Section 4. For Which Commodities do Housewives queue longest
.
It is interesting that those commodities for which housewives say they queue longest are on the whole those for which they queue most. This might be explained by saying housewives
remember queueing
most clearly for those commodities for which they queued longest.
Order Rating
Commodity for which Housewives Queued
Housewives
Order Rating
Commodity for which Housewives Queued longest.
Housewives.
1
Fish
154
1
Fish
107
2
Cakes and Confectionery
133
2
Cakes & Confectionery
86
3
Meat
128
3
Biscuits
65
4
Biscuits
104
4
Meat
64
5
Groceries (Unspecified)
86
5
Groceries (Unspecified)
54
6
Groceries (Rationed)
71
6
Groceries (Rationed)
44
7
Sausages
43
7
Cooked Meat, Pies
24
8
Cooked Meat, Pies
42
8
Sausages
19
9
Chocolates, Sweets
39
9
Chocolates, Sweets
11
Total
947
Total
533
(The first column, of course, includes housewives queueing for more than one commodity, only the first nine commodities are given.)
No Regional or Social Group figures are quoted since the sample involved would not bear this amount of detail.
Some indication was given by housewives of how long they queued for commodities for which
they queued longest
. These figures are summarised below.
No.
%
0-15 Minutes
136
25.8
15-30 Minutes
191
36.2
30-45 Minutes
61
11.6
45-60 Minutes
82
15.6
Over 60 Minutes
57
10.8
Sample
524
100
49
50
-33-
OPINIONS ON QUEUEING
Queues are fair.
Strong disapproval.
Queued in 7 day 20.6%
Distribution faculty
Miscellaneous.
No Comments.
Queuers are at fault
Did not queue 79.4%
Wont queue.
Don’t need to queue
Cannot queue.
It will be seen that nearly three quarters of those housewives queued for more than 15 minutes for their worst commodity, On the other hand 64.1% of housewives queued not more than twice according to their own statements, It would appear from these figures that most queues involve a wait of over 15 minutes. Alternatively, as appears also from the first part of this Section, housewives remember only those queues in which they wait longest.
