# Why The British Association With Queuing? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 25, 2022, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-british-association-with-queuing/972211 "2022-09-25T15:49:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2022, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-british-association-with-queuing/972211/21 "2022-09-26T08:46:03Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Or, as I’ve heard it in Pennsylvania, _stand on line_. Where at in PA? I’ve never heard that in western PA (“yinzer” territory) or in southern PA (York-Gettysburg region). Poking around online it seems to be mostly a New York regionalism. ---
**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:** [September 26, 2022, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-british-association-with-queuing/972211/22 "2022-09-26T08:46:58Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > But there’s also a sort of fetishisation of more recent queues - for Wimbledon tennis, for the cheap standing tickets for the BBC Proms -and any occasion that leads some loon to start queueing 24 hours in advance. Seems like only yesterday that we Yanks used to stand in line for days to get Star Wars tickets before the theaters joined the 21st century and started selling them online. I remember maybe 7 or 8 years ago a Buffalo Wild Wings was having its grand opening here in Olympia and it was announced that the first 100 guests would get free wings for a year. I worked graveyard shift at the time and got off at 6 AM, so I figured if I drove over there I could get in line early enough to get in on that deal, only to find when I arrived that the line was already much longer than 100 people. No chicken wing is worth standing in a line that long for. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2022, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-british-association-with-queuing/972211/23 "2022-09-26T09:35:47Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Five vowels in a row!.. And none of them are necessary (at least for pronunciation). mmm ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2022, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-british-association-with-queuing/972211/24 "2022-09-26T09:46:13Z")
This reminds me of whenever some place sponsors a local gas station with a “Free Fill-Up’s for the First 200 cars!” and there will literally be 5 hour lines of people trying to get free gas. You’re waiting 5 hours to save $60 in gas? If you just worked for that 5 hours it would be a better use of that time. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2022, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-british-association-with-queuing/972211/25 "2022-09-26T10:42:50Z")
> [@echoreply](#): > > My own gut feeling is that some of the British “queue” mentality is a contrast with the mob behavior on the continent. I think this is a big part of it. The British aren’t contrasting themselves with Americans on this topic. This is why the American OP feels like the British claim of exceptionalism regarding queueing doesn’t make sense. No doubt it varies on the continent (I’m sure the Germans can form an orderly queue) but there are many places where it would be a point of difference between the British and various varieties of continental. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2022, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-british-association-with-queuing/972211/26 "2022-09-26T11:47:03Z")
My thought is that they were comparing themselves to the cultures of their subjugated colonial possessions. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2022, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-british-association-with-queuing/972211/27 "2022-09-26T12:54:23Z")
Carlisle, many years ago. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-british-association-with-queuing/972211/28 "2022-09-27T07:45:46Z")
This like being in a work meeting and making a profound suggestion, then your boss making the same suggestion 10 minutes later and everyone agreeing with him.\* \*ie see my earlier post. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-british-association-with-queuing/972211/29 "2022-09-27T08:08:36Z")
Your post is somewhat ironic given that your point had been made by @echoreply even earlier, and it was to him that I was responding. In any event, I probably should’ve stopped after my first paragraph, which was my main point. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-british-association-with-queuing/972211/30 "2022-09-27T08:33:13Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > This reminds me of whenever some place sponsors a local gas station with a “Free Fill-Up’s for the First 200 cars!” and there will literally be 5 hour lines of people trying to get free gas. Back in the 1980s, a local Toronto radio station ran a contest, where they announced “Free gas for the next 25 cars at \_\_\_\_\_” where the blank was filled in by the address of a Shell gas station. I was on my way home from work one day, and had the radio on, and realized that today’s gas station was two blocks from where I was. So I pulled in, and got a free tank of gas, courtesy of CHFI 98.1 FM. I don’t remember a queue, but I do remember the station as being very busy that day at that time. Of course, they took names, and so, on the rest of my way home, I heard “And we congratulate Joe Blow and Susan Bloggs and Whatsizname Spoons for being first to arrive at the Shell station on Anyroad and getting a free tank of gas!” ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-british-association-with-queuing/972211/31 "2022-09-27T18:29:54Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > No doubt it varies on the continent (I’m sure the Germans can form an orderly queue) Not as disciplined as the Britons. Yes, we’ll queue at a bank or office counter, but if the counter is for selling beer, all bets are off and the loudest, pushiest and most obnoxious gets served first. We also don’t orderly queue at the bus stop like British people, we just lump together and push each other into the bus. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-british-association-with-queuing/972211/32 "2022-09-27T18:59:33Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > My thought is that they were comparing themselves to the cultures of their subjugated colonial possessions. Indeed. And to the French, the Italians and Spaniards, Turks, Russians and all those people they so despised and often had beaten Perfidious Albion, I tell you. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-british-association-with-queuing/972211/33 "2022-09-27T19:00:14Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > if the counter is for selling beer, all bets are off You can’t have been in a crowded British pub - though I think it’s fair to say both bar staff and jostling punters do have a sense of whose turn it is next, even without forming an actual line. Unlike the first bar I went to in Vancouver, where they really did form an orderly line snaking back across the room ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-british-association-with-queuing/972211/34 "2022-09-27T19:01:46Z")
I was in the London airport in 1966. There was a queue to get a taxi. It was the most orderly queue I’ve ever seen. People stood about 3 feet apart and when the queue on the sidewalk edge crossed where a crosswalk came to the curb (excuse me kerb), it stopped on one side and picked up on the other side. Stockholm OTOH had even pushier crowds than New York. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-british-association-with-queuing/972211/35 "2022-09-27T19:07:46Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > You can’t have been in a crowded British pub - though I think it’s fair to say both bar staff and jostling punters do have a sense of whose turn it is next, even without forming an actual line. Yes, I’ve never been in a crowded British pub, though I’d love to be one time. Actually, I’ve never been to Britain at all (which is my loss, I know). ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-british-association-with-queuing/972211/36 "2022-09-27T19:18:11Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Yes, we’ll queue at a bank or office counter, but if the counter is for selling beer, all bets are off and the loudest, pushiest and most obnoxious gets served first. I hazily remember places where the prettiest girl got served first. By which I want to imply neither that I was the one serving nor that the prettiest girl was not also the loudest, pushiest or most obnoxious in the crowd, at times. > [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Actually, I’ve never been to Britain at all 😲 ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-british-association-with-queuing/972211/37 "2022-09-27T20:52:13Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > Poking around online it seems to be mostly a New York regionalism. I’ve heard “on line” quite often, and have not spent much time in NY. (Unless some references are from media written/filmed there.) Always struck me as odd usage. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2022, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-british-association-with-queuing/972211/38 "2022-09-28T01:53:20Z")
Yes, it’s a New York regionalism that really isn’t found anywhere else, but so many New Yorkers move elsewhere that you may have heard it from other people. I use it all the time, it is completely normal to me and is the default way to say it here. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2022, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-british-association-with-queuing/972211/39 "2022-09-28T06:55:25Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > You can’t have been in a crowded British pub - though I think it’s fair to say both bar staff and jostling punters do have a sense of whose turn it is next, even without forming an actual line. Absolutely, it’s quite standard for someone to say, ‘actually I think you were first’. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2022, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-british-association-with-queuing/972211/40 "2022-09-28T07:26:24Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > I hazily remember places where the prettiest girl got served first. So you’ve been to Canada. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-british-association-with-queuing/972211.md?page=1)