Yawn... Military commissairies have been doing this for years.

I got to experience this in person last weekend. It's absolutely wonderful. There are 3 queues, and they flash your queue and then tell you what number to go to, which flashes for a second. They had about 10 cashiers going at once, and everyone moved very quickly through the line. I don't know how well this would work on a "full scale" shopping trip since the registers were more like counters than the traditional conveyor belt setup. Most everyone there was just picking up a couple of things, so it worked out quite well.

OMG! WANT.

@rbb: Too bad you had to be in the army to take advantage. Although I'd rather enlist than live in Manhattan.

@rbb:

You beat me to it! I like the commissary-style lines much better than the Safeway/Kroger style.

Ours even has a big display that flashes the number of the next open checkout and shouts "NEXT PLEASE!" so you don't even have to decide where to go. Just look at the board.

I just can't believe more stores haven't caught onto this yet.

Good plan, but not a new idea - many of the grocery chains in the UK have been doing this for years, especially in the smaller local shops they have in urban areas. It works very well when space for lines is at a premium. Whole Foods just opened their first store in London (Kensington High Street), and it's quite possible they got the idea from the market research they were doing there.

they have this at Fry's electronics and Best Buy for years with mixed success.
it might be fine in theory. But during high volume days like the holidays...the lines wrap literally around the store several times over and the checkout times are several hours.

Now if they have express lines with it, I'd be more for it.

@dburba: I'd rather live in Manhattan than enlist.

That is the one good thing about Whole Foods. During my lunch hour, I can be in and out of the store in less than 10 minutes even with 37 other people in line ahead of me.

This is something I wish movie theater concession stands would do.

@VA_White: You and RBB are correct, don't know why we can't do this in the 'real world'
Those lines seemed like a PITA at first, but once you were used to them, they were actually much quicker than playing cashier roulette down at the Publix :)

Considering how pricey Whole (Paycheck) Foods is in general, I'm glad to hear they are making this change. Cool.

Fry's has been doing this since always. A line can be wrapped around the whole bloody store, and you're still through it in about 10 or 20 minutes.

@rbb:

Yeah, that's what I was gonna say. The bases have been doing that for as long as I can remember.

I like this idea. Under the conventional system, I invariably end up in the slowest line. I try to size up each line (Do the customers have lots of groceries? Does the cashier look really slow?). I've even gone to Register 13, in hopes that the superstitious customers will avoid that one. But I always end up in the slowest damn line.

    Most folks can't afford to buy their big weekly groceries at Whole Foods, unless they're single and/or very well off. Great stuff there, but but using that place to buy staples like butter and milk would put me in debt.

    If Walmart were to do this, you'd have all 20 lines jammed with folks arguing about what food-stamps can be used for. I tend to either find an empty self-service line, or look for a line of folks with small loads.

@spiderjerusalem: was just going to also post Fry's has been doing the exact same thing for ages.

Whole Foods has been doing this for ages, as well. At least the one I shop at, the Columbus Circle store, has done it this way since it 2003 when it opened. I've never been to other Whole Foods so I had no idea this wasn't standard across the board. As other commenters have noted, it ought to be. The line does move incredibly quickly.

I don't know what store DeeJayQueue is describing -- maybe the new Union Square Whole Foods? -- but the one in Columbus Circle just has an express "10-items-or-less" line and a line for larger baskets/carts. They both move at a good clip.

Here's a related, lesser-known trick in the Columbus Circle Whole Foods: if you have only three or four items that don't need to be weighed, you can just check out at the sushi bar or the coffee bar, skipping the registers entirely.

*"since 2003," not "since it 2003"

Borders bookstore also does this...

I can't stand being stuck behind women who write checks. It's incredibly inconsiderate to write a check at a place like a grocery store where lines have formed and people have better places to be than waiting for a woman to write a check for ten freakin dollars.

GET A DEBIT CARD. OR, GOD FORBID, USE CASH.

The Fry's by my house does not do single line. It stinks. I hate going there.

And, for whomever asked, the military commissary also does a separate express lane. It works out much better. I got through the grocery line today in less than 10 minutes, the place was packed, and they had all 20 checkouts open. Coolness.

Best Buy does this for the holidays. I don't know why they don't do it other times. It seems to work best when there is a lot of people wanting to check pout (high traffic lunch times). But wandering through the ropes are a pain when there is no line.

Jo-Ann crafts does it too in their new store. They got mad at me when I tried to bypass the queue thing, even when the cashier was empty. Plus it's a good chance to sell extra stuff as you wander by it.

@lorddave: Are men very efficient check-writers where you shop, or do you just like to harp on women whenever possible?

@lorddave:

Yeah, lorddave, that's pretty sexist.

Honestly, I can't recall seeing a man write a check in a store in YEARS.

The Whole Foods flagship in Austin has had this system going at one of their checkout stations for as long as I can remember. It really does make things move quicker.

I'm with crisgoh - you almost never see men writing checks.

I suspect this has something to do with the fact that men don't have purses to keep their checkbooks with them all the time and thus get in the habit of using cash or cards.

@chrisgoh:
@TWinter:

Maybe it's because in many households, women do the grocery shopping.

@acambras: That's certainly part of it. There's also an age factor, young women don't write checks in stores either. It's mostly women over 50.

When I lived in England for a year, I found people queued like this automatically whenever the opportunity presented. I've heard various theories explaining it-that it's a vestige of wartime and Austerity rationing or just the inbred British love of good order. But what really needs explaining is why people ever line up in the traditional, American arbitrary manner.

I'll take a check writer any day over a shopper with 150 coupons, a wad of rumpled cash, and a pouch of pennies. These are the idiots who will argue for twenty minutes over 30-cents off corndogs. Makes me wish I had a taser in my purse.

the system there works GREAT even when there are 50 people in line you never have to wait that long...now only if trader joes down the street could get it right....

Thank god. I always wonder, when I'm in "the slow line" why places don't just adopt this single-line idea and help us all avoid serious frustration that other people get lucky and walk into a short line, while I'm stuck behind the blue-hair writing out her check. Kudos to Whole Foods and Best Buy (who also use this system) for their forward thinking, and actually taking care of the customer's frustrations. Hopefully other stores will catch on to this simple change and make all of our lives easier.

Oh yeah. I just remembered, in Ireland, they have this chain called Argos, and its like...you get an Argos catalogue like it was a phonebook for your house, and you go into the store, and fill out a card with the serial numbers you want, then wait in line and pay for it, then they give you a number and get your order together. It was kind of weird the first time I went in, but it really streamlined stuff, and cut down on impulse buying.

Urban Fare, in Vancouver BC, has this system as well.

@ThePlaz:

on the rare times that i go into best buy, i feel like they do everything in their power to keep their register lines painfully slow, increasing the odds that a customer will get distracted and wander around the store some more, adding a few more items on the way back to the register.

(back to grocery stores)
as someone who once got stuck behind a woman arguing with a cashier for (what felt like) ten minutes that she shouldn't have to pay for that bottle of salad dressing because it's labelled "Kraft FREE", oh man i hope more stores adopt this method.

I dunno why the New York Times makes this sound like a new concept, especially since Whole Foods in Columbus Circle (NYC) has been doing this since it opened a few years ago!

Now only if my local Pathmark would follow suit... then I wouldn't have to make fun of their slogans they've recently posted throughout the stores. "Path to Long Lines!"

Several years ago (i.e., I can't find it in Google ATM), I read an article that compared the traditional "multi-line", every person for themselves system, versus the "bank- style." They found that while it was overall faster to do the multi-line system, the advantage of the bank system was the _perception_ that it was faster, and, obviously, the reduced frustration of watching one line zip along while you're standing behind somebody fumbling with their checkbook.

As for NYC Whole Foods, like Johnny says above, Whole Foods has been using the "bank-style" since they came to NYC. The Whole Foods on the West Side, 24th or 25th St. does and it has been there for at least 5 years. IIRC, the Union Square location does as well. I'd be shocked if the new one on Houston does not.

Trader Joes, on 14th, uses the bank-style system as well. There, the lines are just stupid. The store is so small and it's so popular, that it will extend along 80% of the outer wall. They have a guy standing with a sign indicating where the end of the line is.

@rbb:

Most supermarkets haven't though, and it's fucking infuriating. Especially with self-checkouts.

At the local Walmart, you get people lining up for individual registers, invariably. At the Smith's next door, people are usually smart enough to form one queue.

Even if it doesn't average out to be faster (I think it probably does, but even if it doesn't) it almost completely eliminates the "GODDAMMIT YOU KNEW YOU COULDNT BUY THAT WITH FOOD STAMPS" frustration.

Like many other in this thread, I too have been in a single line that wrapped around Fry's several times, blocking off sections of the store, allowing cuts, or false lines.

Not fun...

@zolielo:
Yeah, but it moves like 20 times as fast as other lines.

Fast? Tell that to the bank I went to the other day where the guy in front of me stepped right up to a teller as soon as he walked in and I had to wait 15 minutes and the two people behind me were pulled out of line by one of the people behind one of the desks. I stood there waiting and waiting and there was a teller spot that sat closed and untouched while two guys behind the counter served 10 people in cars that drove up after I arrived.

Fast?

Nope.

@lorddave: If y our life sucks that badly that you can't wait for ten minutes, you've got bigger problems.

This is common, although not ubiquitous, in Britain. I can't say whether it's any better or worse than the other system.

@Buran: I don't know about Whole Foods, but at Fry's they have the checkout counters completely blocked off (except for a guarded exit, and the manned entrance). Works great, especially during busy days when they open up all 40 something counters and the line is moving at almost walking pace. Occasionally you'll have some idiot go to the wrong counter, but most of the time the customers understand their numeric assignment and don't have a problem with it.

1--------------counters-------------40 |
__________partition_________ . |
back#of#line##########front |
_________partition___________ |

It really makes the lines look too long... as a matter of fact, the first couple times I saw the concept at Best Buy, I just laid down my purchase and walked out.

Super Walmart already does this for 20 items or less, and the line moves fast in comparison. It is more of an issue with people that buy an entire month's groceries in one trip.

This is how a number of Australian supermarkets work, as well. At the very least, they do it for the X-items or less/express lanes in most places. It's really awesome.

Man, I don't know why EVERY store with checkout lines doesn't do this. It's dramatically faster. COME ON, KROGER!