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Comment by ryanworl | Hacker News Reader

Trader Joe's uses a single line (in every one I've ever been to) and it is wonderful. Even a line wrapping the entire store will only take 10-15 minutes because they staff appropriately and you're almost always moving.

You also are always next to some kind of food item and the impulse buys are staged in an even longer display than in a regular grocery store. Instead of four feet wide and five feet tall, it may be 20-30 feet wide and 3-4 feet tall.

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I’ve never seen a single line TJs. And that’s across four States.

Same. VA / WI

If you're ever in downtown San Francisco, half the TJ store is the line when it's a little crowded!

It's absurd. Works pretty well though!

For the record, it's the only TJ's in SF that does this. And I agree, it works well given how much traffic it gets.

Same design in the downtown Boston branch. Line snakes through entire store with lots of opportunity to pick up things along the way.

It might be a SF thing or downtown thing, where there isn’t room for multiple lines.

None of the other SF stores are single line.

The ones I'm referring to are in Manhattan and Philadelphia.

> Trader Joe's uses a single line (in every one I've ever been to)

Multiple lines in western Washington, FWIW.

My Tj's has a single line at the front of the store (likely optimized for those taking public transport and purchasing fewer groceries). But in the back, where the parking lot is, it's a queue per register.

Multiple lines at Trader Joes in Westwood LA.

Phoenix area TJ's use multiple lines

Multiple lines in Oregon.

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