Shorter queues at peak time: how to speed up service in a small shop

At half past seven in the morning five people are standing at the counter, and the sixth, just opening the door, pauses for a moment in the doorway. They look at the queue, then at their watch, then close the door and walk on. They don't show up in any report: they didn't buy anything, they didn't complain, they simply didn't become your customer. Tomorrow they may buy their bread somewhere else.

In most small shops the queue at peak time isn't inevitable. The problem is rarely that there are too many customers — more often each sale takes longer than it needs to. Ten seconds looking for a code, five for a bag, fifteen counting out coins: each one is a trifle, but over forty or fifty sales in a busy hour they add up, and that is how three people in the queue become seven.

This article is about the queue at peak time as a whole: where the time goes, what to prepare, how to set up the counter, when you need two people, and how to measure whether it got better. Setting up quick codes is covered in detail in How to set up your first 50 quick codes, working out a rota in Shift planning in a shop: keeping wage costs from eating the profit, and the cost of the different payment methods in Card or cash? What each one really costs you. The examples are general and can be adapted to any small grocery, bakery or convenience shop.

Why a queue costs more than it seems

Only part of the cost of a queue is visible: the impatient customer, the sigh, the assistant rushing about. The larger part is invisible, because it is made up of the people who never join it. Someone who sees from the doorway, or already through the window, that five or six people are waiting quickly works out how many minutes it will take, and if they're in a hurry, they walk on. This is the "queue through the window" effect: the queue sends customers away not only inside but out on the street too.

• A customer who walks off is more than one sale. If it happens to them two or three times in a row, they move their morning bread or coffee somewhere else, and their afternoon shopping goes with it.
• People who queue buy less. Someone who has waited is in a hurry: they don't look around, don't ask for another coffee, don't grab the chocolate by the counter at the last moment.
• A queue also sours the mood behind the counter. A rushed assistant makes more mistakes, gives change less carefully, and closes up more tired in the evening.
• Peak time is the most valuable time. A customer lost at eight in the morning is worth more than one at eleven, because most of your regulars shop in the rush.

A simple estimate shows the order of magnitude. If in the five hours of the morning and afternoon rush only two or three people an hour turn back at the door, in a shop open six days a week that is sixty to ninety lost sales a week — and that doesn't yet include the people who stop coming back because of it. No report shows this number; you only see it if you count it once.

Where the time goes in a single sale

An average small-shop sale is a few items and is typically over in forty to ninety seconds. If you break it down into steps, it turns out that payment — which most people suspect — is rarely the biggest part. The time is mostly lost in finding and identifying the product, in weighing, and in searching around the counter.

In most shops identifying the product is the least predictable step. Barcoded goods are found in an instant, but fresh bread, loose vegetables, local products and new lines are not: the shopkeeper tries to remember the code, searches the note under the counter, or calls to a colleague at the back. A search like this can easily take half a minute, and at peak time that half minute comes up in every third or fourth sale. How to build a code system that works well for this is covered step by step in How to set up your first 50 quick codes.

A program by the counter can also help here, one in which you find a product from its photo, a short code or by saying its name — Boltom App, for example, works like this. It's worth knowing that it is not a fiscal till; it runs alongside your existing one. As far as the queue is concerned, the point is that even an unbarcoded product takes no more than a few seconds to identify, even when a new colleague is at the counter.

Preparing before the rush, and the counter layout

How fast the rush goes is largely decided before it starts. Whatever is calmly done ten minutes earlier doesn't have to be done hurriedly in the rush, in front of the customer. It's worth writing these ten minutes into your daily routine, just like opening — The daily routine of a shop: opening, midday, closing gives you a framework for that.

• Change: before the rush, fill the till with coins and smaller notes so you don't have to go to the back for change in the middle of the queue.
• Bags and packaging: opened bags stacked inside each other next to the till, paper bags for bread, napkins for coffee — all within reach.
• Pre-packed fresh goods: pre-pack the bread, cold meats, cheese and vegetables that sell in the rush into the most commonly requested amounts, with the price.
• Restocking the peak-time products: the morning bread, rolls, milk and coffee shouldn't run out on the shelf in the middle of the rush.
• The coffee machine and the slicer should be switched on and cleaned, with spare supplies next to them.
• The card terminal should be charged, switched on, and checked with a test payment to make sure the connection works.
• Don't plan restocking, deliveries or cleaning in front of the counter during the rush — if a delivery is due, ask for it after the peak.

The twenty most common products within arm's reach

The space behind the counter is the most expensive square metre in the shop, because every step here comes out of the queue's time. Look at which twenty or so products are asked for or rung up most often in the rush — bread, rolls, milk, coffee, cigarettes if you sell them, the most popular drink — and arrange the counter so that these are an outstretched arm away from where the till stands. Whatever is rarely needed can go further back, higher up or into the stockroom.

• Stand behind the till and reach for the most common products with your eyes closed. Wherever you have to take a step, something is in the wrong place.
• The scales, the till, the terminal and the bags should be in one line, so the product moves in one direction: shelf — scales — till — bag — customer.
• Only what you need to serve should be on top of the counter. Papers, delivery notes and the phone charger take up the space you need for packing.
• The small items in front of the counter are for the customer, not for you: don't put anything there that makes the customer reach in front of the queue. More on this in Where should everything go? A shop layout that actually sells more.

The "just one loaf" customer

The most sensitive point of the queue is the customer who came in for a single loaf or a coffee while someone in front of them is doing a big shop with weighing. They are the quickest to turn back at the door, even though serving them would take ten seconds. A small shop has no express till, but with a few simple rules you can still give them a fast lane — without anyone feeling that someone was let in ahead of them behind their back.

• A quick spot at one end of the counter: if there are two of you, one takes only the one- or two-item purchases at the end of the counter — pre-packed bread, coffee, a newspaper, a drink.
• Ask, don't decide for them: "Do you mind if I hand over this one loaf in the meantime?" Most customers happily say yes if they're asked, and are put out if they aren't.
• Slot someone in only during dead time: if the big order is being sliced or weighed, serve the quick customer while the machine is working, not in the middle of the big customer's payment.
• A pre-packed breakfast bundle: if half your morning customers ask for the same thing — rolls, milk, coffee — have a ready, priced bundle you can hand over in one movement.
• Visible order: the order of the queue should be clear, with people not crowding in a bunch at the counter. A well-placed shelf or mat sometimes does more than any sign.

„Customers can put up with waiting. What they can't put up with is feeling unseen, or that someone got ahead of them for no reason.”

How to talk to the queue

How a wait feels depends as much on communication as on the minutes. The same three minutes feel shorter if the customer knows they've been noticed and understands why something is taking time. A few habits that cost nothing:

• A glance, a nod or a short "morning, with you in a moment" for everyone who comes in. People who get this turn back at the door far less often.
• If something takes longer — slicing, a stuck payment, a question — tell the queue too: "Just a minute and I'll carry on."
• With regulars, a short, friendly word in the rush, and invite them back for a longer chat in the quieter hours. Most people understand this once you've told them.
• Don't take phone calls in the meantime, and don't deal with anything else in front of the queue — the supplier, a colleague, paperwork.
• If someone has waited a long time, a "thanks for your patience" at the end is worth more than apologising.

Faster payment: card, contactless, cash

Payment is rarely the slowest step, but it's the easiest to speed up. A contactless card or phone payment takes a few seconds if the terminal is in its place and the amount is already keyed in by the time the customer has their card out. Cash is quick with the exact amount, but with a large note and counting out coins it can be the slowest part of the sale. What card and cash cost you overall is worked out in Card or cash? What each one really costs you; here the only question is time.

Two people at the counter: who does what

A second person behind the counter doesn't automatically double the speed. If both do the same thing — serving from start to finish and dodging each other around the till — the gain is small, and it's easy to lose track of who rang up what. Two people only really speed things up when the work is divided: one stays at the till, records and takes payment, the other fetches, weighs, slices and packs.

If both people record sales — because, say, the second one deals with quick customers at the end of the counter — it matters that both devices feed into the same records, otherwise the end-of-day reconciliation won't add up. It also pays for the second person not to stand right by the till but at the other end of the counter, by the shelves and the scales: that way they don't have to dodge each other.

Whether a second person is worth it is not a matter of feeling but of arithmetic: in the hours when a queue regularly forms and customers walk off, a second person usually brings in more than they cost, but on a quiet morning they don't. How to work this out is shown in Shift planning in a shop: keeping wage costs from eating the profit. For a new colleague's first days, Training a new employee on the till in five minutes gives you a script — only put someone on the till in the rush who can already find the most common products without searching.

How to measure whether the queue got shorter

The length of a queue is easy to feel and hard to prove. After a bad morning everything seems slow; after a good one it seems there's no problem at all. For a reliable picture you need three simple numbers, for a week before and a week after the change, on the same days.

• Sales per hour: how many sales there were in each hour. This shows when your rush really is — and it's often not what you remember.
• Time per sale: in the rush, time ten sales in a row with a stopwatch, from the moment the customer steps up to the counter until the next one's turn. The average is what matters, not the fastest.
• Number of walk-offs: one tally mark for every customer who came in or looked in, saw the queue and left without buying. It's the most uncomfortable number, but it shows the real cost of the queue.

These three numbers show how full the counter is. If an hour has forty sales and a sale takes sixty seconds on average, that's forty minutes of pure work out of sixty. On paper that fits, yet in practice a queue forms, because customers don't arrive evenly but in clusters: three at once, then nobody for five minutes. As a rule of thumb, if one person spends seventy to eighty per cent of their hour serving, there will almost certainly be a queue at the busiest moments — then either the sales need to get shorter, or you need a second person.

Common mistakes

• The assistant searches behind the counter. In the rush they look up the code or price of a common product on a scrap of paper, from memory or by asking a colleague — the number one cause of queues.
• Deliveries and restocking in the middle of the rush. Boxes stand in front of the counter, the assistant shuttles between the stockroom and the till, and the queue grows.
• An empty float. In the middle of the queue someone has to go to the back for change, or ask the customer for coins.
• The terminal under the counter or in the wrong place. The customer holds out their card, the assistant tugs at the cable, and every payment takes ten seconds longer.
• Two people, but no division of roles. Both serve from start to finish, dodge each other, and nobody watches the queue.
• Not noticing the queue. The assistant looks at the customer, not the queue; people coming in don't even get a nod, and turn back.
• Long conversations in the rush. Three minutes with a friendly regular is three minutes of waiting for everyone behind them.
• No measuring. The shopkeeper decides on a second person or a new counter layout by feel, and doesn't know whether it helped.

A shorter queue in one week: step by step

1. 1Day 1: measure where you startWrite down the number of sales per hour, time ten sales in the rush with a stopwatch, and make a tally mark for every customer who left when they saw the queue. This will be your baseline for comparison.
2. 2Day 2: find where the time goesLook at the sales you timed step by step: searching, weighing, coins, bags. Pick the two or three longest steps — start with those.
3. 3Day 3: rearrange the counterList the twenty products asked for most often in the rush and put them within arm's reach. Put the scales, the till, the terminal and the bags in one line, and clear everything off the counter that isn't needed for serving.
4. 4Day 4: write the prep listTen minutes before the rush: change, opened bags, pre-packed fresh goods, a restocked shelf, the terminal switched on. Put the list up by the counter, and ask for deliveries outside the rush.
5. 5Day 5: make unbarcoded goods quickGive fresh bread, vegetables and local products a short code or a picture so nobody has to search. Start with the handful of products asked for most often in the rush.
6. 6Day 6: divide the rolesIf there are two of you in the rush, agree who stays at the till and who fetches, packs and handles the quick customers. If you're on your own, practise talking to the queue: a nod for everyone who comes in, and a sentence when something takes longer.
7. 7Day 7: compare, and decide the next stepMeasure the same three numbers again, in the same hour. If sales got shorter but customers still walk off, the question of a second person comes next; if the walk-offs have gone, keep the routine and measure again once a month.

Checklist

• I know which hours are my rush, and I know it from the number of sales, not from a feeling.
• I've timed with a stopwatch how long a sale takes in the rush.
• I know how many customers leave when they see the queue in an average peak hour.
• The twenty most common products are within arm's reach of the till.
• Before the rush the float is full, bags are to hand, and the pre-packed fresh goods are ready.
• Unbarcoded products have a short code or a picture, and nobody has to search for them.
• The card terminal stands in front of the customer, and the amount is keyed in while they're still packing.
• When there are two of us, everyone knows who stays at the till and who fetches and packs.
• Everyone who comes in gets a glance or a greeting, even when there's a queue.
• There are no deliveries, restocking or paperwork in front of the counter during the rush.

Summary

• The biggest cost of a queue is the customer who never steps in — no report shows them, unless you count them.
• Time is rarely lost at payment; more often in identifying the product, weighing and searching around the counter.
• Ten minutes of preparation before the rush and a counter arranged within arm's reach are the cheapest ways to speed up.
• For fast payment, the terminal needs to be in front of the customer and the amount on its display while they're still packing.
• Two people speed things up when the work is divided; whether it's worth it is decided by working out the rota.
• Measure the result for a week before and a week after: sales per hour, time per sale, number of walk-offs.

Frequently asked questions