I’m sure there are all sorts of practical, as well as political, reasons why they are closing down the storefront WaMu (now Chase) next to our Safeway, directing folks instead over to the standard Chase bank building across the street.
It’s probably seen as a good idea for them because (a) it’s going to be a lot easier for Chase to unload a storefront property than a stand-alone bank building, (b) I doubt the WaMu storefront had any sort of significant vault or safe deposit facilities in it, and (c) the existing bank building looks more “banky.”
On the down side, the existing Chase bank is almost certainly more expensive property to maintain (and staff), and it’s a lot less convenient for most shoppers (the bank stands on a pad all by itself, away from a shopping center that is itself not a hotbed of activity and regular visitation) than hitting the WaMu between Safeway and Starbucks.
And, as I noted, I’m sure there are politics involved — all things being equal, I’m sure the local Chase management is going to get its way, since WaMu was the acquired, not the acquirer in this case. Customer service, in this case, likely takes a back seat (with all the necessary self-justifications, of course).
I think WaMu had the right idea (in this at least) of moving to less formal, smaller, storefront presences. The standard big bank building is, honestly, an artifact of an old system and old ways that people interacted with their bank. In an Internet age, it’s not buying them much and costing them a lot.
Still pondering where we want to put our money long-term. I don’t want to have to make the decision again any time soon.
I agree with your convenience arguement, but you might be surprised on the operations costs. The stand alone building is doubtless owned, whereas the storefront is rented. That makes the storefront pure expense with no mitigating equity value. It’s much easier to simply let their lease expire than sell a property. That said, brace to have no branch in that area at all in the next 18 months.
Altogether possible,on both counts.
The stand-alone pad may well be owned (a bank has been there for probably 25 years, at least), but there’s still shopping center “membership” fees, exterior upkeep, property tax, and utilities. (All of those exist in the storefront, but it’s a smaller property and part of the rent/lease costs). Still, you’re correct that it probably economically makes sense for them.
I don’t need an actual bank office all that often — the main purposes is to use the ATM for cash withdrawals or deposits. Occasionally a place to sit down to discuss car loans, etc.
It gets even better. The formal mail we received on the subject today indicates that Chase and WaMu systems aren’t actually yet combined — so they are going to be basically hosting a WaMu bank inside of the Chase branch with different staff, computers, etc., until all the accounts get merged later in the year. Other remaining WaMu branches can serve us, but Chase branches can’t.
It occurs to me that we are almost certainly going to have to change our checking account number, etc., which, given the inconvenience, means we should probably shift somewhere else sooner rather than later, to avoid having to do that twice …