kate moss recently ‘designed’ a clothing range for topshop (a fashion retailer) here in britain, the result: millions of women lost their minds and turned into homing pigeons for the launch. the overnight queues outside the flagship store in london were hideous, hundreds of females camping outside the building, frothing at the mouth. the same thing happened when madonna put her name to a clothing range for h&m the other year: there were stories of physical confrontation amongst the queuing mental cases as they literally fought to grab a pair of madge’s socks before anyone else.
fucking crazy behaviour.
anyway, reading about it the other day got me curious about queuing in general. i suddenly wanted to know about regional queuing etiquette, the longest queuing time ever, aggresive queuers etc. it’s the sort of shit i find interesting.
here’s what i found.
1. on the 11th day of every month in beijing it’s officially ‘queuing day‘ - it’s held on the 11th because the number 11 looks similar to a couple of people waiting in line. the day’s slogan is ‘it’s civilised to queue. it’s glorious to be polite‘. bless ‘em.
2. the longest traffic jam / queue on record occurred in 1980 (feb 16th) on the road between lyon and paris as a result of horrific weather and families returning home after the skiing season. at it’s peak the line of stationary vehicles stood at 109 miles (176 km).
3. apple opened their 1st retail store in japan in 2003. this is a clip of the queue that day. stick with it, it’s unbelievable.
4. (7th april 05) - ‘die-hard star wars fans, some 112 of them, have already begun lining up at the grauman’s chinese theater, the traditional site for the movie’s hollywood premiere, for the may 19th debut of star wars: episode III — revenge of the sith. however, today’s los angeles daily news reported that the fans may be waiting in line at the wrong theater’.
that’s a queuing time of 43 days. for a film. outside the wrong building.
5. you thought no.4 was nuts?
john guth and jeff tweiten queued for 136 earth days (1st jan 03 - 16th may 03) before the premiere of attack of the clones. the original plan was to do it for the 2 years preceding the release but they sort-of came to their senses and realised they couldn’t fund themselves for that long.
clever guys huh?
6. when queues get angry…
7. there’s a blog devoted to queuing called standinaqueue and it’s cool as fuck. originally intended as a place to discuss and post photos of british queues, it now features stationary lines from places like rwanda and the very orderly beijing. i suggest you take a look.
no pushing.
8. the psychology of queuing.
9. here’s a video of a queue at heathrow airport. it’s not even for a flight, just people attempting to get to terminal 4.
10. queuing explained at wikipedia.
anyone got anything long and stationary i could add to this list?
