Unethical? You might as well be mad at the person who accepted the money. It was a business transaction and not anyone else’s business.

Ohio is a “concealed carry” gun state. Perhaps he might want to think about it next time before he gets someone totally ticked off at him.

What about the practice of lobbyists paying people to stand in line so they get good seats at congressional hearings? Anyone think this is a problem?

This is funny!! Who cares that someone paid someone else for their place in line. No one got pushed back or inconvenienced so there’s no “injury.” What do those of you who think what this guy did was wrong think of someone hiring a personal shopper to stand in line for them and run their errands. I really don’t see any difference. This is democracy because the person in line had the power to say no but instead chose to make some money since he wasn’t in a hurry. Anyone wish to buy my place in line??

While this is a small incident, it is a great example of how we chip away at the sacred idea of democracy (one man, one vote; first come, first served; all of us equal) when we let “money talk.” In fact, I would argue that much of what is wrong with the U.S.’s economic injustices is the result of the millions of times every day someone wants to be treated differently than someone else and is willing to use money to that end. It is worth examining our own use of money. See more about seeing beyond self interest at my website, http://www.inspiritry.com.

Let me add: I order my deli products on the Internet (from Park N Shop). I pay a few extra dollars but then I don’t have to stand behind the big shots, the teenagers, and the “whiners.” I wanted the food to be ready exactly at noon, and it was: no line/ extra cash.

Is this different, Fleming & Schwarz? Or are you going to lambast my “privilege,” too?

(Oh to be a member of the plutocracy and able to scrape together $10).

Hmmm… the “whiner” (as some poster has called him) had the option of starting a bidding war: “hey kid: I’ll give you TEN DOLLARS AND A NICKEL for your number.” The fact that he didn’t shows that he really didn’t care about going to the front of the line, and therefore is wasting our time by whining about it.

Funny thing: a few days after I first read this article, I was at the DMV waiting to renew my license when some guy who appeared to be in a hurry asked me what my number was. I happened to be the next number up, and he offered to buy my number for $20. I agreed, and he paid me the money and then explained that he had to get an ID card and hurry to the airport or miss a plane.

Now, perhaps I should have given the money back at that point out of sympathy, but I see nothing wrong with his paying for faster service. Obviously, it was worth it to him to get to the airport on time–just as the guy in this case stood to lose in some way if he had to wait. It’s an opportunity cost in both cases. Had my exchange caused someone behind me to wait longer, that would be one thing, but since I imposed upon them in no way, I don’t see any problem in what I did. Despite your comments, queueing theory and economics suggest that paying for a shorter wait time happens a million times a day, from HOV lines to concert tickets to Wii sales.

This is hysterical! I can see it now…. a new sign that says “Absolutely NO purchase of a place in line.”

Seriously, the only thing I am shocked about is that someone who was fifth or sixth in the line didn’t offer the space for $5.

Get over it!

Very amusing conversation. my favorite comment thus far:

“Let’s face it; they guy probably makes $600 an hour, and by my calculations, saved $90 by paying $10 extra and not having to wait ten minutes for his number to come up.”

Some people hired others to sit in line to buy an iPhone. Some people got in an iPhone line with the intention of selling their place; others bought the space from them.

Others do the same for concert tickets. Where do ticket agencies get tickets except from people they hire to stand in line?

It is wrong to hire yourself out as a line sitter? Is it wrong to hire a line sitter? I think not.

I’m sure the teenager loved getting a free lunch out of the deal.

I think you’re ticked because you didn’t get the 10 bucks…

The teenager sold his number to Mr.Bigshot for $10, that was the teenagers price to sell his place in line. This shouldn’t be an issue when clearly no ones cutting you off in line. If the teenager hadn’t sold his number, you’d still be in line anyways, so does it make a difference for you to be behind somebody who paid for the spot before you had he paid for it or not.

If however, he paid the sandwich maker to get ahead in front of everyone when everybody had been waiting, now that would be budging.

As much as I might find it tacky for someone to purchase a place in line, I don’t think it’s wrong. There’s no harm done to anyone else in the line, and the kid gets an extra 10 dollars. Sounds pretty win-win and win-neutral to me.

Where I have issues with cutting in line is with local officials and personalities simply cutting in line, no apologies, no “sorry”, no “excuse me, but I have to get back to a meeting with the governor”, no paying someone to get ahead, no nothing–just “my time is more important than yours” and in they go. I’m always willing to let a police officer, a firemen or a military person in uniform go ahead of me, because those people don’t always have the time to wait. Everyone else, well…pay up or get to the back of the line like the rest of us plebs.

This dude is a total coward. He is crying over a sandwich.
This is exactly what’s wrong with America. Everybody is becoming mindless cowards. Nobody has the guts to speak up for themselves when a situation happens. People would rather stand around and get punked out, then run to the computer like a zombie and blog about it.
How about a good old fistfight the next time this happens? Socking someone in the eye or stomach can lead to miraculous things. At least scream at the person. A little aggression goes a long way.

First, what the Big Shot did was obviously not illegal. I think we can all agree on that.

Second, was it rude or immoral? That depends on (for lack of a better term) community standards. In a small town where everybody knows everybody else, most people would probably consider this rude and possibly immoral. But in a city or a populous suburb (such as where I live), it’s not rude and certainly not immoral. Those who consider it rude in such a setting are, by my lights, hypersensitive.

One final point. Someone above asked, “What if everybody did this?” Well, what keeps everybody in the U.S. from doing this is not standards of morality or etiquette, but simple economics. Since potential place-in-line-holders can make a lot more money engaging in other forms of work, there is not a supply of people willing to hold places and them sell them to big shots. Now, if this were, say, Calcutta, the situation might be different. But in the U.S., people fortunately have many more-lucrative ways to spend their time.

How would people feel about this if Whole Foods saw this as an opportunity and created 2 lines. One line you can pay more for your food and it has twice as many waitstaff. The other line is normal price but will take you longer. Ski resorts have started doing this, just like the first class airline security. I don’t see anything wrong with the first two scenarios but the airline thing is not right. The TSA is a federal thing, we all pay taxes to pay for it. So first class passengers should not be allocated a disproportionate number of screeners just because they don’t want to have to wait.

The simple fact of the matter is the “Big Shot,” here actually produces SOMETHING with his time - whilst the whiner (clearly) does not.

In fact, all consumers should have yielded to this productive citizen without him needing to pay anything - merely by virtue of his higher value than yours.

No argument could possible merit my EVER waiting for one of YOU in a lunch line - or anywhere else.

As for “manners,” the rude group here is the shop which is SO slow, SO inefficient, SO poor at their work, that ANYONE was waiting long enough to NEED a number.

The whiner should be complaining about how she was manipulated and abused into wasting half an hour to buy a (mediocre) sandwich. THIS is the failure of all the sheep in line - SAVE ONE - who put his money where his mouth wanted to be.

You shouldn’t be outraged because he paid for the next ticket, you should be outraged that you weren’t smart enough to come up with the idea yourself.

Given that the person did not cut in line, but merely paid a fee to switch positions with someone else, he did nothing wrong. Anyone having issue with this falls into 1 of 2 categories:

1. You’re upset he was smarter than you by thinking of buying a place in line.

2. You’re upset that he has (or at least /thinks/ he has) the money to just throw $10 away to move up in line.

Either way, it’s jealousy - work harder, think faster, and you too can waste money jumping ahead in a sandwich line.

Those of us that are /really/ smart will just call/order ahead so we jump ahead of you in line and avoid paying $10 like Mr. cash-waster.

I wonder what did the “big shot” author do to get this childish article online? There must be something un-ethical going on for CNN money to report an article that talks about someone who FELT someone else cut in line. (Does that remains you of pre-school?) Sure with the economics in confusion (stock, housing market, etc) CNN Money has better things to post up.

In conclusion, either CNN Money does not know what is going on in the world and prefers to play kid games, or the author received a special favor for this silly article.

What is wrong with what he did….if you wanted to move up in line, why don’t you fork over the 10 bucks. I am too cheap to do that, but he didn’t push me back in line so he is entitled to that.

I cannot imagine that this is an issue for someone!

ahahahaha… classic. You whining that someone refused to be a zombie looking at their number in a herd of cattle at the food trough? his 10-15 mins wait > 10 bucks. Hell.. should do this myself.. just wait till I am next and yell out, ticket forsale, no wait !

The solution is obvious: the ole chap should have bid $2.65 for an even better number and then threaten to take 30 minutes to order so that the fellow who bot the kids ticket for $10 would have 1) felt even more miserable for overpaying for the kid’s ticket and 2) would be forced to bid even greater than $10 for the ticket that the ole chap purchased.

Concurrently, the chap should then discretely have paid $1 to the person ordering at that time to include his order as well to ensure that he gets his food. If the person ordering is really attractive than pay for her lunch if less than $10 but ask for her phone number. If she is really unattractive then offer her only .35 cents to include your order since that is probably the breakeven b/w getting your lunch vs the ugly woman thinking that you are making a move.

Now, if the ole chap has any interpersonal skill, he should have his lunch earlier, make $13.45 profit, irk the original ticket buyer more than he is irked AND get a hot date for next Friday nite.

This world is so simple and yet…most people JUST DON’T GET IT!!!

Capitalism and ethics do not mix. There may be honor among thieves, but not ethics.

What that man did was simply use money to outwit everyone else in line. That sting of outrage you feel, thats pride messing with ya. What he did wouldn’t even really be classified as rude.

Let’s say hypothetically that the kid was sent there on the errand of ordering for an entire class or workcrew. That guy buying him out of his space would then have saved you time in that case. Would you be so outraged given the fact that his $10 saved you ten or fifteen minutes?

All seems a matter of manners to me. Nothing truly “wrong” with what the fellow did…just “RUDE”.

More and more behavior seems to be calculated on what is legal or illegal instead of what is kind or moral. The fellow may have had some merit in his rush (a medical professional in a hurry to get back to helping his patients) but likely just considered his time more valuable that the $10.

Now, if the fellow had been an elderly person standing precariously with a cane, even then I doubt everyone in the line would have agreed to pass him to the front…something we all should ponder!
One day each of us will likely be in some position of humility. How will we be treated then?

Lessons in humanity!

Two points: The writer obviously needs more fiber in his diet (therefore, he shouldn’t be in the sandwich line to begin with) and you both (Jeanne & Leonard) need to find an actual subject worthy of discussion. Talk about empty-headed. Did you guys oversleep on deadline day?

What a disgruntled little Whole Foods shopper we have. Tell me, if the Big Shot had bought the young man’s sandwich from him immediately after it was purchased (for $20 or whatever), would you also be this hysterical?

After all, the net effect would be the same : Big Shot eats before you. And Lord Knows that can’t happen in your little world!

If he didn’t like it, he could always vote with his feet and go somewhere else to eat.

Would anyone think it more ethical if the teenager had been contracted to hold a spot in line for Mr. Big Shot? Same outcome but instead contract happens earlier.

There are plenty of “facilitator” businesses out there providing some kind of middleman service. This is just one more of them. No big deal. The outrage of the letter writer seems to me more like envy than anything.

You are an adult. Don’t whine like a child. What did the “big shot” did to you? Can’t someone who packs their own lunch whine about YOU being the “big shot”.

There was a fair trade without negative consequences to others. What is the big deal?

What if the BigShot ordered 10 sandwiches, or enough for the entire office, thereby holding up everyone behind him? Would higher-numbered customers be entitled to compensation also?

I don’t buy that this was a merely “victimless” situation. The opportunity– through a subversion of the firmly established rules of the deli counter– was created to possibly cause mass confusion and inconvenience for other customers.

Those who subvert the rules at the deli, on the road, at the restaurant, merely because they can afford it or think they are more special, are quite despicable and unethical sorts of people.

Gracious people barter their time and money in the appropriate venues (in the futures pit at the NYSE or on eBay), not at the grocery store.

Let’s face it; they guy probably makes $600 an hour, and by my calculations, saved $90 by paying $10 extra and not having to wait ten minutes for his number to come up.

Let’s go back to the “rule” of first come first served. Think about the airline check-in lines. If you paid for a first class ticket, you get a shorter line, so you get served before the coach class ticket holder, even if he has been waiting 30 minutes. Time is money.

And why doesn’t it surprise me that some hillbilly from Alabama is making fun of Whole Foods?

only homos shop at whole foods

No one said it’s illegal. Just one question
for all the people giving lessons in queue
theory (yes, he didn’t wait any longer than he would have) or capitalism (hallelujah! money talked!) And by the way I agree the fellow
shouldn’t blow this out of proportion. But
my question is: fast forward 10 years,
supposing many many more people start using
this “brilliant capitalism” every day
at lunch counters. Do you like the picture
of the world you see? Would you prefer
that to today’s manners? Nuff said…

Are you serious? Really? You’ve missed the point of being in a market. Something was bought and something was sold, that’s how it works. Nevermind the fact that a teenager was smart enough to sell something absolutely worthless for $10 bucks!!! Good for him!

First come, first serve is a VERY important principle.

So remember, EVERY illegal alien who hops a fence is *unethical* because they are cutting ahead of people waiting patiently in their home country.

Yeah, classic Whole Foods clientele… Whiney and angry at capitalist human nature.

Of all the possible “unethical” behavior they could point out (doctors who perform late term abortion, lawyers who knowingly present false evidence to free a terrorist, etc), CNNfn’s goodie goods choose to lament the guy who paid a kid for his place in the Whole Foods sandwich line. WOW.

This is hilarious. I think the big shot did nothing wrong. Letter writer is just feeling insecure and threatened by someone who’s coming off as more successful. As for manners, nobody cut so no big deal.

Get a life/

If the big shot or teenager got his sandwich first, why do you care? Your wait was the same either way. You were not hurt at all.

Why doesn’t it surprise me to hear the cry-baby shops at Whole Foods?

I agree with the above readers. No one lost their turn. Don’t sweat the small stuff. There’s other more important things to be “outraged” by.

The writer sounds like a baby I would say grow up and move on with your life. Nothing was done wrong in this case.

I agree 100% with that gentleman what he felt for 5 min of “waiting inline frustration”. Reality is he doesn’t know how hard human life is? Think about the Globalization (i.e. American Capitalism) and what it is doing in the developing world? It is doing more or less same instead of that 5 min waiting time, it is “LIFE OF HARD WORKING UNSKILLED SOLO BREAD WINNER OF THE POOR FAMILY”.

Your are incorrect. the gold rule speaks in our capitalist society. Those who have the gold, make the rules!

Besides, I can only admier his mindset to think outside the box to purchase his way to faster more efficient service. Because of this he is back doing what he needs to do faster and, may also explain why he can afford to do what he did.

Thge bottom line: efficiency in the long run.

Nobody’s arguing that what occurred is illegal. It’s just a question of manners, which, believe it or not, some people consider important. This is a good place to live and earn a living because people respect each other’s rights — except that apparently that’s becoming passe’. A shame.

Talk about much ado over nothing.

That aside, there was no disruption in anybody else’s wait time based on the information provided. The only disruption was to the teenager, who was compensated. The “bigshot” paid a premium for another slot that available on the “open deli market” to anyone willing to pay for it. There was no restriction on anybody else from doing the same.

If anything, we see the same “outrage” in any other biz environment when somebody sees opportunity, capitalizes, and leaves others wondering what just happened. Take the Tickle Me Elmo craze. Lots of people complained that it was “unfair” that people were buying and selling for a premium. But the buyers were taking on risk and investing capital in the hopes they could command a higher price. Some turned a profit and others were too slow to the punch. It’s always the folks that don’t sieze the opportunity that complain the loudest when some non-lemming comes along and works the situation using a free market.

The kid essentially sold his time…he waited in line and then sold that time for a premium to a willing buyer. It’s not as if a new slot was created by a maitre’d who had his palm greased. The slot was sold fair and square.

If the kids wants to stand their all day and sell his ticket when he’s next up, it’s his business.

Or should we implement scalping rules for the deli counter now?

disagree. you had the same opportunity the big shot had, you just didnt fork over the cash. you cant blame the kid for making a buck. you cant blame big shot for using his how he sees fit, as long as he’s braking no laws.

If the kid had to get a new number then no big deal. You still held your number. Offer yours for sale next time.

Are you kidding me? The “transaction” is strictly between the teenager and the “big shot”. Just because your outraged reader didnt think of it, or did not want to pay for it, shouldnt make it unethical. The man was in a hurry, the teenager was not, they swapped tickets and the man paid, surely, way more than what a sandwich would cost him - its his money. The outraged writer did not have to wait extra time, or spend extra, to tolerate this big shot - I say, no big deal. Your outrage writer should loosen up.

We also happen to have a tradition of a market economy and a capitalist system, in which supply and demand set the prices for goods and services. What this man did was not exercise some privilidge of the rich, he simply demonstrated a higher demand for faster service and was willing to pay for it, and apparently the price was $10. Anyone else could have done the exact same thing to move up, but to do so was simply not as important to them. Unfair and unethical? I think not.

Having eaten at a Whole Foods once, all I can say is quit whining. If you can afford to eat lunch there on a regular basis, you too can afford to buy yourself a spot in line closer to the counter.

I wouldn’t whine too much. Your place in line remained unchanged, the only person that was inconvenienced was the teenager, and he was duly compensated.