How to Choose the Fastest Supermarket Queue

Ever wonder why you always end up in a slower line at the supermarket? Someone has actually done some research on it and there are a couple of things you could do to avoid waiting in the slower line. Because even though most supermarkets already have crowd control equipment like retractable stanchions and another device, sometimes the queue are just too extreme and all lines are occupied.

First of all, why is a queue waiting boring? Pau Obiol, a psychologist at ISEP Clínic Barcelona, specializing in emotional well-being and mindfulness, explains that "waiting in a queue causes us discomfort because we live based on expectations. If they are not fulfilled, such as leaving the supermarket soon to go to make food or return to work, stress and anxiety appear. This emotional state then begins to feed a stream of thoughts of the type "I'm wasting my time", "I'm not going to eat today", etc. Thus we are entering a loop that feeds more and more. In fact, many times we enter the autopilot mode, that is, we separate ourselves from the present and react to the stimuli that arise in the environment without being very aware of what we do or think. " It is a universal feeling, and therefore specialists from around the world have studied it and found formulas to choose the fastest queue. Among them, one that has to do with mathematics.

Better behind a buyer with a full car

It is the conclusion of Dan Meyer, mathematician, and director of Desmos, an online teaching center. This teacher tells in his blog that there are factors that influence the speed of the queue more than the number of products that customers carry. Among the greetings, comments about the time or health, the way to pay (in cash or by card), the speed of filling each person's bags ..., calculates that an average of 48 seconds is lost per buyer. Then, passing each item counts it in 2.8 seconds, so a large purchase of 100 products means a total of 5.4 minutes. Instead, four people with a total of 20 products each will take (having to add 48 seconds of other factors multiplied by four) a total of 6.9 minutes. Conclusion: don't panic if the one in front has bought the entire store; The queue will go faster than if it gets behind four buyers with few items in their baskets.

Choose the rows on the left

Same Ole Line Dudes is an American company that takes care of queuing for you. Its founder, Robert Samuel, came up with the idea of the business just when he lost his job and that same week the ranks went around the New York buildings waiting for the exit of the iPhone 5. The business seems to work well for him - he charges 25 dollars per hour of waiting - and recently told his experience to the New York Times giving a couple of tricks to readers: "You have to always go to the queues on the left because most people, being right-handed, always they tend to go to the tail on the right, which makes them busier. " He also recommended always choosing women cashiers: his experience has shown him that they are more agile with transactions.

Look at the age of the buyer (and the type of products he carries)

In his book Why does the other line always move faster? (Why does the other row always go faster?), David Andrews advises choosing the queues where there are a majority of men: they have less patience and, in fact, there is a possibility that they will surrender and leave the row. Another trick is to observe the type of product that buyers have in front, since if they are many products, but all the same (for example, 20 bottles of the same soda) the box will go faster. Also remember that paying in cash helps to finish earlier and that elderly clients, families, and people who are accompanied by friends tend to be more entertained when making the payment.

Try to get distracted: time will pass faster

According to figures from Professor Richard Larson, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA), considered the greatest expert in ranks, it is estimated that Americans spend the equivalent of two years of their lives queuing. Seen this way, it sounds like a nightmare. "When we are perceiving the situation in which we find ourselves totally negative, our attention is directed to the passage of time, to count the minutes and seconds of waiting. Therefore it seems that time passes more slowly