Companies Heeding Gripes About Long Lines

Koeppen: Survey Says We Wait On Lines More Than Two Days A Year!

(CBS)  If good things indeed come to those who wait, perhaps we're all in for some good fortune: A new study finds we spend two full days a year just waiting in lines.

That's two days, as in 48 hours!

But The Early Show consumer correspondent Susan Koeppen says companies are taking notice of what the survey shows is growing frustration over such waiting. And she offered some tips on what anyone can do to cut the amount of time they spend waiting in lines.

One thing she doesn't recommend is cutting into them. As an experiment, Koeppen took a hidden camera along as she did that in several spots in New York, and got decidedly icy reactions.

She also chatted with several New Yorkers who made it clear why "wait" rhymes with "hate!" They expressed varying degrees of dislike for waiting in line.

Where do people despise standing in line the most?

The survey ranked the most frustrating waits:
No. 5: Fast food restaurants and delis.
No. 4: Airports.
No. 3: Hospitals and doctor's clinics.
No. 2: Retail stores.

And No. 1: The DMV!

MIT professor Richard Larson is a leading "queue expert" who's been studying lines for some 35 years.

He pointed out to Koeppen that frustration with waiting can sometimes even turn violent. Last summer, a Georgia woman tried to run over customers with her car after they cut in front of her at a McDonald's. And when someone got in front of a woman at a Wisconsin supermarket, she tried to cut off the person's nose with a pocket knife!

He's even coined a term for when someone cuts us off in line, or the line next to us seems to be moving faster, and we get angry about it.

"I call it queue rage," he told Koeppen. "It's like road rage. You feel like you've been victimized and somebody's the perpetrator and you're the victim."

But Larson says companies are paying attention to how long you stand in line, and spending billions to cut the wait and make it more enjoyable.

For example, kiosks at a health clinic outside Pittsburgh let patients check in with a few taps of a screen. They've cut wait times by 80 percent.

And if you want to bypass long security lines at the airport, for $100 a year, you can get a "Clear" card. Available at a handful of United States airports, the system reads your fingerprint, scans your iris, and enables you to fly right through security.
Larson says Disney is the master of making waiting in line magical.

At its theme parks, standing in line is part of the attraction for many.

"Disney properties, I believe, are the experts in the psychology of waiting in line," Larson observes. "Their idea is, as soon as you join the line, you may be waiting 45 minutes before you actually sit on the ride, but you actually start the experience while you're in the line, because of all the distractions and entertainment around you."

Koeppen noted that hallway elevator doors cropped up in the '50s in New York City, in response to people complaining about waiting for elevators. When mirrors were put up, the complaints stopped: They gave people something to do while they waited, such as fixing their hair or straightening their ties.

Koeppen also shared pointers to help save yourself from being stuck in lines in some places too long:

Book the first appointment of the day at doctors' offices

Avoid the post office first thing in the morning, during the last hour of the day, and during lunch

Shop after 9 p.m.: Only four percent of people say they shop that late.

© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Add a Comment See all 11 Comments

by Syndicate April 9, 2007 12:42 PM PDT

If the line is too long Leave. The company will take note. Fill out the surveys and blast them for the long lines. Don't cut unless you want the shiit knocked out of you.

Reply to this comment

by handy-dude April 9, 2007 4:07 PM PDT

The one line that wasn't mentioned is that virtual line at the other end of the phone line. Certainly my number one gripe.

Which brings up another interesting point. Most companies think that putting in a piece of technology eliminates the consumers frustration about waiting in line. Wrong!

Many grocery stores now allow you to check yourself out. You get the pleasure of checking yourself out without the joy of being paid for it. No discount, no thanks for doing their job for them.

Electronic kiosks at airports let you check in, but you're still going to wait in line to check your bags and worse yet, wait in line to be screened at the security gate.

The list of lines is as endless as the lines themselves.

Instead of some electronic gizmo that gives the illusion that the comapany (or whatever) really cares about your time, hire real people to service more people.

If 'they' would hire enough warm bodies, everyone would be working and there would not be anybody in line. ;-)

Reply to this comment

by mitch0927 April 9, 2007 5:06 PM PDT

Since the advent of the Internet, we have become an impatient society. Of course there are more people in the country since we were kids and our impatience has become thin. How about we just kick back and start becoming a more patient society and quit whining and crying about everything. Stop the "I want it now" attitude and I do believe that we will become more humble towards others.

Reply to this comment

by mitch0927 April 9, 2007 5:10 PM PDT

Stike up a conversation with the person in front of behind you and the time will go by faster. Don't think that every line you stand in is a fast food line. The people in front of you are wanting the attention they deserve just as much as you do. I have met some real interesting people while standing in line. Start with telling some jokes you have read from your email (keep it clean of course). Mention that there might be a person up there that has a problem, and you would want them to be taken care of just like you.

Reply to this comment

by middleman8 April 10, 2007 1:34 AM PDT

Any vet. knows when you enter the services you get in line, you don't get out of lines until the last line up for seperation papers.

Reply to this comment

by farmerbb April 10, 2007 5:04 AM PDT

The cutting in I find people hate most is by drivers passing on the shoulder, or leaving the highway to pull right into an on-ramp, driving along it as far as possible, then cutting back into the traffic. I have seen lots of drivers edging over to the right, to block people from doing that. Trouble is, only VERY occasionally do you see the police issuing tickets for passing on the right and re-merging.

Reply to this comment

by sclaires April 10, 2007 5:56 PM PDT

I hate having to STAND in line for anything since I have a bad hip and can't do that much standing. I normally walk with a limp due to the hip problem but when I have a buggy to hold on to, I don't limp as much because I have some support. But, standing in line to check out when there are not enough cashiers on duty is something else and especially when I go to Super Wal-Mart and have a lot of groceries that need to be in the refrigerator or freezer. I don't want them to spoil due to the carelessness of a store.


Then there is the line when you call some company and get put on hold with what I call noise on the line broken in every so often with an announcement as to why you are on hold and to please continue to hold. I was on hold one evening for so long that the cordless phone I was using started to go dead and I had to get another phone. And, forgive me, but I am sick and tired of getting someone from India to talk with when I want an English speaking American. I want to be able to understand what they are saying instead of having to translate what they consider English into American English.

Reply to this comment

by roydiogenes April 11, 2007 3:26 AM PDT

On a Porter Square Cambridge, MA discussion list people complained about ten minute waits at the branch Post Office. I posted this response. Does it apply to all lines?

TO: Pampered Porter Square Postal Patrons
FROM: As yet unannounced and unchosen new Postmaster
EFFECTIVE: Immediately

Any person (alive or dead) who is too busy or too important to stand in line to mail
packages or to purchase stamps, can use their cell phones to request remote pick-up or sales.
"If the drug dealers can deliver we can too," said the unknown Postmaster.
Immediately upon your call, a jet-powered non-polluting noiseless GPS-guided state of
the art vehicle on the cutting edge, will be dispatched to wherever you are. You need not be
in Cambridge as long as you lived or worked in Cambridge within the past six months.
Trained, well-coiffed handsome and elegant obsequious young college-educated people,
wearing the latest fashions will provide you with a foot massage using Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
They will offer you high-paid worker picked coffee from democractic nations, French wine,
or decaf green tea for your health. All delivery transactions will have an automatic 20 percent
discount because we saved you the trouble of coming to the post office and polluting, and taking up precious parking spaces.
Please call 24/7 1-800-IAM-PAMPERED. Collect calls accepted.

Reply to this comment

by roydiogenes April 11, 2007 3:30 AM PDT

On a Porter Square Cambridge, MA discussion list people complained about ten minute waits at the branch Post Office. I posted this response. Does it apply to all lines?

TO: Pampered Porter Square Postal Patrons
FROM: As yet unannounced and unchosen new Postmaster
EFFECTIVE: Immediately

Any person (alive or dead) who is too busy or too important to stand in line to mail
packages or to purchase stamps, can use their cell phones to request remote pick-up or sales.
"If the drug dealers can deliver we can too," said the unknown Postmaster.
Immediately upon your call, a jet-powered non-polluting noiseless GPS-guided state of
the art vehicle on the cutting edge, will be dispatched to wherever you are. You need not be
in Cambridge as long as you lived or worked in Cambridge within the past six months.
Trained, well-coiffed handsome and elegant obsequious young college-educated people,
wearing the latest fashions will provide you with a foot massage using Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
They will offer you high-paid worker picked coffee from democractic nations, French wine,
or decaf green tea for your health. All delivery transactions will have an automatic 20 percent
discount because we saved you the trouble of coming to the post office and polluting, and taking up precious parking spaces.
Please call 24/7 1-800-IAM-PAMPERED. Collect calls accepted.
enoughroom.blogspot.com
enoughroomvideo.blogspot.com

Reply to this comment

by roydiogenes April 11, 2007 3:33 AM PDT

On a Porter Square Cambridge, MA discussion list people complained about ten minute waits at the branch Post Office. I posted this response. Does it apply to all lines?

TO: Pampered Porter Square Postal Patrons
FROM: As yet unannounced and unchosen new Postmaster
EFFECTIVE: Immediately

Any person (alive or dead) who is too busy or too important to stand in line to mail
packages or to purchase stamps, can use their cell phones to request remote pick-up or sales.
"If the drug dealers can deliver we can too," said the unknown Postmaster.
Immediately upon your call, a jet-powered non-polluting noiseless GPS-guided state of
the art vehicle on the cutting edge, will be dispatched to wherever you are. You need not be
in Cambridge as long as you lived or worked in Cambridge within the past six months.
Trained, well-coiffed handsome and elegant obsequious young college-educated people,
wearing the latest fashions will provide you with a foot massage using Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
They will offer you high-paid worker picked coffee from democractic nations, French wine,
or decaf green tea for your health. All delivery transactions will have an automatic 20 percent
discount because we saved you the trouble of coming to the post office and polluting, and taking up precious parking spaces.
Please call 24/7 1-800-IAM-PAMPERED. Collect calls accepted.
enoughroom.blogspot.com
enoughroomvideo.blogspot.com

Reply to this comment

by roydiogenes April 11, 2007 3:36 AM PDT

On a Porter Square Cambridge, MA discussion list people complained about ten minute waits at the branch Post Office. I posted this response. Does it apply to all lines?

TO: Pampered Porter Square Postal Patrons
FROM: As yet unannounced and unchosen new Postmaster
EFFECTIVE: Immediately

Any person (alive or dead) who is too busy or too important to stand in line to mail
packages or to purchase stamps, can use their cell phones to request remote pick-up or sales.
"If the drug dealers can deliver we can too," said the unknown Postmaster.
Immediately upon your call, a jet-powered non-polluting noiseless GPS-guided state of
the art vehicle on the cutting edge, will be dispatched to wherever you are. You need not be
in Cambridge as long as you lived or worked in Cambridge within the past six months.
Trained, well-coiffed handsome and elegant obsequious young college-educated people,
wearing the latest fashions will provide you with a foot massage using Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
They will offer you high-paid worker picked coffee from democractic nations, French wine,
or decaf green tea for your health. All delivery transactions will have an automatic 20 percent
discount because we saved you the trouble of coming to the post office and polluting, and taking up precious parking spaces.
Please call 24/7 1-800-IAM-PAMPERED. Collect calls accepted.
enoughroom.blogspot.com
enoughroomvideo.blogspot.com

Reply to this comment

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[Syndicate]

If the line is too long Leave. The company will take note. Fill out the surveys and blast them for the long lines. Don't cut unless you want the shiit knocked out of you.

[handy-dude]

The one line that wasn't mentioned is that virtual line at the other end of the phone line. Certainly my number one gripe.

Which brings up another interesting point. Most companies think that putting in a piece of technology eliminates the consumers frustration about waiting in line. Wrong!

Many grocery stores now allow you to check yourself out. You get the pleasure of checking yourself out without the joy of being paid for it. No discount, no thanks for doing their job for them.

Electronic kiosks at airports let you check in, but you're still going to wait in line to check your bags and worse yet, wait in line to be screened at the security gate.

The list of lines is as endless as the lines themselves.

Instead of some electronic gizmo that gives the illusion that the comapany (or whatever) really cares about your time, hire real people to service more people.

If 'they' would hire enough warm bodies, everyone would be working and there would not be anybody in line. ;-)

[mitch0927]

Since the advent of the Internet, we have become an impatient society. Of course there are more people in the country since we were kids and our impatience has become thin. How about we just kick back and start becoming a more patient society and quit whining and crying about everything. Stop the "I want it now" attitude and I do believe that we will become more humble towards others.

[mitch0927]

Stike up a conversation with the person in front of behind you and the time will go by faster. Don't think that every line you stand in is a fast food line. The people in front of you are wanting the attention they deserve just as much as you do. I have met some real interesting people while standing in line. Start with telling some jokes you have read from your email (keep it clean of course). Mention that there might be a person up there that has a problem, and you would want them to be taken care of just like you.

[middleman8]

Any vet. knows when you enter the services you get in line, you don't get out of lines until the last line up for seperation papers.

[farmerbb]

The cutting in I find people hate most is by drivers passing on the shoulder, or leaving the highway to pull right into an on-ramp, driving along it as far as possible, then cutting back into the traffic. I have seen lots of drivers edging over to the right, to block people from doing that. Trouble is, only VERY occasionally do you see the police issuing tickets for passing on the right and re-merging.

[sclaires]

I hate having to STAND in line for anything since I have a bad hip and can't do that much standing. I normally walk with a limp due to the hip problem but when I have a buggy to hold on to, I don't limp as much because I have some support. But, standing in line to check out when there are not enough cashiers on duty is something else and especially when I go to Super Wal-Mart and have a lot of groceries that need to be in the refrigerator or freezer. I don't want them to spoil due to the carelessness of a store.


Then there is the line when you call some company and get put on hold with what I call noise on the line broken in every so often with an announcement as to why you are on hold and to please continue to hold. I was on hold one evening for so long that the cordless phone I was using started to go dead and I had to get another phone. And, forgive me, but I am sick and tired of getting someone from India to talk with when I want an English speaking American. I want to be able to understand what they are saying instead of having to translate what they consider English into American English.

[roydiogenes]

On a Porter Square Cambridge, MA discussion list people complained about ten minute waits at the branch Post Office. I posted this response. Does it apply to all lines?

TO: Pampered Porter Square Postal Patrons
FROM: As yet unannounced and unchosen new Postmaster
EFFECTIVE: Immediately

Any person (alive or dead) who is too busy or too important to stand in line to mail
packages or to purchase stamps, can use their cell phones to request remote pick-up or sales.
"If the drug dealers can deliver we can too," said the unknown Postmaster.
Immediately upon your call, a jet-powered non-polluting noiseless GPS-guided state of
the art vehicle on the cutting edge, will be dispatched to wherever you are. You need not be
in Cambridge as long as you lived or worked in Cambridge within the past six months.
Trained, well-coiffed handsome and elegant obsequious young college-educated people,
wearing the latest fashions will provide you with a foot massage using Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
They will offer you high-paid worker picked coffee from democractic nations, French wine,
or decaf green tea for your health. All delivery transactions will have an automatic 20 percent
discount because we saved you the trouble of coming to the post office and polluting, and taking up precious parking spaces.
Please call 24/7 1-800-IAM-PAMPERED. Collect calls accepted.

[roydiogenes]

On a Porter Square Cambridge, MA discussion list people complained about ten minute waits at the branch Post Office. I posted this response. Does it apply to all lines?

TO: Pampered Porter Square Postal Patrons
FROM: As yet unannounced and unchosen new Postmaster
EFFECTIVE: Immediately

Any person (alive or dead) who is too busy or too important to stand in line to mail
packages or to purchase stamps, can use their cell phones to request remote pick-up or sales.
"If the drug dealers can deliver we can too," said the unknown Postmaster.
Immediately upon your call, a jet-powered non-polluting noiseless GPS-guided state of
the art vehicle on the cutting edge, will be dispatched to wherever you are. You need not be
in Cambridge as long as you lived or worked in Cambridge within the past six months.
Trained, well-coiffed handsome and elegant obsequious young college-educated people,
wearing the latest fashions will provide you with a foot massage using Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
They will offer you high-paid worker picked coffee from democractic nations, French wine,
or decaf green tea for your health. All delivery transactions will have an automatic 20 percent
discount because we saved you the trouble of coming to the post office and polluting, and taking up precious parking spaces.
Please call 24/7 1-800-IAM-PAMPERED. Collect calls accepted.
enoughroom.blogspot.com
enoughroomvideo.blogspot.com

[roydiogenes]

On a Porter Square Cambridge, MA discussion list people complained about ten minute waits at the branch Post Office. I posted this response. Does it apply to all lines?

TO: Pampered Porter Square Postal Patrons
FROM: As yet unannounced and unchosen new Postmaster
EFFECTIVE: Immediately

Any person (alive or dead) who is too busy or too important to stand in line to mail
packages or to purchase stamps, can use their cell phones to request remote pick-up or sales.
"If the drug dealers can deliver we can too," said the unknown Postmaster.
Immediately upon your call, a jet-powered non-polluting noiseless GPS-guided state of
the art vehicle on the cutting edge, will be dispatched to wherever you are. You need not be
in Cambridge as long as you lived or worked in Cambridge within the past six months.
Trained, well-coiffed handsome and elegant obsequious young college-educated people,
wearing the latest fashions will provide you with a foot massage using Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
They will offer you high-paid worker picked coffee from democractic nations, French wine,
or decaf green tea for your health. All delivery transactions will have an automatic 20 percent
discount because we saved you the trouble of coming to the post office and polluting, and taking up precious parking spaces.
Please call 24/7 1-800-IAM-PAMPERED. Collect calls accepted.
enoughroom.blogspot.com
enoughroomvideo.blogspot.com

[roydiogenes]

On a Porter Square Cambridge, MA discussion list people complained about ten minute waits at the branch Post Office. I posted this response. Does it apply to all lines?

TO: Pampered Porter Square Postal Patrons
FROM: As yet unannounced and unchosen new Postmaster
EFFECTIVE: Immediately

Any person (alive or dead) who is too busy or too important to stand in line to mail
packages or to purchase stamps, can use their cell phones to request remote pick-up or sales.
"If the drug dealers can deliver we can too," said the unknown Postmaster.
Immediately upon your call, a jet-powered non-polluting noiseless GPS-guided state of
the art vehicle on the cutting edge, will be dispatched to wherever you are. You need not be
in Cambridge as long as you lived or worked in Cambridge within the past six months.
Trained, well-coiffed handsome and elegant obsequious young college-educated people,
wearing the latest fashions will provide you with a foot massage using Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
They will offer you high-paid worker picked coffee from democractic nations, French wine,
or decaf green tea for your health. All delivery transactions will have an automatic 20 percent
discount because we saved you the trouble of coming to the post office and polluting, and taking up precious parking spaces.
Please call 24/7 1-800-IAM-PAMPERED. Collect calls accepted.
enoughroom.blogspot.com
enoughroomvideo.blogspot.com