Check this out ...fast

I promise this one is going to be my last post that involves Whole Foods for sometime to come. I came across this article in NYTIMES a few months back and couldnt help but recollect my grad school queuing theory class. This was such a simple application of that which I have never seen in a grocery store here in Atlanta. The challenge however is how do you manage the perception of the customers when they see a longer queue. It is not intuitive directly that longer doesnt mean slower. Infact having a common line means the next open counter is available to you and you dont get stuck because someone has loaded a pile in his cart ahead of you. In queuing theory lingo M/M/n queue is faster than n M/M/1 queues!!!!