How to Choose the Fastest Line at the Grocery Store, According to Experts

If you’re trying to get in and out of the supermarket fast (and who isn’t?), it pays to have a strategy.

Even if you love grocery shopping, chances are you aren’t wild about standing in line for your turn to pay. That goes for whether you’re waiting for a human cashier or inching your way toward the front of the queue for the self-checkout registers. Either way, it inevitably feels like the line you’ve chosen is the slowest.

But, what if there were strategies to improve your odds of choosing the fastest line? According to the experts we talked with, there are. It just takes some savvy observational skills, and if you want to be extra, a little math. Here’s what we learned.

Meet Our Expert

• Jill Filson is a a cashier at a Trader Joe’s in Greensboro, North Carolina
• Richard Larson, PhD , is a post-tenure professor at MIT’s Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, an expert on queues, and the author of Model Thinking for Everyday Life
• Julie Niederhoff, PhD , is a professor of supply chain management at Syracuse University’s Whitman School of Management
• Jeff Wells is lead editor of Grocery Dive, a website that reports on the grocery industry

Study the Carts, Not Just the Number of People

When he’s choosing a checkout lane, Richard Larson, a professor at MIT, starts by reviewing both the line length and the number of items in each person’s cart or basket. “You might have the choice between a line with just two people, but each one has $150 worth of groceries, and a line of four people, with each having fewer than 10 items.” In that case, Larson suggests opting for the longer line. “The service time per customer is much less.”

He also notes that not all items are created equal: a basket full of produce to be weighed will take longer than one with items that only require scanning. “The cashier can handle the barcode scannable stuff at least as fast as one per second. Whereas the things you have to weigh take at least six or seven seconds. It's almost an order of magnitude difference in the service time per piece of product.” So, in a nutshell, look at what's in the carts in front of you, not just how many carts there are.

Related: This Was Just Voted America's Top Grocery Store by USA Today Readers—and It's Not Trader Joe's or Aldi

Do Some Math

Even the quick looks Larson describes above will give you a sense of which line might take longer. But if you want to really pinpoint it, and enjoy arithmetic, he suggests this method which zeros in on scannable versus weighable items.

“Look at the carts in front of you to see what fraction of stuff is barcode scannable and what fraction isn't. For everything that isn’t, multiply it by an order of magnitude per item as to how much extra time that would take.” Remember that each scannable item takes a cashier about a second, while each non-scannable item takes about seven seconds.

Here's how to put Larson's method into practice. Say you’re choosing between two lines with one person in each. In Line A, the person seems to have about 30 items in their cart, and about half (15) of them need to be weighed. That’s about 15 seconds for the scannable items. Then using Larson’s equation, multiply the 15 non-scannable items by seven, since they’ll each take about seven seconds, for a total of 105 seconds. Adding the total times for the scannable and non-scannable items together shows that this cart is likely to take about 120 seconds, or two minutes, for all of the items to be scanned.

In Line B, the person in front of you has about 50 items in their cart, but only five need to be weighed. Using the same method, that means this cart will only take about 80 seconds to scan, even though it has many more items than the cart in Line A.

Don’t worry; you don’t have to do this math in your head. That’s what the calculator app on your phone is for! But, if you enjoy the challenge of mental math you can also make it simpler by multiplying the items that need to be weighed by 10, instead of seven. That makes the math easier even if you’re slightly overestimating. And, remember, the more you put this method into practice, the more intuitive it will become.

Pay Attention to the Cashiers

We’re all for friendliness, but if you’ve ever impatiently watched a customer and a cashier chat back and forth for a while, you might prefer pleasantries be kept to a minimum. To avoid this situation, Trader Joe's cashier Jill Filson suggests watching the cashiers for a moment before committing to a line. “Then you can pick one who’s not too chatty.” Filson has another tip to share, noting that many shoppers zero in on the middle areas, which means the outside lines aren’t so busy. So take a second to look at those lanes on either end when you’re choosing a line.

Think Twice About Self-Checkout

Sometimes you don’t have a choice, and self-checkout is the only option. In that case, best of luck, my friend! But, if you do have the option, think twice before joining that queue unless it's very short and there are lots of available registers. Self-checkout is rarely faster than traditional cashiers, says Julie Niederhoff, PhD, professor at Syracuse University. “Shoppers typically scan items up to 10 times slower than pros.”

And yet, many people prefer self-checkout, especially when they’ve got 15 items or less. “I think of it as the new express lane,” says Jeff Wells, lead editor at Grocery Dive, who uses self-checkout for small orders. If you are gravitating towards the self-checkout route, he suggests you look to make sure that multiple machines are running (smoothly) and that there’s an employee monitoring close by for things like age-restricted purchases.

Another tip to cut your self-checkout time a bit: try memorizing the PLU codes for your go-to produce. They’re universal! Just like the desire to avoid long lines at the grocery store.

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