While in New York I visited a Whole Foods grocery store. It is a food store that is aimed at higher end consumers – those willing to pay a bit more for higher quality. Their checkout system was very interesting. As you approached the checkout you would pick one of four color coded lanes: Blue, Yellow, Green or Red. In front of the color sign is 24 registers for checking people out. As a register becomes available a computerized voice says, “Blue, proceed to counter 13…” a bit later “Yellow, proceed to counter 2…” The cycle would continue with a customer going from blue, then yellow, then Green, then Red… over and over.
As a customer all that matters is the number of people in each color line. You don’t have to worry about whether they have a full cart or just a few items.
It was an interesting system and I liked it a lot.