GetndCarVC

The million dollar question is which type of queue line at a retail store has the best overall benefits? The single queue line or the multi queue line? My personal opinion was that single queue lines are more efficient, but probably less fair. However, my roommate strongly believes the multi queue line is more efficient. Which one seems more fair in the long run of a day, or even a week?

My theory is that because the single queue line does not connect directly to the cashier, the time it takes a customer to physically walk from the front of the queue line to a cashier is what makes the single queue line inefficient. Sure the walk is short if the cashier is located right in front, but anything further is wasting time. At Best Buy, we observed that it took a customer roughly seven seconds to walk from the start of the line to the furthest cashier. This may not seem like much of a difference, but over the course of a whole day, much time is wasted. In the case of a multi queue line, each line already connects, so the time between customers at each line is very short. For this reason, I believe the multi queue line to be more efficient, but less fair.