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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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Everything you know is wrong!
(Score: 1) by Francis on Monday September 19 2016, @01:37AM
Nothing is perfect. The point here is that there are several factors to consider, the number of people in the line, the size of the carts and the likely behavior of the people in the line. If you see an attractive checker and a lot of men, that might not be the line to get in, but if they're all men, then it's probably not a problem. Whereas a short line of housewives might well be a much longer line than a longer line of single men.
The point isn't that you're going to be right every time, the point is that if you can identify some basic principles you can get in the faster line often enough that you save time over all. Which is really good for everybody. But, I suspect that if there's a checker that's really slower than typical that they probably aren't going to be up front for very long as they'd be annoying enough customers to be an issue.