My (least) favorite part of the checked bag scrum is when a large family is meeting one (1) arriving pax with one (1) checked bag - and everybody from little sis to grandpa (and the dog) line up shoulder-to-shoulder six inches from the baggage belt to make sure they grab it the first time around. There must be some sort of folk belief that bags that aren't plucked off the belt in the first revolution are fed to some sort of shredder and destroyed.
My strategy is to look for the part of the belt around the back, furthest from the exit, because there is usually no one there.
TWB