I finally went to the new bank branch in Springfield and the whole thing felt like a ghost town

Drove over there yesterday to deposit a check and maybe ask about a mortgage rate. The place was huge, all glass and fancy screens, but there were only two teller windows open with a line of like eight people. The rest of the floor was just empty desks and those little tablets on stands that nobody was using. I waited 20 minutes just to hand someone a piece of paper. The whole time, this one employee kept trying to get people in line to use the app instead. He literally said to the guy in front of me, 'Sir, you can just take a picture of that.' It felt less like a bank and more like a showroom pushing you out the door. Has anyone else seen their local branch turn into this? What's even the point of the building anymore if they don't want you to come in?

3 comments

3 Comments

anna9832mo ago

Ugh, that's exactly it. My friend had to go in to get a cashier's check last month and said it was like a weird museum. She just needed one stamp from a real person, but they made her use a kiosk to print a ticket first, then wait for the only banker who wasn't "in a meeting." It totally proves @jade738's point about them just being sales floors now. The whole building feels like a trap to make you feel silly for needing human help.

phoenixa641mo ago

Wait, what exactly is the bank's endgame here if they're making it so hard to actually use the branch? It's like they built these fancy spaces to show off but forgot people still need to talk to someone sometimes. My local one went a step further and turned half the lobby into a coffee shop setup with couches and a big tv, but you still have to wait 15 minutes just to get a deposit slip from a machine that's always broken. It feels less like a trap and more like they're slowly making branches so annoying that you'll give up and do everything on your phone just to avoid the hassle. Pretty soon I bet they'll just have one guy standing there with a tablet and a shrug.

jade7382mo ago

Read an article calling them "glorified ATMs." They want all the simple stuff done online so the staff can just sell loans and accounts. Makes the building feel pretty pointless.

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