Love of queuing appears to be over

The British love of queuing appears to be over with even the most loyal shoppers refusing to wait in line, according to a study.

Research has found two-fifths (41 per cent) of shoppers refuse to queue for longer than two minutes, and two-thirds (68 per cent) regularly abandon purchases if expected to wait.

The poll of 2,000 consumers for Barclaycard found women will wait for just 12 seconds longer than men, but shoppers aged between 18 and 25 will wait two minutes longer than those aged 55 to 64. Waiting at food and drink outlets is the most frustrating for shoppers, with supermarkets considered the best at managing queues, the study found.

Half of shoppers (51 per cent) refuse to even enter a store if they see a queue.

Retailers are taking measures to cope with impatience, including shifting tills to hide long queues.

Barclaycard spokesman Stuart Neal said: “While retailers appear to be aware that even their most loyal customers are not prepared to wait in line any more, hiding the evidence of queues is not the way to fix the problem.

“Consumers have increasingly busy lives and retailers must be prepared to fit in with them by offering innovative solutions to speed up transactions. By embracing technology and installing new payments systems, such as contactless, retailers will stay ahead of the curve and limit the amount of time that people are waiting in shop queues.”

The top frustrations of queuing shoppers were not enough staff serving customers, sales assistants spending too long chatting to customers and people fumbling in their pockets for change.