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[Amperzand]

I'm pretty sure Trump does his own. Who else could?

A precocious but hateful 10 year old.

Point.

[Willfor]

John Oliver on trying to fix the broken primary process.

[mainiac]

John Oliver on trying to fix the broken primary process.

This kind of reporting annoys me.  It's basically just a constant chant of "this is flawed!" which you hear constantly in all american discussions of politics.  Yes, we know.  Everyone knows.  But nothing in this life is perfect.  Nothing.  The way that people chose lanes at the grocery stores is clearly flawed.  The military procedures that resulted in an artillery strike on a red cross hospital in Afghanistan are clearly flawed.  Just saying something is flawed doesn't cut it!

John Oliver says that the republicans got "lucky" because the winning candidate is the one with the most votes, Trump.  But Trump is such a clear example of a broken system.  He is a plurality candidate, not a majority.  He won because his chief opponent, Cruz, was factional.  A whole lot of candidates dont like him.  The system isn't working in a big way but he just papers over that by pointing out that Trump got a plurality.

Basically, I think it's flawed.

[Shadowlord]

The way that people chose lanes at the grocery stores is clearly flawed.

How so?

My choice is very optimal! I always choose self-checkout and never have to wait in line. (It helps to use one of the scanner things where you scan what you're buying while you're putting it in your cart, and the resulting list is just loaded into the checkout computer when you go to check out, so you're done checkout in a minute or so.)

[mainiac]

One of the grocery stores near me got rid of the self checkout because not enough people used it.  Clearly these people are idiots.

[Andux]

I think both parties would be better off if they switched to something like approval voting for the primaries--that way, it would be less about who has the biggest faction and more about who has the broadest support among voters as a whole.

Full disclosure: Using this poll as a guide, I have calculated that my favored candidate would likely have a slight delegate lead over his opponent under approval voting; I am therefore somewhat biased.

The way that people chose lanes at the grocery stores is clearly flawed.

How so?

IIRC, studies have shown that having a line for each register is much slower than having one big line and calling customers up to a register as soon as it becomes available.

[Egan_BW]

Clearly these people are idiots.

I believe this is Mainiac's constant internal monologue when viewing this thread.
I jest, no murder pls.

[Frumple]

IIRC, studies have shown that having a line for each register is much slower than having one big line and calling customers up to a register as soon as it becomes available.

... huh. Would those studies also have noted any increase in violence regarding that setup? Because that seems like a near perfect way to cause more dustups in the middle of a store...

[Zangi]

The way that people chose lanes at the grocery stores is clearly flawed.

How so?

My choice is very optimal! *snip*

You are not people, you are a person who is people.  People are average.

[mainiac]

Clearly these people are idiots.

I believe this is Mainiac's constant internal monologue when viewing this thread.
I jest, no murder pls.

I admit nothing!

[Andux]

Would those studies also have noted any increase in violence regarding that setup?

Not that I recall. A single line which is feeding N different registers will tend to move forward about N times as fast as one feeding a single register, so even if the line is longer you spend less time just standing there.

[mainiac]

Where do you place the long line?  Presumably you dont want it snaking from one side of the store to the other.

[Arx]

Parallel to the registers. A lot of shops where I live use that system.

[martinuzz]

IIRC, studies have shown that having a line for each register is much slower than having one big line and calling customers up to a register as soon as it becomes available.

I recently saw a Mythbusters episode which tested this. Single line with N cash registers is not faster than letting people choose which of the N registers to queue for. It did increase customer satisfaction though, possibly because a single line is percieved as a more fair system. Slower, though.

Not that I recall. A single line which is feeding N different registers will tend to move forward about N times as fast as one feeding a single register, so even if the line is longer you spend less time just standing there.

That says nothing about whether a single line with N cash registers would be faster than N lines with N cash registers.
What you're saying there is just 'adding more cash registers makes things go faster'. Which is pretty obvious

[Rolan7]

Yeah it's pretty straightforward, splitting the line up shouldn't make a difference in speed unless some of the aisles are sitting unused while people are still waiting in line.  Which does happen, but people naturally avoid that by trying to join the shortest line.  And I've had the clerks invite me to an open aisle a couple times when I wasn't paying attention.

So I'd expect split-lines to be marginally slower because of that.  I prefer standing relatively still and using my phone, though.  It's also a better opportunity for the store to sell those candies and magazines in the checkout aisle, that's trickier with a combined fast-moving line.