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Article snippet: Standing in line is a pain. At the post office. At the box office. At a restaurant. But on Black Friday, it’s an experience. The first spot outside some Best Buy stores is usually claimed weeks in advance, often by a person in a tent. Shoppers at Walmart will print out maps of the store, with circles around their primary targets. Someone, somewhere, will try to cut in line at a Target, arousing the wrath of the cold, cranky people who played it fair. At stake are both bargains and bragging rights, turning what would otherwise be a miserable experience into an adventure. “These queues are quite different than the usual annoying ones we encounter day to day at the A.T.M. or in the subway,” said Richard Larson, a professor at M.I.T. who has spent years studying line behavior. Professor Larson, whose nickname in academic circles is Dr. Queue, said he would never wait in a line on Black Friday himself. Research is sparse on the lines that form during the post-Thanksgiving retail extravaganza, he said, but he acknowledged that the habit “makes sense, in some weird way.’’ The lines, he said, are “once a year, they’re exhilarating. They’re the kind you might tell your grandchildren about.” Not that Professor Larson personally sees the appeal. “It confuses me,” he said. Lines test patience, personal space and principles of fairness and rationality, especially on Black Friday, when the crowds can be overwhelming. Still, the promise of a once-a-year score lures hordes of sh... Link to the full article to read more