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posted by martyb on Sunday September 18 2016, @04:56PM   Printer-friendly
from the slowest-line-is-the-one-I'm-in dept.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reports on a former math teacher who claims to solved the question "Which checkout line up will be fastest?"

In a nutshell he has concluded that the number of people in the lineup is more important than the number of items a person has in their cart.

The critical factor, he says, is the average of 41 seconds that it takes a shopper to pay the cashier and engage in idle chit chat.

So a long line of people in the Express line, with two or three items each, will actual move slower than the checkout with one guy with a full shopping cart.

YMMV.


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  • (Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Sunday September 18 2016, @05:56PM

    by GungnirSniper (1671) on Sunday September 18 2016, @05:56PM (#403458) Journal

    Whichever line doesn't have the elderly woman who must write a check but can only start doing so once the total has been rung up. She can never get the checkbook out and fill out the name of the store before that moment.

    Or whichever line doesn't have the single mom with three children with obviously different fathers, because she'll both need to use food stamps and still ask for a carton of Newports.

    Or the college student stoners who each have to run back to get toilet paper or some gag item just because they're too stoned to do anything in an orderly way. And they'll still argue a price despite not being able to remember to wipe with something other than corncobs.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 18 2016, @06:04PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 18 2016, @06:04PM (#403462)

    Don't forget the woman who wants to return two shirts b/c they're the wrong size, but exchange one of them for the correct size, AND buy an additional five items, and ask random questions about their inventory during the same transaction. Obviously the big event of her afternoon.