What Shopping Research is really Telling us...

I am queen of the curlicues. Why have a straight line when you can have a curly queue?  If there's not one ahead of me, I will create one.. Never take your place behind me in Waitrose/Sainsburys/Marks and Spencer's ...or you too are doomed, my darlings! I am resigned to this. I accept as read, the fact that when I espy a free till, and hurtle towards it, impulse Jaffa cakes flying off my laden trolley, that when I arrive, breathless, triumphant, I will be boomeranged back into the store because my chosen till point has been cordoned off. 
This is life and what drives me to grappling with a slow, ailing computer to order groceries online. However, there are still advantages, if not pleasures,  to be derived from shopping in the real world. So I was interested to read today that scientific research has shown us poor pedestrian shoppers the way forward.
You'll never see see "Five Items or Fewer" at a till point but you will see "5 items or less" which is not really designed to irk the inner pedant, but rather to facilitate a speedy exit for those who only have a few items in their basket. Seemingly, this can create longer waiting times than at normal till points. I think we could probably have worked that one out for ourselves.
Apparently it is better to slip in behind someone with a full trolley, because interaction between customer and cashier increases waiting time with each transaction.
Tell you what, let's make the most of human interaction. Let's cherish and preserve it. Because if we don't, the robots will be taking over. If you're quiet and still, you will be able to hear the march of metallic feet on the horizon.