Queueing 101.

So you've been round the supermarket and done your shopping and are now approaching the tills.  Do you have a strategy?  Do you just go to the nearest till, do you look for one on your right-hand side, or your left, or go to the one with the shortest queue, or what?  I don't know why, but I dislike working to my right, so I tend to look for a till on my left-hand side, but what I've learned, and I was pleased to see that a recent study came to the same conclusion, is that what takes the time and therefore delays you, is not people putting their shopping back in their trolleys or bags, but paying for it, and therefore, all things being equal, it is better to join a queue with one or two people with full trolleys than one with four or five people with half-empty trolleys or hand baskets.  Of course, you can come unstuck - you can't legislate for the person who finds their bag of sugar is ripped, and has to send an assistant back for a replacement while we all twiddle our thumbs!