Crowds Lining Up to Buy a Game About Lining Up

Poles have been lining up to buy a new board game called “Kolejka” (The Queue), which recreates the tedious shopping experience of communist-era Poland.

Crowds of people, including those who remember standing for days in lines, lined up at the state-run Institute of National Remembrance to buy the game.

The game’s very functional box (pictured above) also mimics no-frills communist shopping.

The game’s description from the IPN is after the jump.

The Queue is a board game that tells a story of everyday life in Poland at the tail-end of the communist era. At first glance, the task of the 2 to 5 players appears quite simple: they have to send out their family, which consists of 5 pawns, to various stores on the game board to buy all the items on their randomly drawn shopping list. The problem is, however, that the shelves in the five neighborhood shops are empty…

The players line up their pawns in front of the stores without knowing which store will have a delivery. Tension mounts as the product delivery cards are uncovered and it turns out that there will only be enough product cards for the lucky few standing closest to the door. Since everyone wants to be first, the queue starts to push up against the door. To get ahead, the people in the queue use a range of queuing cards, such as: “Mother carrying small child,” “This is not your place, sir,” or “Under-the-counter goods.” But they have to watch out for “Closed for stocktaking” and “Delivery error” cards, and for the speculators – black pawns standing in the queue. Only those players will come home with full shopping bags who make the best use of the queuing cards in their hand.

On the product cards there are photos of sixty original objects from the communist era. The merchandise includes Relaks shoes, Przemysławka eau de cologne, Popularna tea, as well as other commodities that were once in short supply.

Though the neighborhood also has an outdoor market which sells everything, the prices there are steep – unless, of course, you manage to strike a deal with the market woman. In this historical board game you really have to be savvy to get the goods.
Are you brave enough to confront the everyday life of the 1980s?

The game is only available in Polish.

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