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.
(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.