# Poll: Deli Ticket Numbers **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 29, 2023, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-deli-ticket-numbers/989289 "2023-08-29T14:51:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2023, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-deli-ticket-numbers/989289/41 "2023-08-30T14:44:44Z")
I grocery shop on Fridays at mid day. There is seldom more than one or two folks at the deli waiting for service. There is a number dispenser, but it’s seldom used unless there’s a crowd like before a major holiday weekend. They do slice meat, but also portion out salads as well as fried fish, BBQ and the like. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2023, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-deli-ticket-numbers/989289/42 "2023-08-30T14:48:14Z")
Yeah, but that was in the 1967 Casino Royale, which I don’t consider canon. Woody Allen eats a pastrami on rye in all of his films. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2023, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-deli-ticket-numbers/989289/43 "2023-08-30T15:08:46Z")
> [@GaryM](#): > > I grocery shop on Fridays at mid day. There is seldom more than one or two folks at the deli waiting for service. My gf has the Steelers season schedule hanging in her office at home. She goes grocery shopping whenever the Steelers are playing. There’s nobody there! ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2023, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-deli-ticket-numbers/989289/44 "2023-08-30T20:09:55Z")
heh Wait until you take a number at the Social Security office …that’s an experience ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2023, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-deli-ticket-numbers/989289/45 "2023-08-30T20:15:41Z")
I think the only justification for having to stay there until your number is called would be that if you don’t make it back in time, you are causing a minor delay for the other customers while the shop staff call out your number a few times wondering where you are, but the OP didn’t do that, so I’d say the crazy lady was probably upset just on principle. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2023, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-deli-ticket-numbers/989289/46 "2023-08-30T20:28:43Z")
I think our market used to have a ticket machine, but for a while it was just everybody huddles around the deli case and hopefully is accurately noticing who’s next (the clerks were usually pretty good at knowing, too). It rarely went wrong, but it was also rare to have more than 3 or 4 people waiting at the same time. Now, they’ve put up a chute where people wait in line. With this method you can’t wander away without losing your place. However, I often shop with my sister, in which case, one of us can stay in the deli line, and the other can continue shopping. My major complaint with how our deli counter works is that the clerks take sooooo looooooong to make sandwiches. If a couple of people come and want sandwiches made it takes them for freaking ever. I try to avoid the market at lunch time for this reason. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2023, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-deli-ticket-numbers/989289/47 "2023-08-30T20:40:39Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > The poll needs an option for “Number? What the hell are you talking about?”, because I’ve never been to a supermarket or a deli where I had to take a number instead of just getting in line, ordering at the counter, and then having my order promptly handed to me. My experience is somewhere in between. Most deli counters I go to don’t have tickets because they don’t need them; at most there might be one or two people ahead of me if there are any at all. But yes, the tickets do exist in some locations, typically the more urban ones. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2023, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-deli-ticket-numbers/989289/48 "2023-08-30T23:18:27Z")
I used to take a number right away then go off shopping, swing by and check, and take another number and continue shopping, and perhaps a 3rd time till they got near. This was so incase next time I went by they were above my first number. This was a time where I lived in an area with very long lines and glad I got out of there. But it does indicate that the take a number system does start to break down after a point of slow service. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2023, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-deli-ticket-numbers/989289/49 "2023-08-30T23:32:33Z")
There’s generally no long delay. When I shop at my favorite ethnic store in Mexicantown, Detroit, they call the number a few times in two different languages, then move on. It’s not more than a 15 second delay. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2023, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-deli-ticket-numbers/989289/50 "2023-08-31T00:21:58Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > They must staff the supermarkets more heavily, or you just shop at off-peak times. I work at a supermarket and it’s certainly not something our chain does, and I’ve never seen a number dispenser in any other grocery store I’ve ever been to. Last time I had to take a number for anything was to get my enhanced DL. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2023, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-deli-ticket-numbers/989289/51 "2023-08-31T02:02:04Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > I’ve never seen a number dispenser in any other grocery store I’ve ever been to. Ditto, not in my 45 years in the Pacific NW. I think it’s a regional thing. Delis just aren’t as big a thing out here. I do remember taking a number at a bakery in Chicago suburbs when I was young. Last places I had to pick a number was Ikea returns, Passport office, and the DMV. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2023, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-deli-ticket-numbers/989289/52 "2023-08-31T07:31:31Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > I think it’s a regional thing. Delis just aren’t as big a thing out here. That’s gotta be a part of it too. The east coast deli, as in a standalone business that sells sliced meats and potato salad and coleslaw and the like, doesn’t really exist on the west coast, and if you said you were going to a deli I’d assume you meant a sandwich shop. We’ve got _plenty_ of those, even some that bill themselves as east coast style, but they aren’t selling meats a la carte. Once about ten years ago I went to our local “east coast sandwiches” place and asked if I could buy a 16 oz. side tub full of their tuna salad because I needed a low-carb meal and they just about looked at me like I was speaking Welsh. A supermarket deli out here does sell meats a la carte, but they typically also have fried and/or rotisserie chicken and thick-cut seasoned french fries (we call them “jojos” here for reasons which are a mystery to me) and various other hot and ready-to-eat foods. The deli in my store, for example, sells take-and-bake pizza, egg rolls, tamales, meatloaf, mac & cheese, and depending on the day will also have fresh-fried corn dogs, chimichangas, pizza puffs, and other goodies along with the sliced meats and cold salads. For the record, my store’s deli has two slicers, but we mostly pre-slice meat and don’t slice it to order unless the customer wants it extra-thin or extra-thick or something like that, and we’re not prepping any of our meats in-house, nor are our competitors - it all comes from Boar’s Head and similar distributors. Hell, even the Jersey Mike’s franchises out here stopped cooking their own roast beef during covid and use prepackaged stuff now. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2023, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-deli-ticket-numbers/989289/53 "2023-08-31T11:36:52Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > For the record, my store’s deli has two slicers, Do you have a pickle slicer or is that just a joke thing? ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2023, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-deli-ticket-numbers/989289/54 "2023-08-31T11:38:57Z")
If it’s a joke, I’m not familiar with it. Our deli doesn’t sell pickles. ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2023, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-deli-ticket-numbers/989289/55 "2023-08-31T12:42:36Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > pickle slicer They fired her too. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2023, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-deli-ticket-numbers/989289/56 "2023-08-31T12:44:00Z")
Thank you. I feel better knowing someone else knew it. When I entered “pickle slicer” Google suggested “joke”. ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2023, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-deli-ticket-numbers/989289/57 "2023-08-31T12:44:40Z")
Anything I can do to help… ---
**Author:** ![ShadowFacts](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shadowfacts/32/2934_2.png) [@ShadowFacts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowFacts)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2023, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-deli-ticket-numbers/989289/58 "2023-08-31T13:27:19Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > My gf has the Steelers season schedule hanging in her office at home. She goes grocery shopping whenever the Steelers are playing. There’s nobody there The fridge must get mighty empty by April… ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2023, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-deli-ticket-numbers/989289/59 "2023-08-31T13:43:54Z")
Heh, after football season she goes Sunday morning while all good people are in their place of worship. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2023, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-deli-ticket-numbers/989289/60 "2023-08-31T14:05:29Z")
> [@ShadowFacts](#): > > The fridge must get mighty empty by April… November or December some years. Just sayin’. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-deli-ticket-numbers/989289.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-deli-ticket-numbers/989289.md?page=4)