Very interesting. As a polite and courteous Canadian I'd wither and die in a system like that.
The absolute best system I've ever seen was in Cuba when I was there in 2005. You walk up to a place and there's no real queue, just a bunch of people milling about. Then you just call out "El ultimo?", "The last one?". Someone will acknowledge that they are the last person in "line" and you now know who goes right before you. As soon as the next person shows up and you've acknowledged that you're "el ultimo" you can now relax on a bench or take off for a while if you know roughly how long it takes for the queue to move. I did see them queuing for ice cream in Havana but at the Casas de Cambio, etc the "el ultimo" system was in use.
...Michelle
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