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It’s a nerve shredding decision, one where you feel the weight of the world bearing down on you (or at least the weight of an overloaded shopping basket): which line to choose at the grocery store checkout?
Everybody has their own grocery shopping tips and tricks, or things they look out for to get them out of the store that bit quicker, but there could be one simple solution: stand behind the person with the most shopping.
Calculations
According to mathematician Dan Meyer, speaking to The New York Times, it’s better to stand in a shorter queue where each shopper has a high number of items than a longer queue of shoppers each with fewer items.
This is because, according to Meyer’s calculations, it “takes an average of 41 seconds per person and items to be rung up take about three seconds each,” so, “one person with 100 items to be rung up will take an average of almost six minutes to process,” whereas four people with 20 items will take close to seven minutes.
Try it
Try this grocery shopping tip out and see how much time you can save.
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