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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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Do not use if foil seal is broken.
(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