Queues in shops are longer than they used to be?

[merediththethird]

I feel like queues are longer nowadays since online shopping due to fewer staff manning tills but I’m not sure whether I’m misremembering.

Boring question inspired by an argument today in our local Poundland between a customer and manager. Customer was telling a staff member off for not putting more staff on the tills. It feels to me that long queues are more standard now than in the past but perhaps not!

So: ‘queues in shops are longer than they used to be’

No they’re not longer - YABU

Yes they’re longer - YANBU

There do seem to be fewer staff on tills. Also on the shop floor, if you need to ask someone a question or help you locate an item. And what happened to staffed changing rooms with staff able and willing to fetch you a different size? I don't remember when I last saw that.

Owing to disabilities, I only stand in queues when I've no option and I try to time it so that I join a queue when it's not more than a couple of people long. It doesn't always work; my local Caffè Nero is very popular and if a new barista is being trained up that will make a wait longer still. My DH says he thinks that automated check-outs have made waits shorter, eg in Sainsbury's and Poundland, but clearly that's not everybody's experience.

I've used the self checkouts in supermarkets for years and prefer them, but the queues have got far longer in my local Sainsbury's since they reduced the number which accept cash as well as cards. There's always a long line of Card Only self checkout points with half of them empty, and another long line of people waiting for the three left that they can pay on to free up.

The local Tesco got rid of the cash-accepting ones completely so the only place where paying cash was possible was the Customer Service counter; this meant that there was always a huge queue at the CS counter which isn't helpful if you have a parcel to collect or something to return, or whatever. I no longer shop there.

Yes, but isn't just because there are a lot more people now? When I was a young'un the population was around 56 million it's now over 69 million.

That’s a good point! This just doesn’t happen anymore on the high street

I worked in Asda as a teenager. On Fridays and Saturdays (my regular shifts) every till was open and the queue to each would stretch up the isle in front of it.
I bloody hated looking up to see how far back it went. That was when they had no scanners and we punched in the price and dept of every item.

Yes, that’s my memory too. Christmas, the queues would be all the way down the aisles at every till, but even on a normal Saturday there’d be big queues.

I think probably a lot of the posters above are younger and have only experienced the much more efficient service of recent years.

Customers don't want to pay for the extra staff costs. Price is everything. So everyone buys their Sheiny shit online from China - inexplicably* cheap and no queues.

*as long as you don't look too hard for an explanation of why it's so cheap.

If you watch the poor self service checkout person sometimes it looks exhausting. They never get to breathe.

Yes. Terrible! A second or third person there would probably eliminate the queues. One person to deal with unexpected items/system issues AND run through the shop for barcodes AND deal with potential shoplifters is awful.

I've worked in retail almost all my adult life. Always had tons of staff years ago. Department store I worked at had 10 staff (spread through the day) on the floor on a Saturday. Probably 6 people during peak hours. By the time I left there were 2 at a time, all in very short shifts so they didn't have to give us breaks.

Now work in food retail where we run the shop with 2 people, 3 max. If someone is on break that can often leave 1 person running the whole shop!

We hate it but the people at the top keep cutting hours and staff numbers.

We just don't have enough staff and it's going to get worse before it gets better. If they put more staff on prices will go up so people have to decide if they want better service or cheaper prices. I'm dreading it when the next financial year starts and the national insurance rates rise for employers because it's going to push prices up and cut even more hours off our already overstretched payroll.

I think getting staff has become a problem. People don't want to work

Plenty of people want to work but the problem is contract size. My store only offered 12 hour contracts and wanted full flexibility from staff. Couldn't get applicants. So they upped it to 16 hours. Still expect flexibility. It's improved things but when many people rely on overtime and don't get it they soon move on elsewhere. They refuse to give bigger contracts.