It's a Small World Afterall

My world just got very small. Well, smaller I should say. Working from home versus downtown has already changed a few habits. I no longer walk by Café Vita every morning for my iced tall Americano. I no longer eat every meal at a restaurant (or, truth be told, nine times out of ten at my desk). No more spontaneous shopping sprees in the retail corridor. No more taking bus route #2 and listening to people talking on their cell phones or watching strangers chatting loudly across the aisle (often with entertaining content, at least on this bus route).

So, you’re wondering how my world got smaller today? I switched banks. For nearly six years, from our deck or dining room table, I have watched the comings and goings of Bank of America car and foot traffic. My trip to BofA this afternoon, because I hit a green light at the corner of 13th and Madison, took me maybe two minutes on foot. The convenience was staggering.

As an ex-WaMu employee and once loyal customer (I was a customer before I became a “Wamulian”), it was strange to sit in the rust-orange colored chair, waiting for the branch manager to work with me on opening my business checking account. The red and blue colors, in signage and marketing materials, were jarring on my eyes compared to the earth tones of our once famed Occasio stores (Occasio, by the way, means favorable opportunity in Latin. Kind of ironic, don’t you think?).

The staff at this BofA branch were very friendly. I watched the tellers joking with customers or subtly cross selling. They were behind bullet proof glass (I assume its glass) and yet their warmth, through smiles and have a nice weekend comments, emanated throughout the entire lobby. This branch – it had great energy. The energy of Capitol Hill. And, they gave out candy. Nice touch.

I don’t want to say I was brainwashed – but BofA had a bad wrap at WaMu. Cold. Mechanized. Unconcerned with customer service. Stodgy. Truthfully, today, I didn’t see it. Didn’t feel it. This place was rockin’. And signing up for my accounts (um – I also opened up a personal checking account) was easy, painless and high touch. The branch manager walked me through every step personally. I was impressed.

I have been torn for months about what to do with my WaMu checking account. My initial intent was to take my money and run once my bonus (it was small…don’t freak out people) and severance was paid. But then I went to the WaMu branch at the QFC on Broadway to deposit my severance check and the branch manager, knowing what it was, said empathetically, “We might have to put a hold on this.” And then, when it went through, he asked me how I was doing, had I found work? I felt then and there that these were my peeps, regardless of being a part of Chase. How could I hold these local workers in contempt? Why would I hurt their bottom line? They are innocent bystanders just like me in the whole…whatever it was that we are all living through.

Ah, but the branch manager at BofA was good. Sentimentality can only go so far. Like a calm and caring priest, he somehow knew how to help relieve me of my guilt. It went back to a simple truth - living a life of convenience is good. It will be easier to transfer money back and forth between my business account and my personal checking account while they are under one roof.

Sorry WaMu. I do love you. But I’m moving on. It’s time

And, dang, did I mention how close the branch is? Need cash for pizza? No worries. I’ll be back before my husband has completed the order! No cab money and we have to leave in fifteen minutes? No problemo, I won’t have to trek far to get to an ATM. I can visually see how busy they are. Don’t want to wait in line for a transaction? Count the number of cars in the parking lot! Oh – and did I mention how nice they are? Oh – and I can do everything on-line for the most part. I might never have to leave my perch.

If an independent bookstore, a café with fabulous gourmet vegetarian food (this is my plea to Carmelitas to come into the hood) and a gym that has the secret to getting Michelle Obama’s arms with little, if no, effort, moved into the retail space that is being built in the Pike-Pine corridor, I might never have to go more than a few blocks for life’s essentials.

It’s a small world, after all.