Bank Branches Inside Supermarkets

This is the place for general and miscellaneous posts on topics which might extend past the boundaries of any specific region. No non-grocery posts.
kr.abs.swy
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Re: Bank Branches Inside Supermarkets

Post by kr.abs.swy »

jamcool wrote: August 26th, 2021, 8:43 am Meanwhile in Surprise, AZ there is a bank that was converted into a Wendy’s
In Boise, there is a Wendy's that converted into a Chase about 20 years ago (3550 W State Street). A new Wendy's went in just down the street (closer to an intersection).

Chase and Wendy's could have a cross-company team that optimizes real estate efficiency by converting locations from Chase-to-Wendy's, or vice versa, as local needs change ... or maybe they should co-brand ... :-)
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Re: Bank Branches Inside Supermarkets

Post by Super S »

Around Longview-Kelso, Safeway had branches in all locations at one point, going back to the days of Olympic Savings Bank, which became Seafirst, then Bank of America. I want to say that the Kelso location still has a BofA branch but am not sure. Fred Meyer lost it's Chase branch several years back, it is now used for the curbside pick-up staging area.

I have seen one or two Fred Meyer locations in Oregon where Chase had access from the outside, but can't recall which ones.

I will admit that I liked the convenience of in-store branches. When I banked with Washington Mutual, one of them was open until 7, and my employer at the time often did not have checks ready until 5PM. But one reason I switched to the credit union I am with now is the number of locations they have, not to mention the fact that attitudes changed for the worse when Chase took over WaMu.
kr.abs.swy
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Re: Bank Branches Inside Supermarkets

Post by kr.abs.swy »

"Not to mention the fact that attitudes changed for the worse when Chase took over WaMu."

Possibly more important than the attitude is the fact that Chase happened to be solvent at the time :-)
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Re: Bank Branches Inside Supermarkets

Post by storewanderer »

There were multiple robberies in the supermarket banks in Reno in recent years. I am wondering if safety reasons were part of the decision to close them.
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Re: Bank Branches Inside Supermarkets

Post by babs »

kr.abs.swy wrote: August 26th, 2021, 6:24 pm "Not to mention the fact that attitudes changed for the worse when Chase took over WaMu."

Possibly more important than the attitude is the fact that Chase happened to be solvent at the time :-)
Wamu and Chase ran very different banks. Wamu was always focused on low to mid market customers, the type that would more likely be willing to do their banking in a grocery store. Chase has refocused on high income customers. If you go inside their branches, the focus is on Chase Private Client these days. If you don't have much in the bank, chase doesn't want you.
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Re: Bank Branches Inside Supermarkets

Post by Super S »

babs wrote: August 26th, 2021, 10:31 pm
kr.abs.swy wrote: August 26th, 2021, 6:24 pm "Not to mention the fact that attitudes changed for the worse when Chase took over WaMu."

Possibly more important than the attitude is the fact that Chase happened to be solvent at the time :-)
Wamu and Chase ran very different banks. Wamu was always focused on low to mid market customers, the type that would more likely be willing to do their banking in a grocery store. Chase has refocused on high income customers. If you go inside their branches, the focus is on Chase Private Client these days. If you don't have much in the bank, chase doesn't want you.
I am well aware of what brought down WaMu. With that said, several policies changed when Chase took over and the staff that once was easy to deal with started developing attitudes as Chase policies and fees took place. Most notable was a change where deposited funds were not available for 2 or 3 business days. But there were other fees coming at the time, including fees for not maintaining a minimum checking balance. I bailed for a credit union and never looked back.

The big banks are after those with big money and they aren't usually the types that would do banking at the grocery store.
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Re: Bank Branches Inside Supermarkets

Post by rwsandiego »

Super S wrote: August 27th, 2021, 8:13 am
babs wrote: August 26th, 2021, 10:31 pm
kr.abs.swy wrote: August 26th, 2021, 6:24 pm "Not to mention the fact that attitudes changed for the worse when Chase took over WaMu."

Possibly more important than the attitude is the fact that Chase happened to be solvent at the time :-)
Wamu and Chase ran very different banks. Wamu was always focused on low to mid market customers, the type that would more likely be willing to do their banking in a grocery store. Chase has refocused on high income customers. If you go inside their branches, the focus is on Chase Private Client these days. If you don't have much in the bank, chase doesn't want you.
I am well aware of what brought down WaMu. With that said, several policies changed when Chase took over and the staff that once was easy to deal with started developing attitudes as Chase policies and fees took place. Most notable was a change where deposited funds were not available for 2 or 3 business days. But there were other fees coming at the time, including fees for not maintaining a minimum checking balance. I bailed for a credit union and never looked back.

The big banks are after those with big money and they aren't usually the types that would do banking at the grocery store.
Until recently, i worked for a large regional bank that competes with Chase, Wells, BofA, Citibank, and US Bank and competed with WaMu prior to their collapse. We surprised ourselves when we conducted a study of average balances maintained in our free checking account vs those maintained in checking accounts where a minimum balance was required to waive the fee. The average balance among fee-based checking accountholders was slightly above the required minimum balance to waive the fee. The average balance amount free checking customers was almost five times that of the customers who had a fee-based account. When we surveyed customers, the fee-based account customers responded that they kept the minimum so as to avoid a fee. The free checking customers responded that they kept what was convenient because they didn't have to worry about incurring a fee. Certainly, many free checking customers maintained a low balance, but most maintained one.

Back to the topic of in-store locations: they are a pain to staff. In-store staff have to deal with close quarters, a lack of privacy, and oftentimes poor locations in the store. Customers used them to conduct transactions but typically did not open many new accounts or apply for loans. We couldn't get seasoned employees to transfer to an in-store. Then there was the issue of dealing with the supermarket chain. One Central Valley based chain was particularly difficult to deal with. We were very happy NOT to renew leases there.
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Re: Bank Branches Inside Supermarkets

Post by storewanderer »

rwsandiego wrote: August 27th, 2021, 4:30 pm
We surprised ourselves when we conducted a study of average balances maintained in our free checking account vs those maintained in checking accounts where a minimum balance was required to waive the fee. The average balance among fee-based checking accountholders was slightly above the required minimum balance to waive the fee. The average balance amount free checking customers was almost five times that of the customers who had a fee-based account. When we surveyed customers, the fee-based account customers responded that they kept the minimum so as to avoid a fee. The free checking customers responded that they kept what was convenient because they didn't have to worry about incurring a fee. Certainly, many free checking customers maintained a low balance, but most maintained one.
Sounds about right. The free checking was always a good path for the bank to get people to at least consider them for other products/services. I know in my case back when I was much younger, when one large national bank played games with "Free Checking" saying they were going to start adding a fee for bill pay, I left and never looked back. I only paid a few bills a month, but it was something that I felt was important, enough so that the fee (whatever it was, a few dollars a month probably) was not something I felt like paying. What is funny is they actually went back in it and decided not to implement the fee in question. But it was too late; I was already gone. And that was 20 years ago. Quite a few times since then, I have had to consider various banking options for one reason or another. Guess which bank I've never considered? Yep.
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Re: Bank Branches Inside Supermarkets

Post by BatteryMill »

Shoppers Food had Provident Bank branches from the SuperValu merger up until 2012 (they had been rebranded to M&T Bank since). AFAIK I'm pretty sure Safeway East has a few bank branches extant still. I'm surprised Giant-MD's bucked the trend and still has branches open. Seen a Woodforest bank at Walmart shut down too.
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Re: Bank Branches Inside Supermarkets

Post by rwsandiego »

BatteryMill wrote: August 27th, 2021, 10:52 pm Shoppers Food had Provident Bank branches from the SuperValu merger up until 2012 (they had been rebranded to M&T Bank since). AFAIK I'm pretty sure Safeway East has a few bank branches extant still. I'm surprised Giant-MD's bucked the trend and still has branches open. Seen a Woodforest bank at Walmart shut down too.
Interesting about Woodforest closing a Walmart branch. They offer the ability to send cash to a Woodforest account at the Walmart checkout and are Walmart's largest retail partner. Here in Arizona, many Walmarts have First Convenience branches.

It looks like TCF Bank (now part of Huntington) has scaled back the number of branches they have in Jewel-Osco stores.
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