@entr0py @jmd: I think you're overthinking the basic point. If there are 5 cashiers each with a queue of 1 customer, there exists the possibility that your checkout will be delayed due to the customer in the line you chose. However, if you're in a central queue with those same 5 customers in front of you, your checkout won't be delayed unless every one of those customers causes a delay because if any fewer (than all of them) causes a delay, there will still be at least one cashier not delayed and, thus, you can checkout more quickly.

In other words, in the many queue method, your wait time is directly proportional to the checkout speed of your one cashier (which may be fast or slow), but in the central queue method, your wait time depends on the checkout speed of *all* the cashiers (which are not likely to all be delayed simultaneously).

You have a much better chance at a speedy checkout with a central queue.

I work at target and would be interested to see how the single line que would be useful combined with the ability to dynamically assign cashiers during times of heavy load. If you have ever worked at target, the number 1 annoying part of the job is getting called for additional cashier help from the floor. We are usually stressed enough in getting our job done before the store closes and dropping what we do to service one or two guest because one persons line was to long is annoying. Also if there is a problem at one cashier (needing supervisor overrides, or WiC check items not going through needing overrides can really stop a line), it is hard to pull the next guest or 2 off the belt and into another line.

One thing I didn't like in the video was the que system line was always full. It really didn't give a good sense that the central que system would be faster. as it took a while for one dot to get from the end to the cashier.

The one part I don't get is when he says "They should make a single line feed multiple cashiers; for three cashiers it's about three times faster than having a line for each cashier". It seems like that would not change the AVERAGE wait time at all, but would make the waiting time less variable. There are still the same number of checkers, and each transaction is still going to take the same amount of time.

In other words, having a single line would only ensure that your wait time would be close to the average. But with multiple lines your wait time may be much less or much more than the average. Both systems have the same mean but a different standard deviation.

Am I missing something? Maybe he was talking about maximum wait time rather than average wait time?

@Esoog: Oh right. Good call, but they are much smaller scale by comparison with a max of like 6 or 8 cashiers. At Fry's the line of cashiers is about 100 yards long.

>> ^lucky760:

Fry's Electronics is the only store I know of that's put the single-queue-to-many-cashiers scheme into actual use in large-scale form. They have literally dozens of cashiers and a single really long line (surrounded by last minute impulse-buy products, of course), and it definitely always seems to move along quickly.


Another store that I can think of that does this, is Best Buy.

Fry's Electronics is the only store I know of that's put the single-queue-to-many-cashiers scheme into actual use in large-scale form. They have literally dozens of cashiers and a single really long line (surrounded by last minute impulse-buy products, of course), and it definitely always seems to move along quickly.

My guess would be cloudy liquid could be used to hide something in the center of a container....if it was full enough.

Although when they had her dump it into smaller containers, the "threat" should have been over then and there. Especially if they had done any kind of screen of it at all, but they didn't. They just wanted to fuck with her so she'll learn her lesson and not make them work.


I found the whole "glass room" with one door in the middle of everything to be pretty telling of the whole TSA business. It has one door and an open side.....so it's not there to keep them in...the door is there as a "suggestion". There is no chair, and when it looked like someone was trying to bring her a chair, they took it back. It looked like later in the video (after she'd been standing in that place for 30 some minutes) that someone was pushing a chair toward her in the background.

I know the video is trying to play on our sympathies for a "young mother", but hell I'd have been sympathetic with almost anyone after they put them in a glass cage as a spectacle for other people for 40 minutes and did shit all to deal with them during that period. It pisses me off to no end to see one person at a business clearly wasting time while people are waiting to get dealt with, whether it's to pay the cashier, see a customer service rep, or get someone to follow their own policies and get me processed or kick me off the premises.

Sure a young mother is a more sympathetic victim, but 40 minutes standing in a glass cage with no one coming to update you regularly, giving you a chair, and then at the end of it not even having you processed one way or the other is complete and utter bullshit no matter who is there unless they are guilty as hell of something. I wonder if they would have let someone use the restroom once they've been put in the "special holding area" (the "look at the bad guy booth").

The next time a cashier hands you your change... just think about where those quarters have been.

>> ^Tymbrwulf:

>> ^dgandhi:

When my GF saw me throwing pennies in the trash, she asked me to put them in a jar for her, so I did. When she decided to use them, she wasted 5 minutes, and a cashiers patience, in an attempt to utilize this otherwise "wasted" money. She then came back and acknowledged the basic truth, that unless you make migrant-farm-hand wages, pennies are not worth your time. She no longer complains when I throw them in the trash.

My 8th grade history teacher told us that he picked up every piece of loose change that he would find on the ground and pocket it. He would then empty out his loose change into a jar at the end of each day. Once a year, he would go into the bank with his jar of loose change, and exchange it for hard currency. He was able to supplement his income by over $1000 a year. All from loose change he found lying around. This was in 1998.


i have a co-worker who does this; and we work at a courthouse, so there are ample opportunities to find loose change...he makes about 100 dollars every time he turns it in...about once a year. i am afraid that i must call bullshit on your story.

>> ^dgandhi:


When my GF saw me throwing pennies in the trash, she asked me to put them in a jar for her, so I did. When she decided to use them, she wasted 5 minutes, and a cashiers patience, in an attempt to utilize this otherwise "wasted" money. She then came back and acknowledged the basic truth, that unless you make migrant-farm-hand wages, pennies are not worth your time. She no longer complains when I throw them in the trash.


My 8th grade history teacher told us that he picked up every piece of loose change that he would find on the ground and pocket it. He would then empty out his loose change into a jar at the end of each day. Once a year, he would go into the bank with his jar of loose change, and exchange it for hard currency. He was able to supplement his income by over $1000 a year. All from loose change he found lying around. This was in 1998.

>> ^Tymbrwulf:

For those of you that hate pennies/nickels. I will GLADLY take them all off your hands! Please let me know if you would like to join me on this little endeavor.


You can dig them out of my trash bin.

When my GF saw me throwing pennies in the trash, she asked me to put them in a jar for her, so I did. When she decided to use them, she wasted 5 minutes, and a cashiers patience, in an attempt to utilize this otherwise "wasted" money. She then came back and acknowledged the basic truth, that unless you make migrant-farm-hand wages, pennies are not worth your time. She no longer complains when I throw them in the trash.

You know you are spoiled when this is at the top of your list of concerns. As a fellow spoiled American, I completely agree. While we are on the subject of pocket change woes, I'd also love to see taxes and surcharges included on the price tag - so much time is wasted while cashiers and customers count out change. Instead of charging me 2.98 or 3.01, just make it an even $3 and be done with it.

A friend of mine tried to settle up on his taxes so he called them up to say "I'm going to the bank to get a cashiers check to send you, can you tell me what the total is?" The reply was that the interest was calculated by the minute, so the amount would be different by the the time the check arrived.

I don't mind paying taxes at all, but seriously, fuck you tax thugs.

It's almost ten o clock see i got a ball of lifted property
so i slid my beenie hat on sloppily
and promenade out to take up a collection
i got game like i read the directions
i 'm wishing that i had an automobile
as i feel the cold wind rush past
but let me state that i am a hustler for real
so you know i got the stolen bus pass
just as the bus pulls up and i step to the rear
this ole lady look like she drank a forty of fear
i see my ole school partner said his brother got popped
pay my respects
can you ring the bell we came to my stop
the street light reflects off the piss on the ground
which reflects off the hamburger sign as it turns round
which reflects off the chrome of the bmw
which reflects off the fact that i am broke
now what the fuck is new
i need loot i sweat the motherfucka
in the tweed suit
and i'm on his ass quicker than a kick from a grease boot
eased up slow and discreet
could tell he was suspicious by the way he slid his feet
didn't wanna fuck up the come on
so i smiled with my eyes said hey how it's hanging guy
bumped into his shoulders but he passed with no reaction
damn this motherfucka had a hella of andrew jacksons
i'm a thief or pickpocket give a fuck what you call it
used to call em fat cats.
i just call them wallets getting federal aint just a klepto
master card or visa i'd gladly accept those
sneaky motherfucka with a scam know how to pull it
got a mirror in my pocket but that wont stop no bullets
story just begun but you already know
aint no need to get down shit i'm already low

My footsteps echo in the darkness
my teeth clenched tight like a fist in the cold sharp mist
i look down and i hear my somach growling
step to burger king to attack it like a shaolin
i never pay for shit that i can get by doing dirt
link up to the girl cashier and start to flirt
all up in her face and her breath was like murder
damn the shit i do for a free hamburger
(girl )"well you got my number you gonna call me tonite"
it depends is them burgers attached to a price
"sorry sorry"
im just kidding i'ma call you write you love letters
"it's all good"
thanks for the burgers emm hook me up with a dr pepper.
(girl)thats cool you want some ice
yeah and some fries will be hella nice
(girl) damn my managers coming play it off okay have a nice day
im up outta here anyway
i use peoples before they use me
cos you could get got by an uzi over an oz
thats what an og told me
gots to find someplace warm and cozy to eat the vittles that i just got
came to an underground parking lot
this place is good as any fuck its all good
walked in found a car hopped itself up on a hood
ate my burger threw back my cola
somebody said hey it was a rented pig i thought it was a roller
"want me to call the cops?"
i dont want them to see me
looked down and saw that i was sitting on a lamboughini
it was rollses ferraris and jags by the dozen
a building door opened
damn it was my cousin
getting offa work dressed up no lie
tux cummerband and a blackbow tie
i was like hey
"who is it"
me
"oh whats up man i just quit this company
they hella racist and the pay was too low "
i said arite what was up in there though
"a party with rich motherfuckas i dont know the situation
i know they got cabbage owning corporations
ibm chryslers and shit is what they seeing"
just then a light bulb went off in my head
they be thinking all black folks is resembling
gimme your tux and i'll do some pocket swindling
fit the change in the bathroom and i freeze off my nuts
lets take a short break
while i get into this tux
grunt zipp
alright i'm ready

Fresh dressed like a million bucks
i be the flyiest muthafucka in an afro and a tux
my arm is at a right angle up silver tray in my hand
may i interest you in some caviar mam
my eyes shoots round the room there and here
noticing the diamonds in the chandelier
background barry manilow copacobana
and a strong ass scent of stoagies from havana
what no place where a brother might been
snobby ole ladies drinking champagne with rich white men
allrite then lets begin this
nights like this is good for business
five minutes in the mix noticed several diffrent cliques
talking giggling and shit
well one mother fucka gave me twits
and everbody else jacking it throttling
found out later you know coca cola bottling
talking to a black man who he's confused
we looking hella bourgie
ass all tight and seditty
recognzed him as the mayor of my city
who treats young black man like frank nitty
mr coke said to mr mayor "you know we got a process like ice t's hair
we put up the fund for your election campaign
and oh um waiter can you bring the champagne"
a real estate fronts as opportunities arousing
to make some condos out of low income housing
immediately we need some media heat
to say that gangs run the street and then we bring in the police fleet
harrasing me everbody till they look inebriated
when we bought the land motherfuckas will appreciate it
dont worry about the urban league or jesse jackson
my man that owns marlboros
donated a fat sum
thats when i step back some to contemplate what few know
sat down wrestle with my thoughts like a sumo
aint no one player that could beat this lunancy
aint no hustler on the street could do a whole community
this is how deep shit can get
it reads macaroni on my birth certificate
poontang is my middle name but i cant hang
i'm getting hustled
only knowing half the game
shit how the fuck do i get out of this place.

In my country, cashiers have the right to refuse receiving payment in bills and coins of too high and low denominations. So, these guys would've had to go to a post office, a bank or some friendly stores and exchange their pennies for dollars.
Not to mention that calling the police for a stupid prank would most likely land them another fine. Kudos to the police officers here who took the waste of their time remarkably well.

It's not that the pennies aren't legal tender, it's just that paying such a big fine with them makes the process of counting them unnecessarily difficult and slow. You'd get the same reception when trying to pay a bus fee, a stamp or ice cream with 500-dollar bills, regardless if it's legal tender in the state or not. That being said, if the cashier was told by the police officers to take the money, she really didn't have to keep refusing.