If you\u2019re running a business, it can be gratifying to watch customers lining up to pay. Healthy queues can be a sign of robust revenues and a growing bottom line. (At any rate they\u2019re preferable to an empty shop!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For customers, however, a lineup can signal that it\u2019s time to drop the purchase and go. According to some estimates, consumers spend as long as a year or two of their lives waiting in line<\/a>, and most people aren\u2019t eager to lose a second more of their precious time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s plenty of evidence to show that customers hate waiting, and failing to appreciate the depth of the public\u2019s impatience could be costing retailers millions (or even billions) of dollars each year<\/a>. A recent survey commissioned by Interac found more than half of Canadians avoid entering stores if there is a long line to pay, and three quarters have stepped away from an in-store purchase because of a long checkout line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet there are some businesses that contend with lineups as a fact of life. How do they manage?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Aleem Syed is the owner of The Holy Grill, a food truck in Toronto that specializes in halal burgers, fried chicken and poutine. Syed says lineups are a mixed blessing in the food-truck business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On one hand, Syed explains, a queue at your window is a sign to potential new customers that people consider your food tasty enough to be worth lining up for \u2014 so it\u2019s nice to have at least a short lineup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n