The Worth: Queuing

“An Englishman, even if he is alone, forms an orderly queue of one.” – George Mikes

Queuing is an infamously British habit. We will form a perfect queue without any instruction. However, if there is one thing British people like more than queuing, it’s complaining about queuing. As such, we wanted to find out how much the British public really do like standing in line by asking their willingness to pay to never have to queue again.

In a nationally representative sample we found that 47% of the British public would pay £20 to never queue anywhere ever again. This is one of the highest willingness-to-pay topics we’ve researched to date, with a higher proportion paying than would for pleasant experiences such as having a speaking role in a general release film. This can be explained by the well-known behavioural science principle that finds people are more sensitive to losses, such as time lost queuing, than gains, such as starring in a film¹.

So how much is the ability to never queue again worth? We found the proportion who are willing to pay almost halves (25%) when the price reaches £250, but incredibly 10% would still be willing to pay almost £10k! When it comes to paying, students and full-time working professionals are significantly more likely to pay to eliminate queuing from their lives. By contrast, in older age, when we have more time to spare, people become significantly less likely to pay.

When asked where they hate queuing the most, many chose places frequented fairly regularly for carrying out everyday tasks, with almost a quarter choosing supermarkets, 9% picking banks or ATMs and 8% choosing the Post Office. However, some are more against queuing during their downtime, with 15% picking shops, 8% mentioning the Airport, another 8% choosing Amusement Parks and 5% picking restaurants.

English novelist, George Orwell, once envisaged how striking the orderliness of the English crowd and their “willingness to form queues” might be to a foreign observer². However, while us Brits might habitually form a queue with perfect etiquette, we don’t enjoy them – even to the extent we would pay a sizeable fee to never stand in line again!

1 Kahneman, D. & Tversky, A. (1979). “Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under Risk”. Econometrica, Vol 47 (4): 263–291.

2 Orwell, G. (1944). “The English People”.