I remember reading about a place, back in my youth, a place called the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics where standing in line for consumer goods was the norm. A place where standing in line was so much the way of getting things that if a person saw a line forming one just as a matter of course joined the line before one knew what the line was for.
One of my roommates lived in Russia while the American embassy was being built. I remember her telling me how people standing in lines would buy clothes and shoes that weren’t their sizes. They were forced to buy what was left after standing in lines for hours in hopes of being able to at least wear it or maybe being able to trade it for something else.