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. <\/p>\n
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.”<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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).<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12791,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/09\/26\/well_thats_a_wash.html","url_meta":{"origin":13308,"position":0},"title":"Well, that’s a Wash","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 26-Sep-08 5:21am","format":false,"excerpt":"As in \"Washington Mutual\": Government Seizes WaMu and Sells Some Assets - NYTimes.com\u00a0 Washington Mutual, the giant lender that came to symbolize the excesses of the mortgage boom, was...","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/wamu.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":15045,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/06\/17\/bank-accounting-for-taste.html","url_meta":{"origin":13308,"position":1},"title":"Bank Accounting for Taste","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 17-Jun-09 9:43pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So we finally, via Margie's taking action, we've started the process of moving our banking from WaMu (slowly, clumsily, turning into Chase) to a local credit union.\u00a0 Bellco was founded as a credit union in 1936 for the Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Co. When Ma Bell got broken up\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14680,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/05\/03\/tweets-from-three_star_dave-on-2009-05-03.html","url_meta":{"origin":13308,"position":2},"title":"Tweets from @Three_Star_Dave on 2009-05-03","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 3-May-09 11:30pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Bishop visiting the parish today. Minor pomp and circumstance, much good preaching and teaching. # So, Chase, even after closing my WaMu branch, your drive-thru ATMs won't take my deposits? #fail, and time for a new bank. # Powered by Twitter Tools.","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20745,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/04\/14\/customer-disservice.html","url_meta":{"origin":13308,"position":3},"title":"Customer Disservice","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 14-Apr-11 9:11pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Dear Chase: I appreciate that wire fraud is a common illicit activity, especially with hacked bank accounts. I can even understand, if you see a first-time overseas wire transfer that you might be worried that it's fraudulent and both lock the online account and block the transfer. But if you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Chase-300x55.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":39294,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/22\/a-financial-group-gets-fined-the-horror.html","url_meta":{"origin":13308,"position":4},"title":"A financial group gets fined? THE HORROR!","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 22-Oct-13 11:39am","format":false,"excerpt":"Fox News and the Wall Street Journal are shocked, shocked, to learn that JPMorgan will have actually have to to pay money for the shenanigans they -- and the institutions they bought -- engaged in.Dear WSJ -- it's not \"confiscation\" when they defrauded institutional investors, causing massive losses (and, in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3816,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/03\/26\/tanked.html","url_meta":{"origin":13308,"position":5},"title":"Tanked","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 26-Mar-03 8:03am","format":false,"excerpt":"Driving home from vestry last night and I realized I needed a fill-up. 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