Thais are Innovative When it comes to Queues

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I remember there used to be a time when people complained about the way Thais jumped the queue at places like 7-Eleven. The same goes for elevators where they would barge into the lift before people had a chance to get out. I had just about given up on it when the other year I noticed a phenomenon on the Skytrain platforms. The Thais were actually lining up in an orderly manner. There was hope at last. At least among commuters.

Another strange thing that I have seen over the years is this innovative method when it comes to reserving your spot in the queue. What is happening here is that the office hasn’t opened yet and so there are no queue numbers. When people arrived they would put sandals or maybe a newspaper or book on the floor to mark their spot. So, even if the office didn’t open for a couple more hours, they could wander around and relax without worrying that they would lose their place in the queue.

Then, when the office opened, they would rush to get in queue to get their queue numbers. Of course, this wasn’t foolproof. I remember several times turning up at my local prison at 5:30am only to find a dozen markers in the line but only a couple of people waiting there. What they had done was put magazines on the floor for their friends who would come later. One interesting thing that I learned from this is that Thais have a thing about books on the floor. It’s considered bad manners to step over a book. I used to see quite a few people step around the books. Some even dipped their heads a little.

RT @botza69: ไม่มีประเทศไหนเข้าคิวได้สบายเท่าประเทศไทยอีกแล้ว http://t.co/HVIEKBe4

2 thoughts on “Thais are Innovative When it comes to Queues

  • May 5, 2017 at 2:37 pm
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    I remember seeing this photo a couple of years ago, saying that people in Hawaii had a unique way of lining up! Now that I look at this closer, it seems the writing on the windows on the right is more likely to be Thai than English. And, just now thought that if this were in Hawaii, surely there’d be a whitey in there somewhere! I’m curious where you got this picture 🙂

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  • February 22, 2013 at 11:14 am
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    Very amusing! In Spore and Msia, people would put their personal things like umbrella, books, magazines, handphone, etc to book a seat in public eating places.

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