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posted by
martyb
on Sunday September 18 2016, @04:56PM
from the slowest-line-is-the-one-I'm-in dept.
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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Efficiencies in Supermarket Checkout Lines
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(Score: 5, Informative) by mtrycz on Sunday September 18 2016, @07:50PM
I can't believe that at 20 comments it doesn't have a comment about the simple solution to a non-problem.
A single line is the theoretical optimum, you can't get better than that no matter what. It's simple maths.
I always thought "Yeah, but that won't ever catch up, people are too grounded in their habits", until one day they did implement it at my local supermarket (Rome, Italy), and it took exactly 5 seconds to adjust. Not just me, who was laready educated on the subtelties of single-line superiority, but your local hosemaids, kids, grannies etc.
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(Score: 2) by Hyperturtle on Sunday September 18 2016, @08:07PM
A single line? That sure cuts down on the math as to which line is the quickest... I don't even think they need to do a calculation...
I thought that was how it was done in Soviet Russia? And Disney World and Apple stores? Just one long, snaking line, waiting for something good, like an iphone, a ride, or vodka.
Of course, one person fumbling with their wallet when it is finally their turn then ruins it for everyone... so I guess in that case, In Soviet Russia (or the small world ride), Supermarket line waits on YOU!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 19 2016, @12:22AM
In Soviet Disney World, they've found it's most efficient to line the customers against a wall. Of course, one person fumbling with their bullet when it is finally their turn then ruins it for everyone.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 18 2016, @08:23PM
Single line requires allocation of floor space for the collection area, or else rely on community behavior from the people waiting in line (which often breaks down when someone "doesn't see" the line and walks up right behind the customer being tended to at a checkout station).
(Score: 5, Informative) by darkfeline on Sunday September 18 2016, @09:37PM
To clarify, in case anyone else misunderstands, I believe parent is talking about one line feeding multiple cashiers, not one line and one cashier.
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(Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Monday September 19 2016, @04:24AM
My local store does a hybrid lien during peak times.
They have a line manager check which short line is almost empty, then pull people from the long line.
(Score: 2) by mtrycz on Monday September 19 2016, @08:05AM
The obvious problem is that a short line is in no way guaranteed to be faster than a longer line.
Remember that granny who had quite a problem counting her pennies, blocking everyone for 10 mins? Or when the guys card couldn't be read?
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(Score: 2) by isostatic on Monday September 19 2016, @08:23AM
Depends what the optimum is -- is it to maximise till occupancy (and thus maximise throughput), or is it to keep the maximum wait for an individual low, or is it to ensure a first-come first-served system?
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday September 19 2016, @09:06PM
The single line optimizes all those things at once. It's mathematically superior in every single way.
The only thing it's bad for is (as another poster pointed out) it likely reduces the number of impulse buys from the crap for sale in the checkout line (the place where they have gum, gift cards, drinks, Weekly World News, etc.), because customers are moving through it faster on average.
But for customers, a single line is always better: it's always first-come-first-served (you don't have to try to guess which line will be fastest, there's only one choice), your wait time will be minimized (there's no chance you'll be stuck behind some slow-ass who's paying with a check: you'll just go to the next available cashier), and it maximizes throughput (no cashiers will stand empty because customers didn't see them).
I guess there is one exception: if you're prescient like Paul Atreides, or some kind of mind-reader, or can otherwise somehow predict which line will be fastest for you, then you'll do better in a traditional checkout arrangement, but you'll do so at the expense of other customers.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Monday September 19 2016, @10:14PM
No it doesn't solve the problem, as there is a non zero time from head of queue to counter.
And impulse buys have nothing to do with it - many supermarkets have impulse buys in the single line and at the till while the basket is wrung up.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Sunday September 18 2016, @11:00PM
I was in a supermarket at the station the other day, one line feeding about 12 self service and 5 manned checkouts. Half the self-service checkouts weren't being used as people at the front of the line didn't realise they were empty, the manual ones had to wait 10-15 seconds saying "next please"
The optimal I would imagine is a typical immigration line, where you have a long line which feeds into a smaller "buffer" or 3 or 4 people at each desk, and one person at the front of the snake to keep the buffers full
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday September 19 2016, @05:33PM
While it is the correct solution, you're a tech person and therefore missing the important factor: The high-margin impulse buys at the cashier.
Making a long single line with that stuff alongside it (Fry's style) has not proven unquestionably superior to having them right by the belt ready to drop. I suspect that the fact the line moves much faster would be counter-productive.
(Score: 1) by charon on Tuesday September 20 2016, @11:38PM
The only problem with a single line setup is that people are fiddling on their phone or looking at the interstitial merchandise and don't advance when it's their turn. Also it drives me nuts when the cashiers say, "Can I help whoever is next?" instead of looking at the person who is next and saying, "Can I help you?" Nuts, I say.