'Tis the season to be queuing.
For many, Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas without at least 10 minutes spent waiting to pay for that last-minute jar of cranberry jelly or roll of Christmas wrapping.
Herald reporters braved the front line of Christmas queues to find out how shoppers cope with one of the season's hazards.
A quick trip to Whitcoulls in Queen St, central Auckland, at lunchtime yesterday for a Christmas card involved a 15-minute wait to be served by frantic checkout operators.
Those who waited with varying degrees of patience would probably not have been amused to learn that just one floor above them were a host of smiling operators without a queue between them.
Customers revealed a variety of ways to cope with the boredom, from glaring at staff to wishing they could be time-warped to December 25.
Tom, aged 32, grabbed a magazine and treated the wait as much-needed time-out.
One mum also said she had no problem waiting in the queue while her children waited in the car with dad. "In fact, they can take as long as they like," she said.
Others passed the time mentally running through the preparation of Christmas dinner or trying not to think about how much they had spent over the past few weeks.
The Warehouse in Rotorua was bedlam, with children grabbing toys off shelves and shrieking when they were taken away, people pushing to get past gossipers clogging the aisles, and long queues at each checkout counter.
One forlorn woman struggling with a tray of drinks walked from checkout to checkout saying, "Where am I? Where's my trolley?"
By the time four of the seven in the queue at the Whangarei Post Shop had been served, a further 12 had lined up behind them.
After a seven-minute wait to pay for a $1.95 roll of Christmas wrapping paper, the polite woman behind the counter offered a simple, "Yes," when asked if she had been busy.
Outside, fellow queuer Lynn Davies, 50, gave her thoughts on the experience. "It's always like that at this time of year. Everyone leaves everything to the last minute."
Social psychologist Dr Nikki Harre of the University of Auckland said queuing was a complex social phenomenon.
"It is something that is really different across cultures.
"You have those who queue in a line - like us - you have clustering, and you have cultures that won't tolerate a queue at all."
The French and some Asian communities were notoriously poor queuers, whereas New Zealanders would queue for goods or a service because it reflected our sense of fairness, she said.
"We do it because it appears to be fair to us: first in, first served."
But "queue rage" could erupt if people were left waiting for an extraordinary amount of time, or if queue-jumping began.
Dr Harre said most people would tolerate a queue "as long as everyone seemed to be playing by the same rules. If not, then you'll have a problem."
Queuing tips
DO:
1. Breathe deeply and calm yourself.
2. Do your household budgeting - can you afford to buy what you are waiting for?
3. Hum a tune, tap your toes, chat happily to your fellow queuers.
4. Go immediately into queue-jumper alert.
5. Complain loudly if the queue wait breaches the "internationally accepted" limit of 15 minutes.
DON'T:
1. Queue-jump.
2. Leave the queue expecting to resume your place.
3. Convince yourself that the queue next door is moving faster, and then change queues.
4. Cluster - only works at hot dog stands at rugby matches.
5. Reserve places in front of you for your 20 friends.
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