I’ve noticed in this Asda and the one in Manchester, that there is a red line that divides the tills from the main shop.
I’m afraid that although this separates the shopping experience from the packing your bags part of a shop, this demarcation upsets me terribly as it passes right through the queuing area.
Joining the queue till-side of the line is comforting and inclusive, however if the length of the queue pushes one over the line, shop-side, then you are forced to stand in this newly created no man’s land.
One wants to belong to the till area but you are instead made to feel painfully aware that you are actually in the shopping area and therefore in the way of persons still shopping. Note in the above picture how the man, made to feel self-conscious by the line, has put his trolley side on in the queue to take up less space.
I do not think that I would be taking things too far if I stated that this red line takes the pride out of queuing.
January 24, 2007 at 10:29 pm
This deserves a letter of complaint williamdeed, get on it.
January 26, 2007 at 10:43 am
Not so fast, Gary Wood. Perhaps Asda have identified the problem of the proxy queue jumper, and have acted to thwart his little game. By setting up this “Checkpoint Charlie” system of demarkation, they keep the non-queueing queuer away from the till, allowing the genuine queuer the space required to pay for their goods free of the nuisance of the waver-through.
The problem is not that the line exists, but rather that it is too near the tills. Obviously Asda need to extend their stores by another few acres in order to properly accommodate people who actually want to buy something.
January 26, 2007 at 3:57 pm
Asda may have eliminated the possibilities for proxy queue jumpers Sam Tana, however I am still not happy with this red line.
The colour itself is not in keeping with the corporate colours of the Wal Mart family and grabs my attention in a fashion that, quite frankly, leaves me rather perturbed.
You are right, it is too near the tills, however I do not feel as though it would be better placed if it were closer to the aisles.
January 26, 2007 at 5:13 pm
Ask them to move it – they’re always happy to help. Apparently.
January 26, 2007 at 6:14 pm
Sam Tana, nota bene the ironic use of quotation marks.
Always ‘Happy’ to Help.
January 26, 2007 at 9:22 pm
Never noticed that before, an ironic supermarket, how spiffing.
January 26, 2007 at 9:48 pm
Spiffing? It’s irritating. Especially combined with the use of three different fonts for a sentence that comprises of only four words.
January 27, 2007 at 3:51 pm
Bossy thinks this queue business is the stinkinest best idea, like, eh-ver. Of course Bossy doesn’t wait in queues but rather lines. Much more pedestrian and not nearly as charming.
January 27, 2007 at 6:12 pm
My dear Bossy, as long as you keep referring to yourself in the third person, I do not mind if you wait in a queue or a line. Welcome.
January 29, 2007 at 10:28 am
I don’t think they are quotation marks, ironic or otherwise. I think they are meant to be wrinkles, created by the smiley-mouth shape of the word “HAPPY” (my quotation marks).
But maybe I’m wrong. The mix of fonts and styles within a simple statement such as “Always happy to help” is disturbing – lurching from the emphatically underlined italic script of “Always” (which is surely more a reminder to the staff than a reassurance to the customer) via the manic grin of the capitalised “HAPPY” through to the rather plain and almost plaintive “to help”. After shouting and grinning at the customer with the first half of the statement, it peters off into apologetic unstatement, as if they’d almost forgotten what it was that they were “Always HAPPY” to do.
Maybe it’s not a statement, but a challenge. If one found a member of staff who was not happy, or at least not always happy, when called upon to render assistance, you get a prize?
Maybe the mission statement only applies on the far side of the red line, and on the till side different rules apply. Maybe there the staff are only “Sometimes agreeable to come to your aid”?
December 16, 2007 at 1:58 am
The red line is known as the Q-Buster line. If the queues go past the line, more tills are opened.
December 22, 2007 at 1:12 am
I just hate the Americanisation of Asda. ‘Always happy to help’- not in my two local Asdas they’re not. And the word Queuebuster? Cheap!
December 28, 2007 at 6:09 pm
Were they not always happy to help?
February 10, 2008 at 3:32 pm
As explained above.
This line is called a Q-Buster Line.
If people have to que past it, it means more tills are opened or mobile operators are requested to check your shopping out.
And the reason were not always happy to help is down to the fact of having to listen to shitty drivell day in day out about how the bananas are to expensive or how people hate that ASDA is american.
ASDA isn’t American, it is Associated Dairies of Leeds and is simply owned by a US Conglomerate.
Without whom, prices would be sky high!
April 30, 2008 at 9:39 pm
if i gave a resignation ,can i join agin to work asda with in a notice period?