Quirks of Queuing

I went to the Rite Aid across from my office and found an impromptu bank line. Customers, rather than lining up behind individual cash regis...

I went to the Rite Aid across from my office and found an impromptu bank line. Customers, rather than lining up behind individual cash registers, had formed one single line that fed all the cash registers, as at a bank or airport ticket counter. It made me wonder about line management in stores and how much retailers think about the way their lines work. It turns out there is a science, of sorts, built around retail lines and what works in different types of settings, and some retailers do plenty of research.

8216;8216;The best way to help make those kinds of decisions is to do it from a fact-based, scientific retailing model and balance it with the art of retailing,8217;8217; said Janet Hoffman, a partner in the retail practice at the consulting firm Accenture. In other words, retailers can8217;t just understand how lines work, they have to understand how their customers think.

The pop-up single line, however, offers interesting insight into shopper behavior. The dynamic is almost always the same. It works like this: Two or three adjacent registers are open, and each has one customer being waited on. When another customer arrives to check out, he8217;ll hang back to see which line opens first. Then, another customer with merchandise will ask that shopper, 8216;8216;Are you in line?8217;8217; and queue up behind him.

Other customers follow suit. This self-imposed order can last for a while, but it8217;s fragile, and the potential for frustration is high. When a harried customer rushes up to the checkout without noticing deliberately or not the long line going down the candy aisle, it leaves those in the single line wondering what to say. Sometimes the single-file line dissolves immediately as shoppers pile up behind individual registers. Rite Aid spokeswoman Jodi Cook said the chain had seen this phenomenon happen naturally and had conducted focus groups to assess its line structures. 8216;8216;We asked the focus groups about the bank line, how they liked it, would they like it in the stores,8217;8217; she said. 8216;8216;Their perception was that it8217;s a longer line and they like the ease of identifying what line they8217;re in8230;. It was very clear.8217;8217;

There is, after all, something sweet if a little guilt-inducing about picking a fast-moving line and getting out before the shopper next to you. But Rite Aid8217;s decision is also grounded in logistics: A single line makes it harder for employees to easily assess when another register should be opened. When six people are in line? Eight people? Rite Aid8217;s policy is that a new register should be opened whenever each register has three shoppers or more in line. There is also the psychological impact of single lines. If shoppers come running in to grab one thing and see seven people standing in a single line, they may turn around and leave. This won8217;t happen if seven people are spread across three registers. Yet other retailers make the opposite decision 8212; such as Borders Books 038; Music, which uses bank lines effectively. Regular Borders customers know the lines typically move fast. 8212;LATWP