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

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

Ah, but my cunning trick is to put the light/fragile stuff at the back, so they get to it last.

(I find it pretty rare that the operators pick stuff off the conveyer in a markedly different order to that in which it is presented to them.)

On a per item basis, I find the conveyors faster, and that ability to lay the stuff out in the order I want to pack it into the bags is quite useful.

They've nearly finished the Royston rebuild. The ATMs were open at last yesterday evening, in their final position. The café had opened. There was only one corner fenced off, and the windows behind the tills were uncovered. There's a little scaffolding visible from here (and a blue power cable going up one wall and over the roof!), but the last major bit to do would appear to be resurfacing the car park.

[gerald_duck]

I notice your layout strategy is markedly different from vyvyan's, below. And there's quite a lot of pressure to stack the belt quite densely if there are people behind wanting to start unloading their trolley; that can mess with sensible ordering.

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

Well, they do need to take the stuff off their end of the belt before the light sensor will let the belt move forward. I can see a certain argument for a slightly diagonal layout - the first item to be packed will be the item at the fron of the belt, on the operator's side. But on the whole, it makes little difference when the total is much longer than it is wide.

Interestingly, our bunch don't tend to start the checkout process until you've finished loading the belt, so if there's noone in front of you, they have a little rest.

(And I don't have so much that I can fill the belt before emptying the trolley.)

[vyvyan.livejournal.com]

I notice your layout strategy is markedly different from [info]vyvyan's, below.

Is it? I thought we were both describing the same thing! I try to pack items on the conveyer belt densely as well, for the reason you mention.