conuly | The commenters can't agree whether the punchline is horrifically outdated or not

conuly

So I thought I'd make a poll!

Poll #29595 Luann comic

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 70

View Respondents

Does your bank still (if it ever did) use pneumatic tubes and capsules?

View Answers

Yes
31 (44.3%)

No
39 (55.7%)

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

lauradi7dw

The PNC bank my mother used has them at the drivethrough.

From:

pauamma

Not that I've seen, but my supermarket does.

From:

calimac

It's not pneumatic.

They're used in drive-through windows as a way of transferring loose money and documents through the security tray between clerk and customer.

From:

readerjane

I don’t know. Since online banking (especially depositing checks with my phone) became a thing, I haven’t physically been to the bank.

From:

jhetley

Both bank and credit union use them for drive-through.

From:

kengr

Oops. I forgot. They use them for the ATM in the outer lane of the drive-thru."

So that means you've got one "No" that should be a "Yes"

From:

oursin

Not sure about banks, but I remember them in shops

From:

dewline

Not at my bank. I've seen such used at a local Home Depot, though.

Edited Date: 2023-07-18 01:31 pm (UTC)

From:

conuly

I know you can revote, though I don't remember how.

From:

cactuswatcher

No, but my bank in Missouri had them at the drive-thru 20 odd years ago, before switching to all ATMs. Long ago one of our department stores had them so they didn't have cash registers all over the sales floor.

From:

larryhammer

Of one of the nearby branches, the drive-through has two lanes, and the outer one still has the tubes.

From:

melannen

My bank has actively been putting in tubes and taking out ATMS, believe it or not.

From:

gingicat

That's what many banks in our area do.

From:

thewayne

I take that back, my vote should have been yes - they use them for the drive-ups.

I remember there was a fabric store in Phoenix when I was young that used pneumatic tubes for sales that sent the sales slip and cash paid back to the office where change was made, a receipt printed, and all sent back. It was pretty fast, and very cool to my eyes.

From:

lilly_c

My bank doesn't use them but Morrisons supermarkets used to have them at their staffed tills years ago before self service became a thing.

From:

movingfinger

I haven't used one lately, but those canisters are for the drive-up and my mother is certainly still using them often!

I don't think I've seen a pneumatic cash management system in use.

From:

kengr

Now there's a "change your vote" link, which I have used.

From:

zhelana

i mean my bank is strictly online. They pay my fee if I use another bank's ATM and otherwise everything is online.

From:

siderea

I know of a bank locally that still did as of 2018, which is when last I happened to be in the car when tn3270 was doing some banking on D's behalf. The drive through used them, which enchanted me.

Also, ISTR back in 2012 or 2013, I discovered that the embedded bank in the grocery store nearest the clinic I was working at was using them internally for some reason. I think maybe they had a back room not directly connected to the front teller desk?

From:

adafrog

What else would they use for drive-up?

From:

conuly

Well, I've walked up to the bank's drive through window when their keycard machine at the door was broken, and they just have a regular ATM there.

From:

conuly

So that's a "painfully outdated" vote, then?

From:

conuly

I suppose that makes sense....

From:

conuly

First, you should absolutely go over there and leave that as a comment. I don't know if anybody is still reading new comments, but if they are, they'll appreciate it.

Secondly, do you know why they're doing that?

From:

melannen

Nope! They're a small local credit union, so I think they might mostly be trying to save money by replacing a teller window and an ATM with one tube station, as more people are using apps/non-bank ATMs for routine stuff? I'm not sure! But the one that was most recently renovated (admittedly about five years ago) went from having two drive-up ATMs and one lobby ATM, to one drive-up ATM, one drive-up pneumatic tube station, and two walk-in tube stations. (And no no-tube tellers.)

They have now added back a lobby ATM because people did not want to have to deal with a tube just to deposit a check and did not want to have to always do the drive-through, but all the live tellers are still tube-based.

Edited Date: 2023-07-19 02:30 am (UTC)

From:

zhelana

yeah I'd say so. I loved watching those tubes when I was a kid though!

From:

hafnia

the credit union I bank with has the tubes as well as the windows with trays, depending on location! (the window-with-trays is at the small campus branch where you can also walk up, there's a separate lane for it and everything.)

From:

imhilien

When I was a kid, a department store in town had them. Since then, I've never seen them elsewhere since.

From:

kareina

I had forgotten about those. I never used one myself, but I remember going through the bank drive through with my mother when I was little, in the 1970's and seeing her use them. I was quite disappointed when I got old enough to find out that they weren't beaming the container, like in Star Trek, but there was actually a tube it was traveling through.

However, for me, the whole cartoon is seriously outdated. I haven't lived somewhere that uses checks since I left the states in 2003, and I haven't carried cash in at least 10 years (if you don't count vacations to another country, and these days I prefer the debit card for that, too, as they no longer charge the extra fees for every international transaction). In fact, I don't even have a clear idea of what Swedish cash looks like.

From:

kengr

Related bit.

I recall a department Store in the 60s having an overhead system with wire baskets carrying paperwork and small items around the store.

From:

adafrog

THat's true.
Hospitals use them, too.

From:

dancing_crow

in the drive-up window? They're quite modern now, the capsule is made of plexiglass with a fancy rotating lid

From:

acelightning73

Pneumatic tubes are great for when you have to move physical objects (documents and the like) within a building. The big Jordan Marsh department store in Boston used them to collect and distribute cash to the registers. I've seen them in use in Costco near me.

From:

thekumquat

I very much doubt it. Cash is such a tiny amount of their business now, and cheques are just put in a pile for clearing at the end of the day, because there's so few of them.

I haven't seen a pneumatic tube in 20 years in a shop.