I've never really thought in-depth about the process behind standing in line.
We learn it from our earliest forays into group care or education, a way for sitters or teachers to keep us corralled, safe, controlled. We're judged on how compliant and calm we are in the line.
Even into adulthood we judge others on how they perform in line. There's even a Big Bang Theory episode about In-Line-Etiquette (and I must say, I'm torn between the Sheldon hard line, and the Howard meh… ).
In a US shop, not a grocery store or big box store where checkout lines are very clearly demarcated, but in a shop where there may be only one or two cash registers, the line typically forms perpendicular to the counter. It’s just a thang. We all know it.
But in Poland, the line is formed parallel to the counter... so in small shops, at the meat counter in the grocery store, everywhere, you lean on the counter and inch yourself toward the person who is helping you... which means (in the case of the meat counter) that no one can even SEE what's in the counter until you're in the line and leaning up against the glass...
The lines are very orderly, everyone would get gold stars... I guess it's the residual training from Communist times.
I have never had this experience.