Managing a Queue for Beer

[essbee]

It comes down to simple mathematics.

If you place eight serving assistants behind a counter and eight long queues of customers in front of the counter and then require each of the eight serving assistants to jostle for position in front of one man who is operating the only working beer pump on site, how many queues of customers are being served at any one time? And how quick is the service?

The answers are:- JUST ONE; and it's VERY SLOW INDEED.

A practical demonstration of this puzzle could be seen post-match in the West Stand Lower Concourse.

A simple way to improve things would be to dedicate a couple of the customer queues to the service of people who only want a tea or a coffee or a Bovril or a bag of crisps. This would still leave just a single queue of people waiting for beer, but at least it would clear the non-beer drinkers away from the front of the counter.

There might even be a better way to get a multitude of serving assistants provided more quickly with beer, but I'll leave the solution to that conundrum to someone with more experience of bar management than I have.

Agreed. 5 minutes using a bit of queuing model software and they could crack it. But oh no.

 

[essbee]

And that was for just one person

 

[Captain Sensible]

The staff ARE doing what they are told to do ... stand in a huddle for as long as it takes one person to pour enough beer to satisfy the customers of eight serving assistants, and then you will be able to collect the beer YOUR customer has asked for. This will take more than five minutes.

There IS a better way to achieve a quicker through-put of customers. It's achieved at half-time in the North Stand Concourse. Use ALL the beer pumps and pre-pour more beer much earlier.

More beer pumps, pre pour, fast payment systems, make sure all card and contactless machines work, give the till staff a clearer idea about what is and isn't available, rather than one person running about after a chicken pie when it looks like there are none. Put the condiments table nearer the kiosks, increase the hot water pressure. More outside beer stands, couple of outside toilets. Job done.

Oh and put the white wine in a chiller.

 

[Bry Nylon]

Oh and put the white wine in a chiller.

This is like a competition for "Things you would never have said at the hot dog hut at the Goldstone."

 

[Winker]

I'm still looking for an ice-cream van - even the Withdean had one of those!

 

[Bry Nylon]

I'm still looking for an ice-cream van - even the Withdean had one of those!

That was the team bus.

 

[Captain Sensible]

This is like a competition for "Things you would never have said at the hot dog hut at the Goldstone."

Haha, yes true, in fact just thinking about having a beer at the football was a long way off then. I added that bit about the wine in because when the misses comes along, she asks for a white wine quarter bottle which the kiosks do sell, but they have it stored warm with the red bottles, then when asked for ice, they have none. They can cool a bottle of Diet Coke but not a white wine? It's just kids on low wages being managed by a muppet on low wages at the end of the day and they don't have a clue. Which is why this and many many other threads have been started in the last 6 years.

 

[Dick Head]

Things will get much better after we leave the EU.

 

[crookie]

Haha, yes true, in fact just thinking about having a beer at the football was a long way off then. I added that bit about the wine in because when the misses comes along, she asks for a white wine quarter bottle which the kiosks do sell, but they have it stored warm with the red bottles, then when asked for ice, they have none. They can cool a bottle of Diet Coke but not a white wine? It's just kids on low wages being managed by a muppet on low wages at the end of the day and they don't have a clue. Which is why this and many many other threads have been started in the last 6 years.

The wine is foul as well which doesn't help, warm or cold !!

 

[Captain Sensible]

The wine is foul as well which doesn't help, warm or cold !!

Don't think anyone has had a cold one yet. But yes I can imagine it is.