Opinion | Hongkongers love to queue but patience has a price – what are we waiting for?

It’s nudging 9am and Leighton Road, in Causeway Bay, is busier than usual. A “human snake” has formed along the pavement: people are sitting on tiny stools, fiddling with phones, chatting, eating and even snoozing.

Like everyone else in the queue, three domestic workers from the Philippines are waiting to buy the latest trainers from Kanye West’s Adidas Yeezy line. The shoes are not for them, they tell me, but for their employers’ children. The trio, who have been in line for about 20 minutes, have a long wait ahead – the store doesn’t open for another couple of hours.

I walk away wondering what’s worse: making your helper line up for hours in the heat, humidity and rain just to bag a pair of “status shoes” for your kid, or wanting the shoes in the first place? It’s pretty sad however you look at it.

Hong Kong’s queuing culture has long fascinated me. I get that there’s necessary queuing: at super­market checkouts, behind the yellow line at an ATM and for buses, trains and taxis.

At kindergartens, parents line up for forms so their children have a chance of getting a place. Potential home­buyers queue for applications to buy overpriced flats. This month, city hospitals overflowed with people queuing for the measles vaccine. The list goes on and on, and on.