Ok, who else has noticed that it's simply impossible to queue up and get something quickly and efficiently?

Every time there are more than about 2 people in a line, the person at the front always has some wierd problem that requires them to enter into about 5 minutes of discussion. They seem to have no regard for the people behind them that they are holding up, their one regard is to get their trivial issue sorted.


How difficult can it be to pay for one's shopping or to buy a ticket? Yet every time I try to do this it's a wait of God knows how long. It's not helped by the fact that those serving seem to have little idea of how to actually effectively serve and are thrown off by the slightest thing or deviation from plan.


Gav

Hi Gav,

Chip on the shoulder eh? Hehehe well I guess people are basically selfish. Then again, if you are British (steady on now) then you will have a pretty warped sense of what queuing is all about anyway

If you think this stuff is bad - How about this. My girlfriend was in France the other week when an old woman pushes in front of her at the supermarket. The woman looks at her defiantly and says "what are you going to argue about one place?" Classic.

I still think a great place to see queueing behaviour is to go to a crowded ski lift. Do parents actually teach their kids to be such little b*****rs when it comes to behaviour in the lift queue?

yes, been there many times, especially at airports. Can anybody explain to me why I usually take 90 seconds to check in while others - usually the ones in front of me - take 5 minutes? I am strongly advocating an "experienced traveler certificate" which gives you priority over all these tourists at airports - or maybe pure business travel airports - Swiss just introduced a business class only flight to NYC - and, surprise, surprise, it's constantly booked out!

I actually missed a flight once because, even though I got in the queue over an hour before takeoff it took so long to process that by the time I got to the actual checkin it was 10 mins before the takeoff .. and they'd given away my seat to someone on another flight that had been merged! This was back in the days of Swissair when they controlled an entire terminal and they didn't have dedicated checkin lines, you just picked any checkin in the terminal and queued. I thought 70 mins would be more than enough time but I was wrong.

Basically, the problem seems to be that the Swiss are awful at handling 'unusual' situations. Accordingly anything involving person to person contact where things don't go exactly to script results in chaos very quickly. Airport, Supermarket, Post Office, Ticket Office. I've never seen a queue go smoothly.


Gav

Oh, this is funny, and not unique to Zurich for sure. Some people have a sixth sense. I have the sense to always find the line that will have problems, so never get behind me! This morning I went to the MMM Migros Garden Center. Had lots of plants and related items in my cart. Another woman who fell in behind me had only a cooler, so I graciously offered to let her go in front of me. She happily accepted, BUT THEN had 25 questions to ask about her single purchase, then had the clerk check the stock ... I could have been through the line and home by the time she finished! She never even apologized. Some people!

@rwb: That's a funny one. The lady probably thought "what a nice young man.... fool." I think you learnt your lesson there - sometimes it's every man for themselves (especially on the ski lift!)

@gav: Thankfully I've always had good experiences with Zurich airport, though I was lucky enough not to land in a situation like yours. Features like checking in the evening before are awesome. It's one of my favourite airports. But since this is the complaints corner and people might accuse me of being too nice I guess I should also mention the things I don't like. Firstly that new set of gates - the ones that take 20 extra minutes to get to - what is up with that? Seems like a complete joke. Last time I used it the trains broke and there was chaos. Seems like they are trying to take a perfectly good airport and introduce features that nobody wants (like 20 minutes extra transit and having to run for your plane!) And the other thing is I often travel with my dive gear, so squeezing past the luggage limit is often something I have to do. Nowhere in the world have I found the check-in staff so diligent in enforcing the limits as in Zurich. Flying with the same airlines in other countries is no problem. Oh and to top it off, have you ever been quoted the price per kilo for excess baggage when it is checked? It was something like CHF150/kilo....

I once had a nice experience at Heathrow. I turned up 29 minutes before a flight. The cut off was 30 minutes. No discussion, I was turned away and had to buy another ticket. BA.....

Yeah - what is it about people here that they can't buy something without having about half a million questions about it? I see this happen all the time and have never yet seen anyone *not* buy the thing in question because of any of the answers ... So what's the deal?

I also note your point about the person's inconsideration. For a place where rules of consideration are quite often strictly enforced (eg. In apartments blocks regarding noise, any activities on Sunday etc.), it's amazing how inconsiderate and self-centred people can be on a personal level when there is no rule in place.


Gav

LMAO LMAO LMAO ok that made me pee in my pants. that is soooo funny.
And so TRUE.

this constantly happens to me, except NO ONE has ever offered me to cut the line, NEVER.

oh thats horrible...i was offered a few times, given many, as i just feel stupid when i am full, and a person behind me holds like one thing...but generaly people are becoming more and more self-centered and selfish...what happened to good old 80s...as years pass by its becoming worse and worse...

swiss people have no ideas about standing in line...about the only place the men do it is in the army and thats only becos some big shot has a rather large gun a little to close to ur rear for comfort....but worse are the annoyin non germany/swiss speakin tourists who think its ok to shout at the top of thier voice in their gibberish (that no one understand)...like the other day i was at the phone card shop (which also has the internet) and some random women started shouting at the chick beucase her computer was rooted...mean while i waited in line (well line ) and lets put it this way im not going to stand by while some impatient tottering tourist has a hissy fit at the chik behind the counter...i sure told her where the end of the line was or simply showed her the door. i hate rude people.

I think they are just now learning what a line is. It has gotten better. When I got here 20 years ago, if you went to the post office, people would gather like Hottentots around the service counter. It was every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost. Finally, they realized there is a system where by you can issue each waiting person a numbered ticket and each person is served in turn. And now they act as though they invented this method.

ok, i asked exactly the same question to some swiss friends after the thing started to get terribly on my nerves ( people spending 15 minutes to send a single mail in post offices etc) and got the explanation that for some people, esp over a certain age, this daily talks to the shopkeepers etc are pretty much the only conversation they have during their day so they would like to extend it as much as possible...

did you also realise that this country has a significant number of people ( quite properly dressed etc) speaking to themselves in trams etc. ?

This happens everywhere. When I was a lad I was one of that almost extinct breed, the "bank teller". Plenty of pensioners would come into the bank on pension day and just get their "passbook" (also extinct?) updated, no other transactions. All they were really there for was a chat. Just by remembering their name, you would almost get written into their will.

Took me a while to get past thinking it was just loons appearing to talk to themselves. Those mobile phone ear pieces can trick you

Peopel here are like animals - and it's not just about the queues. That's the expression of their incredible arrogance and lack of basic respect for other human beings. And the sad thing is that this is towards everbody, not only ex-pats. What a sad way of living.

Well, that's maybe being a little unkind but sometimes the actions of people in a crowd do remind me of a pack of hyenas.

I can't help but think that a bit more consideration would go a long way towards making many people's lives here less stressful. It's only commonsense to form an orderly 'first come, first served' system on occasions where there are lots of people waiting for something.

Any time there's a queue type situation here, I get pretty stressed out. I just know that it'll be a case of jostling and pushing and watching out of the side of your eyes for someone trying to get past you. Combine it with the inefficient and ineffectual service plus people with their 1001 questions once they get to the cashier, and you've got a recipe for an unpleasant experience.

Top tips to minimise getting stuck waiting for half your life:

Thank God for eBanking. Should cut 95% of your visits to the post office and bank branch out of your life. Bliss.

Going shopping as little as possible helps too - If you have a car, head along to one of those big out of town industrial areas where there's a large supermarket. Do as much shopping in one fell swoop as you can.

Get stuff like train tickets for long journeys from the ticket machine the evening before. Means you don't end up waiting to buy a ticket on the day, which inevitably results in some sort of stressful wait whilst some plonker hogs the ticket machine or ticket counter.


Gav

The Swiss certainly have a very marginal concept of what a "queue" is, and as Mark noted, this is most apparent at the ski lifts. What summed it up best for me was when I was at the train station. They have a barrier system to force people to queue, but because this was so alien to people they decided to put up a sign at the entrance to the queue-barrier that listed the advantages of queueing in order to encourage people to do it. This brightened up my day no end .

I've gotten into an argument / discussion with some Swiss teenagers before about *getting in line*. My wife and I had been waiting 30 minutes for the late bus to our town. There was a rather large line that was behind us and a few people ahead of us. After the bus driver finally arrived and started charging people the 5 CHF surcharge, a group of 17-18 year olds tried to walk into the bus ahead of the woman in front of us. I immediately put my hand out, said "Es gibt eine Schlange" (There is a line / queue). At this point they started laughing and asking me what I thought I was doing. I stood my ground. It was a bit interesting as they kept saying "snake! the snake!" in English (direct translation of Schlange), but one of their friends apologized and said he understood. My wife was rather embarassed, but I was rather satisfied.

Anyone who complains about the Swiss not forming an orderly queue (US: line) for anything, should get their head round the fact that this is a very Brit/American thing:

Continentals simply don't queue.

It's unfair. It's bad manners. It's inefficient. But they don't understand it and they don't do it, from Athens to Madrid and Lisbon to Bonn nobody understands our concept of 'waiting in line'.

The answer is: 'when in Rome'. And simply to do what they do here: walk to the front. The only complaints will be from tourists and expats and then you can explain your strategy and invite them in front of you.

The first thing I teach visitors here from the UK to to do in ' queue' for the ski lift is to place a ski pole between the skis of people either side of them and then look the other way and pretend they don't know where the poles are planted. This very effectively stops the people either side moving forward and jumping the queue.

Hehe

Probably all brits speaking about queues. I agree unconditionally but this isn't a swiss thing, try spain italy or old people in Germany or for that matter the youth in London. I say when in Rome push in.

Or you can wait whilst everyone else does