Skip the line? Nah, just pay someone to stand there
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Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Don't want to wait for that trendy bagel or fashion pop-up? You can hire someone.
Why it matters: More people are paying for line-standing services.
- Bookings for such jobs rose 18% at the end of 2024 compared to 2023, according to Taskrabbit data shared with Axios.
How it works: Users hire a line stander online — Taskrabbit rates average $27 per hour — and discuss details, like when to swap places in the queue.
Demand is especially hot in New York City, where Taskrabbit requests for someone to wait for reservations at Lucali, a star-studded Brooklyn pizzeria, surged 30% from September to October of last year.
The big picture: Gig workers aren't the only people in the waiting game, much to the frustration of some customers.
- Businesses in cities including New York, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles offer similar services.
What they're saying: Savvy designer shoppers often recruit line sitters for sample sales.
- "When I reached out to my usual guy, he told me that he had 50 requests already for line sitters," NYC TikTok user Saheedat Abdul posted last fall.
- (She'd tried to hire someone to wait from 4 a.m. to 9 a.m. for The Row's luxury sample sale.)
And it's not just about exclusive items. Line sitters can wait at the DMV or city hall.
- Some even held spots at President Trump's hush money trial.
The other side: You can pay to skip the line nearly everywhere. But there might be mental health benefits to waiting it out, according to psychologist Maggie Mulqueen.
- "When we denigrate the act of waiting, we risk losing an important part of our shared humanity," she wrote for CNN in 2023.
