Full disclosure, right upfront: I do not queue for food. This is not Soviet Russia. But it seems that I am in the minority. From chicken wings to cinnamon scrolls, the latest ‘must have’ trending foods are luring hordes of people onto the streets, where they’ll often line up for hours at a time, just to grab a taste. 

Just this weekend past, US soft pretzel chain Auntie Anne’s opened its first Australian outpost in Westfield Parramatta, and people began queuing from 4am – five hours before the store opened – to be sure they didn’t miss out. The question is, why do we lucky, well-fed Westerners feel the urge to queue for food, and is it really worth the wait?

Credit: NewsWire / Monique Harmer

Why do people queue for food?

Waiting in line is a tedious business. You’re standing there, inching your way forward at a shuffling rate, with nothing but your phone to keep you occupied. But there’s something in our psychological make-up that draws us to the queue – if that many people are willing to spend hours waiting in line for something, then clearly it must be worth it. 

A study published in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science found that “a required wait can… signal quality to consumers”. In other words, we see a queue and automatically think that there must be something absolutely brilliant at the end of it. Another study published in the Advances in Consumer Research observed pairs of similar restaurants during peak periods, and found that customers were more likely to choose the restaurant with the longer queue, citing our natural instinct to ‘follow the herd’. 

Sometimes these instincts prove correct, leading you to discover a new favourite. One friend tells me, “I spent some time working in Bankstown [in Sydney]. Every day there was a queue 10-deep at one banh mi joint, so I went across the road instead. Day 4, my curiosity got the better of me and I joined the queue. Now I drive out of my way to queue at Phuong 18 for banh mi.”

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The waiting game

Interestingly, that long wait can ultimately lead to greater reward once you finally make it to the counter or table. The same Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science study found that a long wait can, “Increase, rather than decrease… actual experienced satisfaction”.

Another research paper from Johnson & Wales University in the US had similar findings, revealing that the drawn-out anticipation actually makes people enjoy the end result to a greater degree. The author notes that, “The customer will most likely appreciate the food item more after delaying the gratification”. Anticipation can be the greater part of pleasure, after all.

Then we also have our old friend FOMO. Fear of missing out on something new, hot or social-media-worthy will drive many a young TikToker to distraction. If you don’t join that queue now, you might never get the chance again. Or get to brag about it on Insta. 

So is it worth it? According to research from The New Consumer, yes. They found that 92 percent of people who had waited in a line for a specific food item thought it was worth it. And 74 percent said that they’d do it again. 

So maybe it’s me who’s really missing out here. If you’ll excuse me, I’m off to join a queue. There’s bound to be one around here somewhere. 

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