This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Ruby Buzz by Amos King. Original Post: How Many Checkouts - Code Kata Feed Title: DirtyInformation Feed URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Dirtyinformation Feed Description: Information about Ruby/Rails/JRuby/WebDevelpoment/whatever. Latest Ruby Buzz Posts Latest Ruby Buzz Posts by Amos King Latest Posts From DirtyInformation

I've been thinking a lot lately about code katas and I wanted to come up with one on my own. Now I need to get it out there to find out what others think, and force my self to actually do it.

Simulate a checkout line at a retail store in order to find the best solution for keeping customers happy but minimizing checkout lanes.

• Specs
• Customers get in the shortest line every 40 seconds
• Customers of this store always buy 10 items.
• Each item takes 5 seconds to scan and bag
• Each customer takes another 20 seconds to pay and then they checker can start on the next customer
• Customers become unhappy if they have to wait more than 30 seconds before starting to checkout
• Customers leave after 50 seconds of waiting to checking out

• Questions
• How many lanes do I need to keep 80% of my customers happy?
• How many lanes do I need to keep all customers happy?
• How many lanes do I need to make sure no customers leave?

I know that this isn't really scientific, but I thought it might be fun. I also know that each run may come up with different results, but if I run it a lot I think I can come up with a good average.