etiquette. Perhaps I, too, think of things too much.

Situation was I was in line, 1 guy ahead of me, several behind me. He goes up to the register, then immediately his gf (I presume) jumps over from a separate line where she was 2 still ppl back. They then proceeded to get rung in separately.

In this situation, I could accept if it was one transaction (although, during the line selection phase, I'll select lines based on both the # of people, and quantity of things) but I've also been known to ask someone with me to go grab something extra at last minute then return before with hit the till. I feel I could let 1 transaction slide, but not two. What are people's thoughts on that?

The one line method is the optimum, and even noticed some stores like walmart setting up for that at normal tills. 1 giant alley of candies and magazines, then a number gets called and off you go to a specific station, which is more compact. The frustration is with the new self checkouts. 16 kiosks, and some morons trying to set up 16 lines. Or somehow completely missing the existing line. In areas where queue jumping is more accepted, people behind you will get upset and push you ahead if you leave any gap. Apparently by not "protecting" your space, you're not only doing a disservice to yourself, but everyone behind you, since they're operating on the assumption that that space is now fair game.

If a new line opens, I concur that no line exists *until* the clerk says "next in line". At that point, #1 in existing line has priority, but can defer to #2 if the person at the till is finishing up, and moving lines is a bigger hassle than waiting 5 seconds. However, after next in line gets called, and the primary position gets established, it's a free for all IMO. There is a degree of unpredictability as well. A 10 person line could be done faster than a single person if they have ah hyper complicated order, then after 40 things get rung through need to go to their car for the cards which they forgot, and then again for a cheque since their card got declined.

The shining light is however that once that new till opens, every single person in the existing queue is better off. So it/s a more of difficult argument to say "Yes I'm better off, but I should have been more better off"

gaobest

It’s ymmv. I agree that one single line which leads to a group of cashiers / atm / etc is best. Not every business agrees. Recently at Sf Costco food court, the punters made a single queue for 2 pickup stations. A staffer appeared and directed us to form 2 lines. I was thankfully near the front when this happened so I just got behind one pickup station. After I fetched my order, I noticed that the staffer was gone and there was again a single line of punters.

I think I switched to SCO because of multiple lines at shops. Most SCO are single lines to a station of 2-8 sco POS. I’ll never miss standing in line for a cashier behind a complicated transaction. Ditto for tsa (most usa tsa pre are one line leading to one security stand) - the older days of choosing the security station was never fun.

Of course, I understand and empathize when a couple splits off into separate lines in order to increase their chance of faster service. When one member exits their line to join the partner, the line becomes one person shorter.

and boy would I love a single line system for entering Disneyland!!!!!

ft101

You got that right.

OskiBear

One of the nice things that happened at my supermarket (and many others I visited) during the pandemic was they switched to the single-line set-up. That was pretty nice while it lasted.

How about the opposite of the new line opening up? On my first visit to China in 2002, I was at PVG in line to exchange some money back into USD. There were two windows and two lines. Abruptly, one window decides to close with no warning and those of us in line were expected to fend for ourselves, which meant politely getting into the back of the other line. Some folks decided to forcibly get into the other line in the middle. It was a bit of a mess and something I had never seen in my life.

pinniped

I'm not a big Whole Foods guy, but I've been to the one in Union Square a couple times. At busy times when I've been there, they've had a "queue attendant" helping ensure things run smoothly, including reassuring people that "it's only 4-5 minutes from here" (a point in the queue that appeared to be a long way from ever checking out).

Sure enough, the queue moved fast and you really were out of there in about 5 minutes.

(This was well pre-Bezos. No idea what it's like now.)