A single queue might work in a Post Office or M&S Simply Food, but a large supermarket?

Carrefour has become the first big box supermaket operator to trial a single queueing system in a large store - a 30-checkout hypermarket in France - and it worked perfectly, it claims.

The system, trialled this month in Tours, was developed by queue specialists Tensator, which also introduced digital product advertising at the checkout. A spokesman said Carrefour was “very pleased” with the trial and that more were underway in Poland, Romania and Italy. “Carrefour wants to deploy it across more stores,” he said. “It is looking at implementation on a global scale.”