Freedomain Radio

Scenario 1A:

A friend and his girlfriend arrive at a huge store.
The lines to the registers are 1 hour long.
The friend and his girlfriend decide that one of them will stand in line while one pick the stuff they are getting up.
When done your 30 minutes into the lines and his girlfriend arrives with the cart.

Scenario 2A:

A friend and his girlfriend is going to a big discotheque.
They know the lines about 1 hour long so they decide he will go stand in line while she fixes herself.
The friends girlfriend arrives and her boyfriend is around 30 mins into the line and goes to join him.

Scenario 1B:

A friend arrives in the same huge store.
The lines are 1 hour long but when he is done shopping he notices that a friend is standing 30 minutes into the line.
He decides to go join him.

Scenario 2B:

A friend goes to a big discotheque.
When he arrives the line is 1 hour long but he sees another friend 30 minutes into the line and decides to go join him.

What are your thoughts on these diffrent scenarios, what makes the different and what is right and wrong?

In the first two,  the couple isn't consuming any more than they would and just planning ahead.

In the second two, the friend is effectively doubling the consumption (at that point in the line).

That made me wonder how much supply of the items being purchased was available (food or place inside the disco). 

If there is a limited supply then the line cutting in the second two examples is harming the people behind them because they may not get whatever they are waiting for.

However if supply is infiinite (or at least sufficiently large so everyone in line can get one) then the only difference I see between the examples is that the second two are somewhat ruder than the first two. 

 I'd get pretty irate over number one, actually.  If I were the next guy in line, I'd be thinking that I was 28 or 29 minutes into my wait, when all of a sudden this lady comes bumbling up from behind me and adds another ten minutes to it?  !  You don't get into the grocery line unless you think you're ready to go.  There's a UPB rule for ya.    If you forgot something, fine, someone can go get it, but don't be hosin' all the people behind you unnecessarily.

Number two is perfectly natural, and your analysis of the other two seems pretty good to me.  Of course, as a family man, I care a lot about how much time (the resource being consumed in all these cases) I have to spend in a grocery store - and I never go to night clubs.