The SLVR I won from Pepsi is my first phone with a camera, and it got its first use in anger yesterday.
The drugstore I frequent has two drive-through windows. The approach to those lanes is two cars wide, but is not signed or striped as two separate lanes. What a lot of people do when they approach with both windows in use but no other cars waiting is to hedge their bets, straddling the (imaginary) center line and pulling into the first window that opens up. If, by chance, somebody else pulls up before either window opens, local etiquette holds that the hedger has to then pick a lane, and the new arrival gets the other lane.
But this bluetooth-headset-wearing hedger in a tan Camry decided that 4:00PM was a good time to ignore that convention, placing himself perfectly so there wasn't really enough room to go around him on either side (which I would have done anyway if I'd had my '93 Nissan instead of my wife's larger (and much nicer) car). He even yelled at some poor lady who tried to move up next to him.
So, Mr. Hedger,
you win Jackass Of The Day!
(full disclosure: runner-up is me, because I was still fuming over it fifteen minutes later, and I think I stole a purple Blazer's turn at a 4-way stop on the way home)
That's it Chris. I'm cutting off your caffeine supply. Are you trying to give the word hedging a negative connotation? I see no reason why a latecomer to a line should go ahead of someone who got there first. If you really want someone to blame, pick on the drug store that you frequent for not putting lines (or CURBS) in.
Consider the checkout lines at Meijer. If you try hedging there, don't be surprised when the next two people to show up after you BOTH pick a lane and walk right by you.
Consider that your drug store has only 2 windows, not 20 like Meijer. It's probably not feasible for Meijer to do it another way. If the drug store has a spot where only one car can fit before choosing a line, I can "hedge" my car there where no car behind me can do anything about it (without hitting me). My point was that several lines is worse than one line leading to several checkouts. I don't blame anyone arriving in front of me from wanting to get served before me. If I were the guy, I'd consider it rude for anyone to try to line jump me. You can keep up with your "hedger" disgust, I'll stick with my "linejumper" disgust.
What difference does the number of windows make? You can still hedge between two cashiers at Meijer (indeed, it's pretty rare that they have more than two adjacent checkers open at the same time there anyway).
You are off base on this one Chris. Consider Blockbuster: there is one line with multiple clerks. You wait your turn until the next clerk is available. Supermarkets don't usually do this due to space considerations. But think about the u-scan lanes at the markets. If all (e.g.) 4 of the u-scans are being used then you wait for the next available - you don't wait at a particular u-scan. What you refer to as "hedging" I call "waiting in line for you turn".
Consider this scenario. Let's suppose that instead of being behind this "hedger" that day that both windows were occupied and more cars were behind you. You would have selected one and waited. And let's suppose that then the person in front of you was real slow or had some kind of a problem that took a while to resolve. If several cars were serviced at the other window while you waited then I suspect you would have ranted about how much better it would have been if you could have waited in line rather than having to make a choice.