> I'm going to the bank, the shop, the dentist, the pool - I have a regular one in mind and you may well also know which one I mean. Well, that would work for

> I'm going to the bank, the shop, the dentist, the pool - I have a regular one in mind and you may well also know which one I mean. Well, that would work for many uses of the, but it's definitely not a correct explanation here. If I have no idea where the bank is, I'll still describe myself as going to "the bank". I could tell you that "I'm going to the bank", go out and get in my car, and then look up where a convenient bank is. This has to be viewed as idiomatic, or as "the bank" being an abstract task-based location rather than a concrete physical location.