Comments on Economic Eye: Queuing in Lesotho

I think its a combo of what Thomas said and someth...

2009-08-06T08:34:13.663+02:00

I think its a combo of what Thomas said and something else. They want to make sure that a) the checkout lady is not screwing them by scanning items twice b) the items ring up for the price that was listed on the shelf c) that they have enough money to pay for whats on the counter. If they start pre-maturely bagging their items they might find they don't have enough to pay for them, so by leaving them on the counter they can easily select an item to put back should it become necessary. Combine that with the fact that shopping (along with many other daily activities) are seen more as social events than simply for the utility of completing the task of 'shopping' and you have a recipe for slow queues.

A weird thing Ive noticed though is that people sometimes tend to get very close BEHIND me in the queue, particularly in smaller shops. What's that about?

What about trust? In a low social capital society...

2009-08-05T12:24:26.152+02:00

What about trust? In a low social capital society, you could be suspected of trying to pass your purchases on your predecessor's bill. Even in France old ladies make sure there is a clear limit on the between her purchases and mine at the counter.

There is also an adaptative issue. I guess supermarkets and scanners are fairly recent in Lesotho? In a typical open air african marketplace, you would NEVER leave the cashier nor the next customer in line out of sight before you've actually paid and had your purchases in hand...

I would like to share some comments made when this...

2009-08-05T09:56:40.949+02:00

I would like to share some comments made when this came through on facebook:

Comment:
great post dude! I think the explanation is simply that the opportunity cost of their time is much lower. The fact that they stand in the way (a negative externality that you suffer as a Westener) is caused by the fact that they assume that other people's time has a low opportunity cost, too - this is the case in Maseru but not in London. Bottom line: the more boring the city you live in, the lower the opportunity cost of your time. Put this together with the assumption (on behalf of each person in the queue) that everyone will have the same perception of time, and you'll get an inefficient set up in which a new entrant with a different opportunity cost of time will suffer a negative externality.

In all this... We are geeks. Put in plain English, their culture values 'not rushing as rats' as valuable. Being a mediterranean, I see their point.
about an hour ago · Delete

My reply:
A good point [name]- that suggests that there is utility (happiness) to be gained from saving time, but also gains to be had from not rushing and taking it easy - even for chores.

So:
Total utility = f(speed[+], chilling[+], other) but
Speed = f(chilling[-]) and
Chilling = f(speed[-])

There must be an equilibrium somewhere. In fact, depending upon individual preferences (presumably influenced by social environment), there must be several equilibriums depending upon the country (or, for Italians, the area of the country with the North being more like me and the South being more like Lesotho - which category do you fall into?)
54 minutes ago · Delete

Second comment (same person):
equilibrium should be... around Perugia, I guess :)))

Definitely, there are multiple equilibria - a 'chilled' one and a 'rat-race' one... Let me complicate this a bit more. Humans are by nature hyperbolic discounters - in other words the present is given disproportionately more value than the future. That's why people smoke, dont use condoms, etc. So, from an aggregate welfare perspective, we should all move to the 'race-rat equilibrium'... but when in the queue, time-inconsistency prevents queuers to do so as they value the 'chill-out' in that particular moment MORE than the additional leisure they could get if they moved faster... so there is a dynamic type of analysis that needs to be done.

The perception of time and how humans value it is an amazing field! One of my favourite quotes on this is from Randy Pausch - he said: 'time is the most important resource we have... cos we never get it back!'

...now TIME to dedicate some TIME to my work...:)

pah, real developing countries don't even have sup...

2009-08-05T09:16:27.673+02:00

pah, real developing countries don't even have supermarkets,