Pubs throughout the UK beg Gen Z punters to cease forming single file queues on the bar
Trying to grab a drink at a bar has always taken time, but now it has been found that more and more of us are forming orderly queues to be served — much to pub landlords’ dismay
Queueing in bars is becoming more and more common(Image: Shutterstock / Mareks Perkons)
Brits are becoming more orderly when waiting to get a drink at the bar. This has come as a shock and surprise to many pub landlords, who are now trying to corral punters around the bar front, but are not getting anywhere.
Queueing is a quintessential British pastime, and there is no denying that us Brits love to stand in line — even if we don’t know what the queue is for. However, whilst Brits are big fans of a line, it seems pub owners are not.
It also appears that a generational divide is taking hold, as younger people are more likely to queue in single file than older customers.
Despite the bizarre move from youngsters, there may be a pandemic-related reason as to why Brits are more frequently queueing in a more orderly fashion. Pub landlords have increasingly become aware of people queueing in one line instead of going straight to the front of the bar, according to the Guardian.
Whilst fighting to get to the front is a well-known issue, younger people are choosing to patiently wait their turn and be told to come forward. Paul Loebenberg, who owns the Wolfpack tap-room in northwest London, said he was baffled when he saw such behaviour for himself.
The businessowner said: “I’m not sure what else we can do to be honest; maybe there’s something I’ve missed, but we’ve tried everything. It’s like the one person did it once and since then everyone has followed like lemmings, they all just copy each other’s behaviour.”
He added that the problem has gotten so bad that staff are now being trained to tell people to come forward and not to queue. Even in incredibly small pubs, there are still customers who patiently wait in line, ready to be served.
Nevertheless, there may be a reason behind the shift in behaviour — and it could be related to the pandemic. John Drury, a professor of psychology at the University of Sussex, said that ever since the pandemic, the way that people do social activities has changed.
This extends not just to going to the pub, but to going to concerts, sports gigs and other major group events. Drury explained that there is a mixed response to claims that queueing is becoming a more “normalised” event in people’s lives.
However, this might be down to the fact they did not realise their own behaviour might have changed. He added that he was in favour of queueing in pubs, saying it helped to reduce “crushing around the bar” and become more fair.
Having helped in the planning for the miles-long queue that formed to see Queen Elizabeth’s passing in 2022, Drury explained that group psychology means queueing in single file is likely here to stay. “Its a new norm and norms are neither rational nor irrational,” he explained.
The professor further explained: “A norm means not only something that people generally do, it also means something that people in your group think is the right thing to do. So if you resist it, you are going to be regarded as a deviant, a troublemaker, a pain — and people don’t want to be put in that position.”
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