I cannot tell you how many times I’ve been to convenience stores, retail stores, banks, etc, and I see people who don’t know how to line up or are afraid to do so.  I’ve seen places where they had placed velvet rope & posts to show people how & where to line up & even put a sign up that says “Wait here for the next attendant”, and more than once, I’ve walked up to see just 1 person “in line” and they’re standing about 6 feet back from the “wait here” sign.  I’ve also seen where you’d have somebody maybe 3 feet from it & the next person was 6 feet behind them.  It’s as though everybody is afraid to stand next to somebody for some reason I can’t explain.

Just yesterday, I walked into a convenience store & there was a customer at the counter, and then there was a guy standing what had to be 10 feet away & wasn’t paying attention to the cashier, so I figured maybe he was waiting for someone else who might be in the bathroom, so I got in line right behind the lady at the counter appx 2 feet behind her, which is how you line up properly, and while I’m waiting, I turned around and he’s staring at me with a nasty look on his face.  I asked him “I’m sorry, were you waiting to check out next?” and he didn’t say anything, so I said “Well, the line is over here — didn’t they teach you how to line up in school?”  I even offered to let him cut in front of me in the line and he refused.  I then chastised him for standing 10 feet away like a moron & asked him why he was afraid to get in line & he pretended to ignore me, like I’m some oafish brute who doesn’t understand some subtle “issue” that a lot of people seem to have about forming a proper queue.

When I was in school, we were taught how to line up.  It wasn’t like they had a line-forming class or instructional — it’s just that we were simply taught to get in line to go do everything as a class together.  Going to recess meant getting in line; going to the lunch; fire drills; going to school assemblies — you name it & we lined up to do it.  We were all told to get in line & to tighten up the line, i.e., you should be standing appx 18 to 24 inches behind the person in front of you.  18 inches is OK for kids, but 24 inches is proper for adults, or so I’ve found.  You can expand that to 36 inches if the line is just 2 or 3 people or the guy in front of you smells.

I find myself having to constantly get onto people who don’t line up properly.  I got onto the guy at the bank who wasn’t standing at the “wait here” sign and he said it was because he was respecting the privacy of the people at the tellers.  I told him if the bank thought that was an issue, they wouldn’t have put the “wait here” sign where they did.  Besides that, the teller “portals” themselves are closer to each other than the “wait here” sign is to the tellers.  He also gave me the “eat sh*t” look, which is w3hat most children who didn’t mature into adults do when they have no valid point of argument.

The ONLY time you are allowed to not line up is if you take a number.  The only places where “take a number” should be used are places where you have wait a long time in line, such as the motor vehicle dept, or at a bakery or some other retail place where you want to browse while you’re waiting and the line may take a little longer to be processed.

Other than that — get in line, you idiots!