Patience is a Virtue
03:36
After a recent
weekend in Paris I began to wonder why, throughout the world, we have such
varied attitudes when it comes to one crucial thing – queuing. Why is it that
it in some countries it is considered appropriate to form an orderly queue, and
yet in others it resembles more of a manic free-for-all? When you think about
it, queuing really is quite bizarre.
It is, however,
polite. This may be the reason we as British citizens are so fond of a queue –
and can’t stand queue jumpers. Nothing is worse than a queue jumper, not even
the process of queuing itself. Trying to upset an Englishman? Just push in
front of him while he’s trying to buy his Sunday paper or his fish & chips.
Trust me. The utter madness this causes; frantically looking around to ensure
that someone else has witnessed the devastating act and gathering an army of
back up before firmly nudging the person and informing them that you were, in
fact, there first and that there is a queue. Although they did of course know
this already.
High
street launch day queues are becoming notorious worldwide, even as far back as
the Lanvin at H&M line. This took queuing to a new level I had never seen
before, involving many nights camping outside the store on a cold November
night in London, and when I wandered innocently down Regent Street on the
morning of the launch at 9am there were still people queuing around the block,
leaving only a never ending trail of Starbucks cups as a clue of how long the
line had actually been.
Slightly
more acceptable when you’re thinking about paying £199 for a Lanvin coat
instead of £6,000 I agree, but the fascination with shops like Abercrombie and Hollister,
where people will queue on a regular basis to buy another polo top or rather
plain crew neck that is only about £25 to begin with is quite beyond me. What
is it about these stores that make innocent consumers act like crazed groupies?
And why is it not the same at Topshop or All Saints? Personally, the combination
of loud music, darkness and unnaturally attractive staff doesn’t always appeal me.
Although it does smell ridiculously good.
With
sell out high street and celeb collaborations becoming a regular occurrence,
from Mary Katrantzou at Topshop to the more recent Marni at H&M, maybe we
are just becoming more used to queuing. Don’t get me wrong, there are of course
times when it is perfectly acceptable and necessary to form an orderly line.
Theme parks fit in to this category, as does queuing at post offices, banks,
airports and so on where queuing is a necessary evil. Even queuing at checkouts
I understand is sometimes an annoying but acceptable hindrance. I’m just not
sure I will ever get my head around queuing simply for entry to a store.
Hollister, I’m talking to you. This obsession seems to be a worldwide epidemic,
with my own experience of Abercrombie & Fitch stores in New York and Paris
all sharing one simple thing in common - an army of beautiful people with roped
off queues acting like bouncers at a top nightclub in a bid to regulate the
hoards of rabid consumers. Really guys, what’s the attraction?
A
recent column by Dylan Jones, editor of GQ magazine, seemed to share my
loathing for queues, proving that those at the top of their game don’t
appreciate being made to wait 3 hours for a table in a restaurant either.
However, it seems that the global phenomenon of queuing has far from reached
its peak. With the latest iPad release, we even reached the point where people
were selling their place at the front of the line on the morning of the launch
for up to £300, after queuing nearly a week to be there. This can mean only one
thing, we had better get used to the unfortunate idea of forming an orderly
line at every conceivable oppurtunity. Just remember, no pushing in.
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