Recently, I’ve become acutely aware of queueing. Not queue theory; I’m not that smart. I’m talking about plain old waiting in line. I see it everywhere, and I can’t help but wonder what could be so valuable?

You know it, you’ve done it, and you probably spent some of your day in some kind of queue today. Unfortunately, queueing isn’t going anywhere. Queuing is everywhere.

Some would argue queueing is the basis for all civilization. I’d postulate most of our waking hours are spent waiting to do something else. I’m giving the act of sleep a free ride. Your My body needs sleep to recuperate (or does it?). However, you could decide for yourself that sleep is just the act of “waiting to wake up”. Although, I can’t think of something further from my sleepyhead personality.

Ever wonder what people are waiting for?

Adicolor 2006 @ Union. About 6 dudes queued to pickup a limited edition sneaker (next stop eBay). This was some seriously underwhelming queueing. You didn’t even need to queue to cop the shoe.

A Bathing Ape fashionistos (all male) queue on Saturdays @ 11:00AM. Everyone rocked 100% Bape and was almost 300% cooler than me. (note: the bape site makes you download a wack client)

Trader Joe’s grand opening in Union Square. There were 100 people queueing _outside_ the spot (36 degrees with 15mph gusts), just hankering for a hunk of cheese and maybe some blueberry juice. Inside was a mob scene of granola and blue corn tortilla chips.

Recon. About 25 sneaker freakers were queueing out front of Recon on Lafayette on Wednesday. The blue pack (a pair of limited edition Air Force 1’s and a pair of Air Max’s) are being released on Saturday. These guys will have waited about 72 hours to get two pairs of shoes. I’d like to see Darwin explain this evolutionary trait.
The Ginza Apple Store. OK, this is cheating. This clip is from Japan, the land of queueing.

In the examples above, within a locality, queueing is the most visible, and arguably desirable marketing a brand manager could ask for. You’d have a hard time convincing 100 people to stand on the sidewalk for an hour in the cold wind, but if you hawk slices of dried dragonfruit, $100 tee shirts, or Steve Jobs’ mojo, you get that publicity for free.