First-come, first-served (FCFS) – sometimes first-in, first-served and first-come, first choice – is a service policy

Policy

A policy is typically described as a principle or rule to guide decisions and achieve rational outcome. The term is not normally used to denote what is actually done, this is normally referred to as either procedure or protocol...

 whereby the requests of customer

Customer

A customer is usually used to refer to a current or potential buyer or user of the products of an individual or organization, called the supplier, seller, or vendor. This is typically through purchasing or renting goods or services...

s or clients

Consumer

Consumer is a broad label for any individuals or households that use goods generated within the economy. The concept of a consumer occurs in different contexts, so that the usage and significance of the term may vary.-Economics and marketing:...

 are attended to in the order that they arrived, without other bias

Bias

Bias is an inclination to present or hold a partial perspective at the expense of alternatives. Bias can come in many forms.-In judgement and decision making:...

es or preferences. The policy can be employed when processing sales

Sales

A sale is the act of selling a product or service in return for money or other compensation. It is an act of completion of a commercial activity....

 orders, in determining restaurant

Restaurant

A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...

 seating, on a taxi stand

Taxi stand

A taxicab stand is a queue area on a street or on private property where taxicabs line up to wait for passengers.-How stands work:...

, etc. In Western society, it is the standard policy for the processing of most queue

Queue

A queue is a particular kind of collection in which the entities in the collection are kept in order and the principal operations on the collection are the addition of entities to the rear terminal position and removal of entities from the front terminal position. This makes the queue a...

s in which people wait for a service or two.

Festival seating (also known as general seating and stadium seating) is seating done on a FCFS basis. (See Riverfront Coliseum

U.S. Bank Arena

U.S. Bank Arena is an indoor arena, located in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, along the banks of the Ohio River, next to the Great American Ball Park. Completed in September 1975, the arena seats 17,556 people...

 for details on a December 1979 disaster involving "festival seating" at a concert by The Who

The Who

The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...

 in Cincinnati, Ohio

Cincinnati, Ohio

Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...

.)

The practice is also common among some airlines which do not permit seat reservations either in advance or at check-in. These airlines allow passengers to board in small groups based upon their order of check-in and sit in whatever seat on the aircraft they wish to. On the basis of first come, first served, the earlier they check in, the earlier they board the aircraft to get the seat they want. Passengers are sequentially (on a first come, first served basis) assigned into one of several "boarding groups." The passengers are then boarded onto the plane in group order.

Example

As NASA prepared for Space Shuttle retirement

Space Shuttle retirement

The retirement of NASA's Space Shuttle fleet took place from March to July 2011. Discovery was the first of the three active space shuttles to be retired, completing its final mission on March 9, 2011; Space Shuttle Endeavour did so on June 1...

 it made available Space Shuttle thermal protection system

Space Shuttle thermal protection system

The Space Shuttle thermal protection system is the barrier that protects the Space Shuttle Orbiter during the searing heat of atmospheric reentry...

 tiles to schools and universities for US$23.40 each, on a first-come, first-served basis.

Grammar

The phrase is often but erroneously stated as "first come, first serve" (instead of "served"). This is an error because "come" is grammatically functioning as a past participle, as it does in the sentence, "They are come." The phrase abbreviates the sentence "The first come is the first served."

External links

• First come, first served as defined by NIST