Working in a store, I've noticed something really quite bizzare. If no-one is around, and one person comes in and makes a really difficult request, alot of people come in, immediately wanting to be served. From none to maybe 7 people in the space of 6 or 7 seconds. And once the last person is served, no one comes in for ages.
It happens really quite often.

What are your theories to this?

A conspiracy of some sort has also crossed my mind x'D

I blame Poisson. Any mathematicians named after fish who think about queues should be suspect.

Does relativity to the ocean play a part? Or would it just be near bodies of water?

Definitely bodies of water. I suspect that certain lakes and shorelines are 'random queue generators' geared for just this purpose. It's all David Tennant's fault.

It's like how some insects, when they find the right flower, release a certain pheremone to attract the others. When a customer finds an unsuspecting clerk, he/she releases a chemical signal to attract other impatient customers as well. The solution is to install huge fans to blow all the scent away (and maybe the customers as well).

Unfortunately it is a bit more complex than that.

Statistically a shop will have a number of customers in any given day. Distribution theory suggests that you will have more customers at the times of major population movements, that is, at morning and evening rush hours and at lunchtime, and other times the customers should come in at random, given no special events at the shop, such as sales.

The clumping of customers is a leftover of the big bang/small fart creation of the universe as can be seen in various scans of the heavens the galaxies tend to be in clumps, perhaps spread out on the surfaces of bubbles* in the spacetime contiuum. As the galaxies tend to cluster, so do stars in galaxies, and so down to customers in shops.

You can notice the same at any supermarket where the 'express' lane is the slowest moving as all the customers tend to aggregate there, along with their requests which require enormous time to answer. Should you move to another queue then a similar event happens.



You also notice the same at lectures. No one will ask a question for a while, but as soon as one person expresses some doubt about their understanding of the subject matter then a large percentage of the rest of the class will also have some question.


I think it is quantum.


*Bubbles was getting a bit p*ssed off with galaxies on her surfaces, but it did wonders for publicity.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/29/2008 01:54AM by bunyip.

Is this connected to the bizarre phenomenon of UK banks and post offices never being open when people are actually free to go to them? Spooky.

Prepare to enter the scary door.

(Cue musical sting. )

Oh no, not the SCARY DOOR!

I think queues are actually activated by random photon emissions when someone is brave enough to start one. Essentially we become more brilliant by subconscious light emission and attract more people who want to bathe in our magnificent illumination.

Clear?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/15/2008 01:06PM by EgonSpengler.

I've noticed this 'clumping' effect in our downtown shopping area.
Some days seem to be dominated by slow moving, swaying fat people and then you don't see them at all for a few days.

Days to avoid are 'Loud-Uncontrolled-Infants-Who-Dart-Under-Your-Feet Day', 'People Who Suddenly Stop, Reverse Direction And Collide With You Day' and 'Geriatrics Day' (whereby old people are apparently dropped off at the Mall and sit on the benches all day, reaching out like the Ancient Mariner as you walk past, trying to get you to talk to them or take them home or something).

'Ugly People Day' and 'Day-For-People-With-Tasteless-Loud-Dress-Sense' can be off-putting, as can the day when people who walk while leaning with their elbows on the supermarket trolley dominate the aisles with their ponderous meanderings.

I'm a little worried that I seem to be downtown on all of these days.

Robert, that only leaves 2 days to get your shopping done, good job that half day closing on wednesdays has gone, or you'd only have 1 and a half days to get hte shopping in!

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Blood! Death! War! Rumpy pumpy! Triumph!

If Tuesday Weld married Hal March III, she'd be Tuesday March the third.

Not entirely relevant I know, but the topic asks for my thoughts, and I just happened to be thinking about that.

I believe this is a simple scientific explanation. Much like why I can never walk beside someone in a straight line, I think it is to do with magnetic reactions.
When a person comes up to be served, their mind is focused in such a way that it forms a bond with the register and checkout chick (me) causing a force field of widespread magnetism that draws in more people.

There is a turkish supermarket in my street that has the largest vegetable display of all mongers around outside on the pavement (we are talking one and a half meters deep on a five meter walkway). And naturally, it is not only just behind the subway entrance and busstop, where the most people have to pass through, it is also the place where all the mothers-with-one-child-in-a-pushchair-while-the-second-tries-to-run-away gather for their midday chat.

It is certainly a place where, provided you are not in a hurry yourself, you can study non-verbal communications of the type "get out of my way, you bugger!" My personal favourites include navigating the united front of three mothers with prams and a totallity of ten children, and teenage girls that are absolutely certain that the world owes it to them to stand aside and gawk at their beauty when they pass.

You might notice that I don't mention the overweight bully that simply runs down everyone that isn't moving fast enough. That is because I tend to be that one myself, I fear.

I suggest a small cattle prod.

__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

On behalf of small cattle everywhere, I prod .... <prods>

Just back from the mall.
It's zimmer frame day.

Ok, I give in. I cannot compete with this fforum. But at least my testing and found wanting was had in the best way.

I'll call you up again after I take my O-Levels Correspondence Course...

You can't give up! There's a rice pudding later!

Gaak! Cough! You don't say?