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by bell-cot 684 days ago
Might that situation (very long wait for service, seemingly-idle employees) be partly explained (or at least rationalized) as a sort of social ritual, to make the establishment seem high-class, or the patrons wealthy leisure-seekers?

I've seen similar situations in a number of American coffee shops and fancy sandwich shops. Workers can easily outnumber the waiting customers. The spare ones usually appear busy - with tasks that don't seem to related to getting anyone's order filled. Actually filling an order seems to be an intentionally-inefficient ritual performance. The (presumed) regulars don't seem to care.

1 comments

> Might that situation (very long wait for service, seemingly-idle employees) be partly explained (or at least rationalized) as a sort of social ritual, to make the establishment seem high-class, or the patrons wealthy leisure-seekers?

Well, it's a kiosk with no seating inside an airport. Presumably, there are no regulars either.