I live in the UK and this article describes a type of bank branch that seems baffling to me.
I don't think I've ever seen a bank branch that had a car park, let alone a drive-through window.
I don't think I've ever seen a bank branch that had a car park, let alone a drive-through window.
After email killed off intra-office mail, banks are one of the last viable economic uses for pneumatic tube systems.
Still bums me out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumatic_tube_mail_in_New_Yor...
Trucks probably weren't very competitive in 1897.
They’re aiming to solve last mile delivery with city wide networks of pipes
What had happened was a previous customer had driven off with the carrier, and the teller put their spare into the tube. Then the customer who had absconded with the carrier realized what they had done, and returned to the drive-thru lane - putting the carrier back in and leaving without saying anything. Now there were two carriers in the tube. So when the next customer arrived, the carrier that arrived at the teller was the spare, the one that didn't have their documents in it.
Jams were a bear. Crews would travel the route of the tube and check air pressure at test points every two blocks where the tube surfaced. When they found a drop in pressure at a test point, they would try to free the stuck canister by injecting extra pressure. If that failed, they would have to dig up the street.[2]
In the early 2000s, parts of the network were repurposed to run fiber optic cable.
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumatic_tube_mail_in_New_Yor... [2]https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01870447/document
> Bank branches are not destinations. Like Starbucks and cell phone shops, they rely on capturing your day-to-day custom when you’re out and about. In the U.S., that mostly means being maximally accessible by cars. (In Japan, and other places with different transit behavior, bank branches are among the most likely user for large parcels directly adjacent to hub train stations, with smaller light branches and ATM-only locations being deployed close to far-from-station workplaces.)
Here a bank branch is basically a physical way of dealing with customer service. The people you talk to in the branch are no different than the people you talk to on the phone, they don't have any real power in decisions, they are just navigating the paperwork and submitting applications that someone/something in HQ (which may even be another country) makes a decision on. Some branches don't even deal with cash, you can only use an ATM to withdraw and deposit.
The simplest drive up bank isn't that expensive at all, and in areas with 6 months of below freezing temperatures, it was quite nice.
Uhhhh... really depends on your state for those last two.
North Carolina has places as well called “brew thrus”