Posted by: Spainrico 
Filled in: POST OFFICE QUEUES – SPANISH CORREOS STYLE
There is big business being done in Spain by companies manufacturing and selling queue management systems. In every Spanish government building I have been to whether it’s Traffico, Seguridad Social or Hacienda you take a ticket and watch the screen for your turn. It is a good system, no one can queue jump, and if your number is a lot higher than the one being processed then you can disappear for a coffee. They are not only used for controlling `official business´ queues you find them at the supermarket fish counters etc. as well. So the bottom line is they are pretty common place and you don’t really need a degree to cope with them.
Our post office, Correos, in Torrevieja was probably one of the last bastions of the no ticket queuing system until it relocated to more modern premises. Then the problems started. The ticket machine stands prominently by the entrance. It has 2 buttons to dispense the 2 types of ticket available. Unsurprisingly these are for sending (enviar) post and every other amazing function that the Correos can perform (why do I always go on the day when someone wants to send a registered parcel to some remote South American village?) and the other for collecting registered post (recoger).
Despite their being a large screen displaying which number ticket is being dealt with at which counter people still wander in, ignore the machine and ask who is the last person in the queue (Quien es el ultimo?) Then follows a conversation explaining how to get yourself a ticket. For some inexplicable reason there appears to be a total resistance to the tickets system in the Correos but the problems don’t end there.
Because those still in the confused twilight zone, most of whom are locals and not foreigners suffering sun stroke, try and take turn 4 at counter 8 instead of waiting for turn 8 at counter 4. As I am a foreigner in this country I never expect to be the first to work out local culture, systems or procedures but being blessed with a degree of common sense and numerical skills I have latched onto the system without a great deal of difficulty. This skill now means that I end up organising the people who are `queue system challenged´ and, surprisingly, many offer a very sincere gracias with a deep sense of meaning as if I had just sorted out their life’s total problems.
Oh well not to worry I am happy to play my small part in the EU social cohesion program and eventually I do get my turn – now where is counter 3?
