If you've ever wanted to ram your grocery cart into an end-aisle display because the store's so crowded you can barely move, Google gets you. The company has rolled out a new search feature that shows when a store has the most foot traffic, so you can decide when to avoid—or brave—the crowd.
When you search for a local shop, like "Cheesecake Factory in Phoenix, Arizona," a card will pop up showing the nearest location, hours, menu, phone number, and—if you keep scrolling—its most popular times of the day. You can change the day of the week using a dropdown menu.
The feature uses anonymous user data pulled from Google Maps, according to TechCrunch, that's aggregated over several months (meaning if you enable the location history setting on your phone, your whereabouts could be used to create the chart). Because of this process, it could take a while for the feature to show up in search results for brand-new stores, and it will only be included for businesses with "regular foot traffic and a presence on Google search," which essentially means the location pulls up a phone number, reviews, and a location on Google maps, a Google spokesperson said.
This could make snagging that perpetually occupied armchair at Starbucks—or dodging crazy-long checkout lines at Piggly Wiggly—a whole lot easier.
