Just How Dumb do store's think we are?

I will usually try to join the shortest queue, but if the supermarket is very busy I simply join the nearest queue. It is too easy to end up walking up and down while others join the queue, which I discovered in the past. Asda often have people walking along the queues and sending people to certain ones, but I tend to ignore them.

Pretty dumb. That seems to be the answer to your question.

It depends on who is right in front of me or behind me

Last time I did my grocery shopping, I changed to go to another line where only two persons were waiting. The first one paid by check and his check was rejected : he started to yell and finally abandoned his full cart at the check out : the cashier had to call an employee, and 10 mn were lost. The other one paid with ticket-restaurants. The cashier told him that he was giving too much and that they were not giving the change on these tickets : he came back to pick 2 or 3 things more on the shelves, and I lost 5 mn again. Next time I will stay on my line.

Every time I pick the short line the register breaks, the cashier goes to the rest room, the manager has to be called, the smoke alarms go off - I pick the med size lines and take my chances.

I would pick the shortest line too.

I have got into the shortest line, only to be told that the cashier is closing up after the customer ahead of me. I have got into the shortest line only to find out that the person at the register is so slow, that everyone else already left that line. I have got into the shortest line only to get behind someone who either runs an orphanage or has 19 kids and is actually the two customers ahead of me combined and has a coupon for everything in her two carts, but they are all expired!

Truly, it doesn't matter which line I choose as long as I stay in the one I orginally picked. Seriously. There IS some cosmic phenomenon that determines if I pick a line and stay with it, I will get through faster than if I pick a line and change to a different line. If I change to a different line, the one I chose originally will INEVITABLY move faster. I have tested this theory and I am convinced it is true. Just sayin......

I always take the shortest and sometimes the customer before me takes forever to pay and the longest line run quicker that the short one.

shortest to get the heck outta dodge, longest...if I had sent someone back for something and needed to stall!

It doesn't matter if I pick the shortest or the longest. It's a given that the person in front of me will have a major problem and I'll be stuck there forever

Well, if the checkout chicks aren't in uniform, maybe all the men go to the most well-endowed lady!

That's funny, should have asked the store manager that is there any queue-less counter.

Sure, that's when somebody calls for a price check, or the whole line is held up because somebody's ATM card doesn't work. Sometimes I line jump, because another line starts moving faster, but my line always seems to be slower in the end.