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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   2982 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 29, 2023

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Do people still follow this thread throughout the week? Anyway, what is the name for this phenomenon that I shall call the Chick-Fil-A Drive Thru phenomenon? Basically it's when people all decide to "beat the rush" and in doing so they cause their own rush. I noticed it happening at Chick-Fil-A, which notoriously has lines around the block. I'd go at 12:00 and it would take a good 20 minutes. OK, I push it back to 11:45. That was better for a bit but then shortly was just as bad. So I push it back to 11:30. Then 11:15. We are far at the early end of what can be called the lunch window, and yet I'm stuck behind 20 or so cars and it's still a 15 minute ordeal. There can't be that many people who all just organically decided 11:15 was a good time for lunch. We must have all had the same collective idea of "beating the rush".

And here's the thing, if I wait and go at, say, 12:30, often I can breeze through fairly easily (YMMV and this isn't 100% guaranteed, but still shocking considering 12:30 is smack-dab in the middle of the prime lunchtime hour). But I don't wait, I go at 11:15 because my idiot brain says, surely if the line is this bad NOW, it must be impossible at 12:30 - even though I've seen evidence that's not always the case.

I'm able to avoid this at the local Chik fil A by going inside. Its always empty, even when there are 30+ vehicles waiting for the drive through. No one wants the annoyance of getting out of their lifted super-cab single passenger commuter pickup trucks.

Somewhat tangential but I generally prefer late lunches to early ones because it makes the day feel shorter. I'd rather take a short 10 or 15 in the late morning and have my longer break around 2 pm.

While that absolutely happens I think there might be something else going on here as well.

In my experience, it's fairly easy to get away with taking an early lunch but a lot of important meetings happen at 13, because people are assumed to both be in the office and just have eaten and taken a break. This leads to office people gravitating towards either taking lunch at 12 or earlier, not later.

At the same time blue collar workers usually have lunch well before 12 because they start early.

This combined leads to what you're seeing.

Tragedy of the commons?

I feel like that applies in most of these collective-action problems.

I once waited for several hours in line, starting at 3am, for the bus to Machu Picchu because our guide told us we needed to beat the rush. We were not the first people in line. Nor did we be beat the rush.

As we left the site in the early afternoon, I noticed that the park was noticeably less full than when we arrived. When our bus arrived back in town, there were no longer any lines for the bus going up to the site.

We could have slept in, not waited in line, and had a less crowded experience. But instead we tried to "beat the rush".

Were you guys able to get there for the sunrise though? That's a pretty spectacular way to experience Machu Picchu.

Unfortunately, it was rainy so no sunrise that day :(

Game theory in action? Trade-off of wait times based on evolving expectations? I've seen similar phenomena with a pizza places but usually the dinner hour is consistently busy, but shifting an hour early or late only sometimes makes the pickup wait time less.

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