Grumpy Old Guy Rant

Alright. Get ready. I'm putting on my grumpy old man hat.

I just got back from my lunch break. I went to my bank down the street to make a withdrawl from the ATM. There is only one branch of my bank on Bunker Hill, the neighborhood where my office is located.  And this one branch has only one ATM. The Bunker Hill neighborhood is made up of several tall skyscrapers housing all the major banks and financial institutions So as you can imagine, that makes for a large number of people here every weekday during business hours.

There are other banks on the hill here and in fact they all have corporate headquarters here on the hill so their branches not only have ATMs in the bank branches but also ATMs within their building lobbies and concourse levels. My bank does not as it does not have a presence here on Bunker Hill.

All this is to preface the fact that there was a long line at the ATM so I peaked inside the branch to see that the line for the tellers had only two people in it. So I went inside to make a withdrawl rather than stand in the long line at the ATM. Are people that dense? Do they not remember that you can make withdrawls inside the actual bank? Have they forgotten what we did before ATMs? But then I thought about it, it has been about 33-35 years since ATMs hit the scene. I realized that anyone under 45 or so probably didn't bank before ATMs so they probably never experienced life without ATMs.

In fact, when I go t back to my office I was talking about this with a co-worker who is 32. Do you know what he asked me?  "Can you make withdrawls at the teller windows?"  I mean..DUH! Yes! Of course you can. It's a bank. That's why they're there. Deposits and withdrawls. Hello?!

I. AM. OLD.

Rant Two:
There were only two windows open. Two tellers during lunch hour in a business district. This is not a residential, shopping or tourist area. Its a business area filled with business people who work weekdays. And all those many thousands of office workers take lunch breaks usually somewhere between the hours of 12 and 2. So you would think they would staff up during lunch breaks. I worked in retail management for years. If I were the branch manager I would schedule my staffs breaks around the rush hour. Its just common sense. But no. Despite having 10 windows in side the bank. There were only two windows open.

Now don't get me wrong, I realize that in this day and age most business is done using the ATMs and not as many people will come inside. These banks were built in an era when all your banking was done inside so that is why there are so many teller windows and they are not all staffed. But c'mon. Its lunch time. Have 4 windows open instead of two!

That's it. I'm done. Go back to your regularly scheduled lives.