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Watching my parents go through the drive in bank teller using pneumatic tubes to send items back and forth is such a fun cool memory I have from my childhood. I
by corytheboyd 3y ago
Watching my parents go through the drive in bank teller using pneumatic tubes to send items back and forth is such a fun cool memory I have from my childhood. In a funny way, it still feels way more “sci-fi future tech” than pressing a touch screen and wait 4 seconds for a change to happen… or not.
- bombcar 3y agoIn the midwest it's still the reality, because in the winter it gets darn cold.
- corytheboyd 3y agoGlad to hear the dream of the nineties is alive in the midwest:D
- CPLX 3y agoThey are common in the Catskills of upstate New York too
- jamiek88 3y agoAnd in the south where it’s hot. Loads of these in Houston and New Orleans for example.
- owlninja 3y agoSame in Fort Worth/Dallas
- jprd 3y agoand in the NYS Capital Region, just a wee bit north. Brand new bank renovations or branches all have pneumo-tubes in their outer lanes, ATM(s) along the wall to the building. Though, I _do_ remember Woolworth's, banks, state offices and Lord knows what else back in the early '80s still using these like whoa.
- anamexis 3y agoWhat is the alternative for banks that have more than one drive-in lane?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- bombcar 3y agoMuch of California went to just multiple ATMs I think.
- pests 3y agoOh its here. Metro Detroit. It gets cold. The thought of banks not having pneumatic tubes is so strange to me I'm chuckling here. Seeing you reminisce about something that I see almost daily is a weird culture shock in that people in our same country experience life is somehow completely opposite ways. It's like if someome told me there a secret Blockbuster still serving some quiet neighborhood in the country and for them its just... normal.
- bombcar 3y agoI have a RadioShack I can walk to.
- boneitis 3y ago> Seeing you reminisce about something that I see almost daily is a weird culture shock How about: i legitimately thought that the pneumatic tube system i saw in Futurama where Hermes saves the day was a made up thing (or otherwise not commercially used or deployed outside of some sort of lab setting) until i came across this submission? I feel so silly right now.
- bombcar 3y agoCostco used to use them in the stores to send money to the main cashier, Home Depot might have had them too. Or you can get food! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTHZLKFblKo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTHZLKFblKo
- sandworm101 3y agoYes, back when it was actually costco. Everything changed after the merger. I dont think i saw any pneumatics afterwards.
- MikeTheGreat 3y agoSomeone else posted this recently and features both XKCD and supportive, positive thoughts. Enjoy! https://xkcd.com/1053/ https://xkcd.com/1053/
- 3y ago
- jbuzbee 3y agoThose bank-teller tubes are still in use in the Denver suburbs.
- lobsterthief 3y agoAnd all over Florida.
- rombuu 3y agoWe still have them in the KC metro area, Fwiw.
- cpuguy83 3y agoI used to love to go to the bank with my parents or a friend's parents and beg to get to put the tube in. Also remember the local science museum had a pneumatic tube system to play with and we'd sit there with that for some time.
- TheFreim 3y agoThey still use those here. My local bank had candies, like tootsie rolls, that they'd send with withdrawals if parents let them know they had kids in the car. It was always such a treat to watch the cool pneumatic tube and then get a sugary treat to top it all off.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- ghaff 3y agoI think my local bank branch still has a drive through and (I assume) pneumatic tubes although I've never used it. But then I think I've used the ATM once in maybe the past three or four years.
- TheFreim 3y ago> although I've never used it I'm seriously considering going to the bank drive-through just to experience the pneumatic tubes again. I rarely ever get cash from the bank, I've only ever actually used an ATM a couple times in my entire life, but I feel a strong desire to relive this childhood experience.
- appplication 3y agoSame experience. Getting flavored tootsie rolls out of a pneumatic bank tube is basically a core memory.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- TheFreim 3y agoAhhh yes, the flavored ones. The bank was the only place I ever ate the flavored ones, added an air of mystery to the experience.
- PrivateButts 3y agoWhen I used to work at a bank, the staff at a branch that still used tubes at the drive through would complain about how hard they are to maintain. Apparently they were down to a single contractor in the whole county who knew how to fix them, and he was always threatening to retire soon.
- chiph 3y agoI did some contracting at a bank and an employee told me about a problem they had with their pneumatic tubes: A customer had taken the carrier with them when they drove off, so the teller put their spare into the tube and continued working. A short while later the customer realized they had absconded with the carrier and returned to the drive-thru and put it back into the tube. The next customer put their deposit in the carrier and sent it off - the teller received it and said "Sir, there's nothing in here." and held up the empty carrier to the window to show them. And sent it back. The customer took the carrier out, held it up to show his documents in it, and sent it back into the bank .. only to arrive empty again. They eventually figured out there were two carriers in the tube.