How to beat the line at Starbucks

If the line at your local Starbucks gets to be too much for you, I have found the secret for getting by without waiting a single minute! Simply come to Peru, and bring any of the following people with you to Starbucks to serve as your line-cutting golden ticket: a) a pregnant woman, b) a woman holding a baby, c) an old person, or d) a person on crutches or otherwise unable to walk/stand easily. 

The extra courtesy extended to these folks is a social norm present throughout Peru (not just Starbucks), but the oh-so-familiar coffee house setting makes for an interesting cultural comparison. Imagine an old lady asking a Seattle Starbucks barista to let her jump ahead of five people waiting in line - if anyone had the guts to ask for such extraordinary preference, the favor would probably be granted, but not without some murmured grumbles or anxiously impatient foot-tapping on the part of those being cut. Here, time moves a little slower, and the majority don't mind waiting an extra few minutes for their latte. What's the rush? They're all planning on spending the afternoon there anyway, chatting away in the cozy armchairs - of which there are three times as many as in the average U.S. store, precisely to accommodate the more social nature of the Peruvian clientele.