Screw that, I'll just queue and wait to be called by staff that'll serve me.
If the bar is functional it doesn't really matter if people are queuing cause they are leaving it so fast.
It seems most likely that with pubs not so active over the pandemic, then operating with more socially distanced rules, new pub users just never learnt the "only used in pubs queueing system".
Which is a weird blindspot for the article, where they reference a normal queue as something from "border control", rather than then thing you do everywhere but the pub. Without the introduction to the system they just use the system they use everywhere else. And don't worry it takes longer because it's a convenient time to check your phone.
Even after reading the article, I'm not sure I understand why they care so much. You've got a queue of people wanting to give you money. Just take it and serve them drinks. Why do these pubs care how people queue up?
To me, it seems like a good step forward. I never liked the mode most bars/pubs operate in, where you need to push and muscle your way up to the bar, squeezed in sideways next to everyone else, trying to get the bartender's attention. A queue seems much more orderly and civilized.
Imagine if fast food restaurants worked the way bars worked: Instead of waiting in line, everyone just mashes themselves up to the counter waving cash around and shouting their burger orders to whoever's attention they can capture...
This is such a ridiculous comparison that it torpedoes any credibility this article might have had.
You know where else you get this kind of queuing behavior? At a supermarket checkout.
- waiting to get food at a quick service restaurant
- waiting to get into a show
- waiting for the bathroom in a public place
- merging while driving in traffic
Any time there is an uncoordinated mass of folks on a limited resource it helps simplify things all around for a FIFO process. The chaotic "sharpest elbows wins" approach being better is the exception not the rule.