Line-Sitting Services

Abstract Waiting in line is a common yet disagreeable experience for customers seeking service, and the desire to bypass a long line has spawned the innovative practice of line-sitting—instead of joining the queue themselves, customers can hire surrogates to stand in line on behalf of them. These surrogates are referred to as line-sitters. They enter queues upon customer requests, and unlike true customers they sit in line not for the underlying service that customers are waiting for but for monetary gains from those who are willing to pay to avoid waiting. The line-sitters can notify customers through text messaging or a mobile app when they move close to the front of the line. As a result, the hiring customer can simply show up to take the line-sitter’s spot when the service is about to start. In this chapter, we present a model of line-sitting and show that it can increase the social welfare or revenue of the service provider over a first-in-first-out (FIFO) policy. This chapter is primarily based on Cui et al. (Manag Sci 66(1):227–242, 2020) and Wang and Wang (Oper Res Lett 47(5):447–451, 2019) where interested readers can find proofs of the findings shown in this chapter.