Line at the fitting rooms

The line sits at the mouth of the fitting room corridor: whoever crosses it inward has gone in to try clothes on, whoever crosses it outward has come out. The painted area covers the spot where people stand and wait. The difference between what goes in and what comes out is how many fitting rooms are busy, and the time between the two is how long trying on takes. A line can’t be described in a sentence: it is traced once onto the image, and that’s why Monday’s figure and Saturday’s are measured the same way.

Saturday at six, seven people standing at the entrance to the fitting rooms with clothes over their arm. The third one gives up, hangs the hanger on the nearest rail and walks out of the store. She had already chosen: that was a sale one step from closing. The floor manager never sees it, because the customer who gives up doesn’t complain. With the line at the mouth of the corridor he has how many are waiting, how long people take inside and how many have left, and with that he knows whether the problem is fitting rooms or staff at the door. The figures in the image are an example, not the measurement of any store.