Long checkout lines are customers biggest pet peeve

No one likes standing in long lines and according to a study by National In-Store and M/A/R/C Research if your store has long checkout lines, you're likely to have lots of unhappy customers. The study found that 1 in 10 customers leave stores without making a purchase due to long waiting times at the check out counter. The study was conducted using 3,500 in-store audits and responses from over 17,000 shoppers in six categories, such as grocery, drug, consumer electronics, office supply, mass merchants and club stores.

More than 90% of shoppers were extremely satisfied with a checkout of 1-3 minutes. After 4-5 minutes, satisfaction levels fall below 80% for all but club stores, where shoppers are slightly more tolerant of longer checkout times. Satisfaction declines sharply for waits longer than five minutes.

Men are more likely to forgo a purchase because of long checkout times, as are women in the 35-54 age group, the study found.