I had not thought about this before the parent posted, but there is a difference between a line on the way in and a line on the way out.  The first is attractive and the second is obnoxious.  One of the reasons I love British pubs and Japanese ticket-machine restaurants is that you pay up front and when you are ready to go home you just leave.<p>Japanese convenience stores also get this right most of the time.  There is almost never a line up at the cash register.  As soon as one begins to form, the employees will drop whatever they are doing and open up a new register.  At some places, the register can actually handle more than one customer at a time, so if you have someone fumbling for change, they can start tallying up goods for the next person in line.<p>Possibly I&#x27;m not typical, but I often spend a lot of time browsing in stores.  As soon as I have decided that I&#x27;m done, though, I get very irritated at anything that slows me down.  I had never really put my finger on it until reading the OP&#x27;s post.