I’d wager it has more to do with retail workers being well aware that if a customer complains, management will almost always throw their workers under the bus due to the idiotic notion that the customer is always right. Given the very real choice between calling out a line-skipper and keeping your job so you can pay rent, I can’t fault a retail worker for not “making waves.”
Agreed. I used to work in the service industry when I was younger, which has made me a lot more sympathetic to those working in these jobs - since I’ve been there myself. There are definitely a lot of entitled douche-bag customers out there, and I used to run into tools like this all the time on my past jobs.
You aren’t thinking clearly on this. If the traffic is light enough and everyone is well informed so that everyone can get over into a single lane before the obstruction then great, speed is not reduced and zippering is not required. I think everyone concedes that.
In heavy traffic where such smooth transitions cannot happen then the zippering method works much better. The first notification of a need to merge can happen after the congestion has already started so in that scenario you either have…
a) your idea that all the drivers in the first lane try to merge into the second lane immediately. You then have multiple drivers then trying to do this at the same time and so the congestion spreads even further back from the first notification of the need to merge and compounds the problem. All the while you have miles of empty road in the first lane. All the cars that would’ve filled it are now in the second lane and have pushed the queue the equivalent distance back down the road, blocking other junctions and causing other knock on-effects.
or
b) The traffic continues to fill up the first lane right to the point of merging and then zippers, one after the other. Simple, clear, fair. The fastest option and the one least likely to cause road rage or knock-on effects to other junctions back down the road.
I experience both systems as I drive a lot in Germany where zippering is the law and also the UK where it is sometimes used. Believe me, it works wonderfully well. You don’t have to waste your time and others trying to edge into the other lane and it is far less stressful.
I spent the fall of 1989 studying Russian in Leningrad. You know who you don’t want to try to cut in front of in line? The little old ladies who survived the WWII Leningrad siege. They won’t hesitate to break your ribs.
A lot of disabilities come with a super big helping of pain. In my case and possibly this lady’s standing can be very painful. Now I’ve never actually asked to go in front because of this but on two occasions I’ve broken social norms by sitting on the floor. No one let me go ahead they just made sympathetic noises when I explained.
Note that whether to sit on the floor is decided by whether standing up again pain plus embarrassment is considerably less than the anticipated pain of standing.
Oh and I will call anyone out who tries to queue jump on me 
Mine are primarily used for parenting purposes. My friends call it “The Eyebrow Powers.”
Once I was in the grocery store and the lines were 2-3 deep. The express line was completely empty. I had about 20 items, but I figured there was nothing gained if the clerk was doing nothing so I went over there. She gave me the snotttiest, sing-songiest, “Can you Count Ma’am?” and then crooked her long red fingernail up toward the sign.
I just gave her an icy smile and went back to the other line. When I had waited, and paid, and was leaving, she still hadn’t served a single customer. I gave her a gracious smile on my way by.
She was young and inexperienced. If she’d been polite to me I might have pointed out that if she wasn’t working, they didn’t need her, so she might want to find a way to make herself useful. But nah, let her learn the hard way if that’s what she prefers.
Well it definitely appears to be a common thing in this thread.
Blatant line jumping? Very rare indeed. I would happily say “Sorry, the line is back there” or something like that.
Any time I perceived line jumping in recent years it was because of a crappy setup where I wasn’t absolutely clear who was next in line, with a dogpile-style line or people aimlessly wandering in a loose pack vying for the attention of a clerk.
Aside from blatant line jumping, everything else is just minor transgressions of good manners, annoying but not terrible.
If we want to allow a couple to do the “you stand in this line and I’ll stand in that one” for a few items, then we are assuming they are kind enough to not stand there empty-handed while their partner is ten registers away with two full cartloads.
If we wish a little latitude if we accidentally carry 17 items in the 15 item line, then we are going to have to accept 30 items (perhaps not a full cart though).
I’d rather have the flexibility than jackbooted enforcers.
Interesting topic. I spend so much time in lines and am not a patient person. I almost never have seen blatant line cutting. I guess it is partially a cultural thing.
I buy mostly every day as that is how I like to shop. Often the line is the longest part of the trip. Like everyone I estimate how long each line will be based on number of people, their groceries, and how fast the tellers are from experience. There are regular lanes, express lanes and self serve lanes. Self serve is a pain as I usually have fresh veggies that have to be looked up one by one. Express lanes are also problematic as I may not have been counting my groceries, and don’t know if four loose apples count as one item or four. First world problems I guess.
I see a bit more line cutting in vehicles. I almost always let someone cut if they want to, as my priority is getting to my destination safely. The real problem with bottlenecks is not the blockage, it is the gawkers. I see it all the time on three-lane highways. One lane has an accident, and the other two lanes are free. Traffic almost comes to a standstill, because the drivers all need to take a good look at the accident.
I cut a line once by accident at Blockbusters, so it must have been a while ago. It was me not paying much attention, and the lineup was behind a line and around a corner. When confronted I was embarrassed and just kind of pissy. Wish I would have handled it better.
My wife, otoh, loves to cut lines. Although she doesn’t do it with me around. Not at grocery stores, but at any kind of social event we go to that usually has several entrances. Given any chance, she will walk in backwards.
For the record, and from my 45 years of driving experience, I completely agree with you.
One caveat though, the ‘early’ (I don’t consider it early if you see your going to have to move over) merge works best with no congestion. That way, people move with out having to slow down at all. If everyone drives to the choke point before merging, it then becomes congested and people with HAVE to slow down to merge.
I was on a cruise and one of the events for “sea days” was High Tea at 3 pm in the formal dining room. The dining room was large and there weren’t that many people interested in this, so the line wasn’t very long. Nevertheless, someone tried to cut in front of us. My sister-in-law, who apparently needed to change her estrogen patch and so was feeling quite cranky, was not having it and nearly took a swing at her. Apparently this woman did this kind of thing frequently and wasn’t intimidated at all. Her friends melted away into the back of the line, leaving the two of them to go at it quite heatedly.
I must say, I did not know High Tea with the older ladies could be such a dangerous occasion.
One anecdote from the other side:
I once had to fly out of Kansas City, where the boarding area is weirdly designed. First, you stand in a long, slow-moving line for half an hour or so to check your bags with a human at a counter. Then, you proceed to a computer terminal which scans your driver’s license and prints your boarding pass in five seconds. Since I had no bags, I figured I would just skip the line and proceed directly to the computer terminal (there was no signage or other official indication that this wasn’t allowed). Many of the people in the line got REALLY irate with me, to the point that I was concerned they might physically assault me. Fortunately, five seconds later I was on my way.
If there is rampant line skipping happening around me, I’m largely unaware of it. People are pushy sometimes on the Metro, but I only care if there’s touching.
Which is why the state of Minnesota (home of passive-aggressive drivers who don’t know how to merge onto a freeway) puts up signs explaining the zipper merge at construction sites. It hasn’t helped much.