{"id":246,"date":"2007-06-30T13:44:01","date_gmt":"2007-06-30T20:44:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=246"},"modified":"2007-07-04T17:07:40","modified_gmt":"2007-07-05T00:07:40","slug":"long-lines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=246","title":{"rendered":"Queuing Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s an interesting article<\/a>\u00a0about\u00a0supermarkets adopting\u00a0“single line” policies.\u00a0 The idea is that customers, rather than lining up at individual cash registers, get in one long line instead; when customers reach the head of the line they go straight to whichever cash register is empty.<\/p>\n

Been there, done that.\u00a0 In the early 1980s the wife of General Gabriel, then-USAF chief of staff, imposed the single-line policy on\u00a0USAF commissary stores.\u00a0 Our hatred of the single line was instant and instinctive: it was communistic, it was imposed from above, it rubbed our noses in the unegalitarian fact that generals’ wives (and, presumably, generals’\u00a0children and poodles too) could make us jump through hoops whenever they wanted.<\/p>\n

But you know what?\u00a0 It worked.\u00a0 Gone were the days of trolling the aisles, trying to find the shortest cash register line, only to find yourself stuck behind someone paying with a combination of food stamps, coupons, unrolled pennies, and\u00a0third-party checks.<\/p>\n

Nope, everybody gets in one\u00a0giant snaky line, just like the one at the airport security check, and when you get to the front, you go straight to your own cashier.\u00a0 USAF commissary shoppers have been doing it for almost 30 years.\u00a0 It really is quicker; they’ve clocked it.<\/p>\n

And I still resent it.\u00a0 I’d rather take my chances.\u00a0 I’d rather have the freedom to choose the slowest line.\u00a0 Wouldn’t you?<\/p>\n

Credit where credit’s due:<\/em> spotted at Unfogged<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s an interesting article\u00a0about\u00a0supermarkets adopting\u00a0“single line” policies.\u00a0 The idea is that customers, rather than lining up at individual cash registers, get in one long line instead; when customers reach the head of the line they go straight to whichever cash register is empty. Been there, done that.\u00a0 In the early 1980s the wife of General […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,18,7,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-brother","category-consumerism","category-culture","category-military"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}