"To anybody who frequents pubs and dislikes feeling as if they are waiting at a bank, Loebenberg's exasperation is all too familiar. Pubs, bars, taprooms and watering holes of all descriptions are a cornerstone of British culture, where, for as long people have been able to buy ale, an unspoken system has been in place: come to the bar and a bartender will serve you at their leisure. This system, however, has seemingly been upended by a new way of ordering drinks."
"Landlords around the country have noticed the rise of queueing at pubs, with a growing number of people usually a younger cohort electing to wait in a single file line, standing one behind the other, before being called forward to order as if going through border control. A dying system? Lateral bar crowding has been a mainstay of the UK pub for as long as anyone can remember."
Pubs across Britain are shifting from traditional lateral bar crowding to single-file queuing, changing how customers order drinks. Younger patrons increasingly wait in single-file lines and are called forward to order, slowing service and affecting atmosphere. Several taprooms and breweries have found the pattern sudden, widespread and harmful to business. Staff are intervening by asking customers to come forward and breaking lines to restore normal service flow. The trend is sometimes linked to habits formed during the pandemic and appears to spread through imitation, with no clear universally accepted explanation or remedy.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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