Line stander

Line stander, queue stander or queue professional is an informal occupation which came to an existence out of the necessity to stand long times in queues. A line stander is a person who stands in a line instead of another person.

Poland

In Poland, this peculiar occupation (Polish: stacz kolejkowy) was reported as a neologism ^[1] in 1980s by the end of the Communist regime during severe shortages of consumer goods.^[2] With the transition to market economy, goods shortages gradually went away, but the business opportunities for linestanders remained. A Polish professional linestander Tadeusz Żak says that this profession requires certain personal traits: one has to be honest, credible, active, persistent, and persevering. He says once he had to stand in line for 40 hours. His specialization is lines in hospitals for registration to high-demand and rare specialists.^[3] In 2013 Tadeusz Żak lost his 13 year long business, because local hospitals introduced advance registration.^[4] Fortunately, Polish newspapers made "pan Tadek" a celebrity, and he started receiving various offers, some unrelated to his "business": e.g., a role of a marionette in opera Rigoletto (because he is a dwarf), and he even accepted a suggestion to ballot to city council of his home city of Tarnov from the Democratic Left Alliance in 2014. ^[5]

In modern times, this occupation started taking advantage of modern technologies. In 2015, one of the winners of the Business Intelligence Hackathon API (BIHAPI) contest in Poland was a mobile app with a recognizable name "Stacz Kolejkowy" ("line stander").^[6][7]

United States

The practice of "linestanding" or "seatholding" is a service provided in Washington, D.C. to lobbyists, and other people having an interest in matters being debated by the United States House of Representatives or United States Senate. The linestanding company will send someone to Capitol Hill to stand in line well in advance to help the client gain entry into the hearing room with a good seat in the visitors gallery.^[8] In 2007 it was proposed that linestanding for registered lobbyists be made illegal and that they should have to stand in line with everyone else.^[9] This practice has reportedly existed for 20 years, but it attracted media attention in March of 2012, when during the Supreme Court hearings on the Affordable Care Act, professional linestanders stood there for 4 days. ^{[10] [11]}

Venezuela

In 2015, a line stander from Venezuela, Krisbell Villarroel, a 22-year-old single mother of two small children, made the news around the globe. Her "business model", based on consumer good shortage, is different. Early in the morning she is on the phone to figure out what and where is to be on sale, then she stands in lines to buy various stuff and resell it to her customers who don't have time to stand in lines.^[12][13][14] She is one of many representatives of a new occupation of "profesionales de la fila" ("queue professionals") in Venezuela.^[12][15] Reportedly, number of restaurants in Caracas have a dedicated person on their staff whose duties are solely to stand in lines in supermarkets to get necessary supplies.^[15]

Italy

In 2014, all major Italian media outlets covered Giovanni Cafaro, "il Primo Codista Italiano" (the First Italian Queue Professional).^[16]He even started giving classes for aspiring line-standers.^[17][18]

Russia

In Russian language, the word ocherednik (from the word 'очередь', "queue") has long been referring to a person who is listed in some formal queue. In modern Russia people who grabbed a business opportunity of professional ocherediniks call themselves by the Spanish term "tramitador" (трамитадор), which (in Spanish) refers to a person who pushes the paperwork through bureaucratic process (trámite).^[19][20] While the serviced queues include ticketing for sports, pop-stars, etc., there is an observation that a large number of queues are created by sloppiness of Russian bureaucracy: most popular requests for tramitadors are for queues to tax inspectorate and Recorder of deeds, followed by Federal Migration Service and passport office.^[21]

See also

• Cutting in line
• Placeholder
• Kolejka (game)

References

1. Alicja Zagrodnikowa, "Nowe wyrazy i wyrażenia w prasie" ("New Phrases and Expressions in Press"), 1982, p. 332
2. Kultura, 1986, p. 97
3. "Profesjonalny stacz kolejkowy z Tarnowa: Najdłużej stałem 40 godzin, często zarzucają mi, że dużo biorę"
4. "Tarnów: kolejkowy stacz Tadeusz Żak straci zajęcie"
5. "Stacz kolejkowy chce być..."
6. "BIHAPI –najlepsze aplikacje społecznie użyteczne"
7. "The Winners of the Orange Business Intelligence Hackathon API (BIHAPI)", February 25, 2015
8. "The life of a professional line-stander"
9. McCaskill's press release at Senate.gov
10. "The Bizarre Business Of Professional Line-Standing"
11. "Professional line-standers and their subs hold spots outside Supreme Court"
12. "Empty shelves across Venezuela due to tumbling oil prices create a new industry: People queuing up for goods that have probably run out earn more than professors"
13. "People are becoming professional queuers in Venezuela"
14. "Najbardziej osobliwy zawód świata? Oceńcie sami!"
15. "‘Profesionales de la fila’, el nuevo oficio en Venezuela"
16. "Il Codista"
17. "A lezione per diventare «codisti» Giovanni Cafaro, disoccupato, si è inventato un lavoro: fa le code per gli altri a 10 euro l'ora. Adesso si è messo a insegnare il mestiere. Noi siamo stati a lezione da lui"
18. "Mamma, da grande farò il codista" ("Mommy, I will grow up to become a codista")
19. "Народная экономика" узнала, кто стоит в очередях за деньги"
20. В Омске становятся популярными трамитадоры
21. "Очереди как бизнес. Трамитадоры зарабатывают на бездействии чиновников"