Queue Here

Ok Russia, lets talk about how people wait in a line. There are clearly some cultural differences between you, Mother Russia, and the rest of the world. Queuing is already a bit of a time wasting process but inefficient & chaotic queuing just makes it worse. 

Waiting in line for the bus home is an adventurous free-for-all. Calling it a line is very generous. Each night is a mad scramble, complete with little angry Russian women elbowing past me and generally being aggressive. On more than one occasion I thought I had left no possible room to get past me only to be shoved and elbowed aside by someone a foot shorter than me (while being sort of shouted at in Russian). It's interesting if you find chaos exciting. I don't but that's just me maybe. 

We are currently in here...

We got here at 10am today since we had no tickets this morning. We decided on a little commerce to start the day. Inside, the store makes no sense. There is seemingly no logic to the layout. Boxes of unopened merchandise block racks of clothes. Shelves are a hodgepodge of disparate items.  I expect a fair amount of disorder in anything called a "Superstore". That goes double at the Olympics, but this is a bit crazy. 

And then there is the checkout line. 

We've been in this line for 35 minutes ( side note, Marissa has dropped her little Russian nesting dolls 5 times so far:)). There is a long wall of T-shirts you can't really access unless you've been in line for 30+ minutes or (and this is what most people are doing) you just disrupt the line, cut your way through everyone and then just sort of stay in line. The stantions seem to only be a suggestion that you're supposed to wait in any kind of order. I've lost count of the number of times people have hopped in and out of line, removing the ropes each time...why are the ropes even here?  A few people have had the nerve to just walk into line then act surprised when they get funny looks from the few of us who know how to queue up like regular folk. 

It also only seems like they have 3 or 4 people at the cash register for this huge "superstore" full of people (Update: only 3 cashiers, hundreds of people shopping). That's a little frustrating. If you we're to try to get into the store in the middle of the day you're waiting a minimum of an hour outside. If you knew exactly the thing you wanted and where it was (but how could you?) you're not getting out of here in less than two hours. You're likely to be in here for much longer though. 

At long last, we're finally with in striking distance of checkout (Update: It took us 1:10 to get through the "line"). I can't help but think we could have sent some people over here to help them optimize their commerce, just a bit. At the very least they need an informational packet on how to layout a store. Maybe google has some tips? 

Also, this is the only place so far that has no volunteers trying to help. Seems like we could use a few. Or some liquor, either one.