Mystery shoppers reveal Asda has longer queues than Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsburys
Which? 2016 annual high street shop survey says queuing as top bugbear
ASDA has been named and shamed for having the longest queues in stores - with waits longer than 12 minutes, a probe has found.
Which? sent undercover shoppers into large branches of Asda, Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s, across the country to test the queuing times at almost 100 standard and self-service tills.
The consumer group asked our shoppers to buy the same five items and head for the shortest-looking queue.
The average queuing time for standard checkouts was quickest at Tesco with a speedy 2m 43s, closely followed by Morrisons (2m 47s) and Sainsbury’s (3m 10s).
People had the longest average wait at Asda with 4m 52s - and Asda also took the title of longest queuing time we found at 12m and 48s.
Which? Editor Richard Headland, said: "Brits may have a reputation for queuing but we've found it is the main bugbear for shoppers. Our top tips could help you save time at the checkouts, from choosing a till in the left-hand lane to queuing behind full trolleys.”
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The Which? 2016 annual high street shop survey found queuing was the top bugbear.
Three quarters (73%) said staff not serving customers when there’s a long queue was their top gripe.
This was followed by people who skip the queue (72%), queues without a clear system (66%), people who slow the queue down (46%) and staff not apologising for a long queue (9%).
According to Which? members, the most hated queue is at an airport where people are more likely to have to queue multiple times.
Average queuing times
Which? reveals top tips for beating the supermarket queue
Standard or self-service?
Head to the self-service till.
Our shoppers found standard cashier queues took longer on average than self-service.
The worst of 48 standard queues we tested was one at Asda, which took 12 minutes and 48 seconds.
Pick the left-hand queue
We’re instinctively more likely to join queues on the right, according to some experts, so it may be worth trying a queue on the left.
Follow the full trolley
Choose the queue with the fewest number of people not the smallest number of items in their baskets. It’s payment that takes time.
Transaction speeds mean that six people who each have a small number of items in their basket will take a similar amount of time to two people with full trolleys.
Look for a single queue
Choose a single ‘serpentine’ line where possible - studies suggest that it feels quicker and fairer.