Banks, Blue Laws and Family

On Monday, I went to the Bank to make a withdrawal from my account with my ATM card. To my surprise, the Bank was open. Either I paid no attention to the sign last week when I went there, or I saw it and forgot.

Now, understand that the reason this is an issue to me nowadays is that Monday was a Federal holiday. And to me as a retired banker, it's an issue because Banks were always closed on Federal holidays. For years, the Bank where I am a customer has been open on Sunday. Conversely, when I was in banking, the Bank I worked for was closed on Sunday and on the various Federal holidays. And the reason banks generally were closed was that the Fed was also closed.

Well, the Fed is still closed on Federal holidays and Sundays (for now) and for bank customers there are so many other methods to be in touch with your money.

In the 70s, banks began the process to automate and have access online during hours that the bank was closed. As we moved through the late 70s, the 80s and 90s, more banks developed systems which today, we take for granted, like ATMs, telephone and Internet (online) banking. The purpose was to reduce the hours needed to be open, reduce staff and other means to create more productivity.

Instead, banks are now open six and seven days a week, 12 hours a day, Monday to Saturday, and five to six hours on Sunday. And only Christmas, Thanksgiving and maybe Easter are they closed.. Banks have now become like department stores, caring only for the bottom line, without regard to their staff or customers' needs. Why? Because they didn't increase staff as they extended their hours.

Retail stores have been this way since the very early 70s, when states like New York, Connecticut, and later, by the early 80s, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, etc, did away with their blue laws. A friend of mine recently told me that when she was a kid, like me, the only stores opened on Sunday in her neighborhood were the bakery, the candy store, the pharmacy and maybe a deli, and like mine, only until 2 or 3 pm. Restaurants were always open on Sunday, so that dad could take mom and the kids out to eat as a family, and give mom a break from the big meal once in a while.

And that's the penalty on this whole affair. Families are too busy to sit down once a week for the big meal. Teens and young adults, moms and dads, are working on Sundays and holidays because, after all, the goals must be met, sales numbers need to be made.

Pay no attention to my last name. In the 50s and 60s, as a member of an Italian-American family, attending church as a family was early, the  gravy for the Sunday dinner was up by 11am and we were sitting down to dinner by 2pm. Even if we went to an aunt's home, dinner as a family was still served by 2. It was just the way it was.

Company would stay until 6 or 7, because the dad had to work the next day, and Monday was a school day. But family was important.

This started as a commentary about banks, but in actuality, it really is a story for why there is a breakdown in family. The fact that banks and stores being open so many hours is certainly a major cause of that breakdown of the modern family.

Sadly, those days, like the wind, are gone forever.