An orderly queue of one

[ewx]

I often go home from work via Sainsbury's to get some shopping. I've noticed the following things about the queues.

There are a dozen or so traditional tills, with one operator and a conveyor belt. Not all are always in use, but they generally have about equal queue lengths, usually between 2 and 5 depending how busy the place is.

There is also, at one end, a cluster of about half a dozen smaller tills, with just a shelf for your basket, and a single queue for the whole cluster. It's rare that all the tills are manned but I don't think I've ever seen them with less than three in use, usually more.

The cluster queue is usually the same length, to within one or two, of the main queues, despite the fact that it drains three to six times as fast. (No prizes for guessing which queue I choose to join.)

(A trolley would would be a bit awkward for the clustered tills but (nearly?) all the shoppers in this supermarket use baskets.)

Comments

[armb.livejournal.com]

That was me, sorry.

[gerald_duck]

That's Newmarket, not Newmarket Road, right? The self-service tills in the Newmarket Road branch are splendid and reliable.

I buy DVDs online, and am teetotal, so I confess I'd not spotted either of the other problems you mention.

[aardvark179.livejournal.com]

I beg to differ. The Newmarket Rd. ones will frequently fail to notice you've put the scanned item in the bag/on the conveyor and won't do anything more untill you do.

They also require authorisation for things like magazines, which I think is actually a positive thing because it makes me more likely to buy them somewhere else. :-)

[(Anonymous)]

> That's Newmarket, not Newmarket Road, right?

Yes. (Newmarket Road, Cambridge is sometimes more convenient for odd things as I cycle past on my way to the P&R car park, but Newmarket is more convenient if I'm going from home at the weekend, or if I'm getting more stuff than will fit easily in bicycle panniers (with "buying a tankload of petrol" being both a special case of much easier to put into the car and something not sold at the Newmarket Road store).)

[armb.livejournal.com]

That was me too - I could have sworn I'd ticked the "remember me" box...