Why Supermarket Lines Are Intentionally Getting Longer - Cheddar Explains

there are a few certainties in life death taxes and seemingly always choosing the slowest checkout line at the supermarket waiting in line sucks no one enjoys taking time out of their oh so important daily activities to stand and wait well except maybe the british who are known for always forming orderly queues it seems as if we're always waiting in line for something checking out grocery items riding a roller coaster trying a new local dessert trend and most recently a covent test in fact the average person spends one to two years of their life waiting in line but lately you might have noticed supermarket lines are getting longer however according to cueing experts that might not be a bad thing waiting in lines can be anxiety inducing some of the stuff that we know matters is um having a realistic estimate for how long it will take if we don't know how long something will be it feels longer that uncertainty causes stress and anxiety that is julie niederhoff one of the queuing experts we mentioned earlier specifically a queuing theory expert the mathematical study of waiting in lines she uses a queuing model to predict wait times the ultimate goal is to determine the best line type with the available resources for grocery stores it's usually between two types the traditional type and most commonly used today is the multiple server multi-single line phase in this line customers select one line out of multiple that end up at multiple cashiers and this is where the anxiety comes in what if you choose the slower one how do you know if the person in front of you plans to pick with a hundred coupons or the cashier runs into trouble with the computer suddenly you see the person who chose the line adjacent to you check out faster even though they arrived after you this stress can ultimately make multiple server multi-single lines feel longer so many supermarkets are making the search to multiple servers single phase also known as the serpentine line you are probably familiar with this line from the bank or airports businesses like american airlines chemical bank now known as chase and wendy's all claimed to be the first who implemented this design but there is not a definitive origin in this model a single line of customers is directed to multiple cashiers there is only one line to choose from everybody's shuffled into one line so everybody waits the same amount of time creating a sense of fairness amongst customers another place that uses the serpentine line is disney world but they take it a step further using sneaky tactics to make waiting in line a bit more bearable rides display and often exaggerate wait times this is because finite weights seem faster than uncertain weights and riders are satisfied with a line used faster than expected most lines also feature hands-on activities or animatronics to entertain and distract cures and unlike grocery stores riders really never know how close they are to the front the rides implement mazes of walls and corners so people can't see how long the serpentine line actually is which usually can be intimidating for those unfamiliar with it but just because the happiest place on earth uses it doesn't mean there aren't drawbacks to the serpentine line what we found in our research was that when we put cashiers in a parallel line environment that puts a lot of pressure on the worker and so they're going to feel that pressure so they tend to work faster when they have a sense of responsibility to the customer and a sense of feedback that their work is resulting in a change to the workload um what we found is that when we did almost the identical situation but we changed it to a single line a certain timeline the individual employee's sense of responsibility to the customer went down so what we found is that the workers um partially because of a sense of responsibility perhaps due to uh less feedback about how their effort translated to customer service um in the line stage they tended to get slower and many stores simply do not have the space to accommodate a serpentine line zigzagging through the aisles so despite some flaws in both designs which line is better it depends on what better means to you in perfect laboratory conditions a serpentine line is almost always quicker than multiple lines multiple lines allow for too many variables that slow down waiting time such as the perception of line fairness causing people to jump from line to line but what about in real life well in an episode of the discovery channel show mythbusters host adam and jamie conducted a pretty realistic experiment using both lines the multi-line setup had about a 5 minute and 39 second waiting time while the serpentine line clocked in at 6 minutes and 56 seconds but here's the kicker those waiting in the longer serpentine line enjoyed the experience more customers and the multi-line setup gave a 3.48 average rating out of five and customers in the serpentine line rated their experience higher at 3.8 out of 5. in essence a serpentine line seems shorter because it feels fair the anxiety of choice is gone according to david meister a former harvard professor this concept is scientifically true your satisfaction equals your perception minus your expectation he says if you expect a certain level of service and you perceive the service review to be higher you are satisfied it benefits both the customer and the business from the management side it's really nice because if you want to add a cashier we've all been in that experience um as customers where you're waiting in line and a new cashier opens and says oh i can take people over here well it's really chaotic right because who gets to go to the new cashier it should be the people who have been waiting the longest but they're deep into the line getting them so it's always somebody who just walked up and now all of a sudden they get to go out but in the single line system a new cashier joins they take the next customer right and if cashier wants to leave they don't have to try to no no i'm closed i'm closed you know please go somewhere else um they can just after that customer leaves they just leave um they're done after significant research whole foods executive in new york city determined the serpentine line would be the best option for its stores the multi-line system would simply not work for the expected crowds and in order to further maximize efficiency of this design whole foods uses a line manager that directs customers to an open register now stores like trader joe's stop and shops and others are beginning to follow suit but in the end it's all still a matter of perspective would you rather believe that you on a fairer line that is potentially slower or take the risk and stand in a potentially faster line with uncontrollable variables thanks for watching if you want more stories like this check out our new show who knew on cheddar's tv network it airs every wednesday at 8pm as part of our originals hour 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Channel: Cheddar

Views: 190,895

Rating: 4.8254757 out of 5

Keywords: Cheddar, cheddar explains, cheddar explores, explainer, queue, queueing, lines, waiting in line, serpentine line, cashier, automated checkout, self-checkout, checkout, supermarket, grocery store, grocery, supermarket lines, whole foods, trader joes, stop and shop, queueing theory, british queue, line design, disney line, disney, long lines, did you know, shopping, design, behavioral economics, economic, shop, stores, kroger, target, albertsons, publix, costco

Id: 185XcPI9LSg

Length: 8min 25sec (505 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 04 2021