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> [one que for multiple cashiers] reduces waiting time compared to the one queue per cashier

Is this really correct? Shouldn't one grand queue just decrease variance, not average?



I Think the intuition is that queuing time is asymmetric around the median, so when you increase variance you also increase the mean.

Put another way: if the median is 1 minute, then half the time you'll wait less than 1 minute. The other half you might wait not just for 2 minutes, but significantly more. They won't "cancel out" to preserve the mean.




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