Those things used to be on every single bank drive-up teller booth in the 80’s and 90’s.
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FearMeAndDecay@literature.cafe 6 days agoWait those pneumatic tube things are real?? I always thought it was like 1960s sci-fi. Like what they thought the future would be like
CarbonatedPastaSauce@lemmy.world 6 days ago
sushibowl@feddit.nl 6 days ago
As a European, the idea of a bank having a drive-through is just absolutely wild.
exasperation@lemm.ee 6 days ago
It was the fastest way to get original physical documents from one side/floor of the building to another.
When I was a kid that was the standard way that banking drive throughs worked, too. You’d drive up to the multi-lane drive through, each station would have a pneumatic tube for handing off cash or checks or receipts between the car and the teller in the window. It pretty much ended when ATMs could start handling cash and checks.
WordBox@lemmy.world 6 days ago
Are these not the norm for bank drive thrus now?
exasperation@lemm.ee 6 days ago
I haven’t seen a new bank branch open with a drive through in a long, long time. Most banks just have multiple ATMs in the drive through, as there’s very little you’d need a teller to do compared to what the ATMs can do now.
WordBox@lemmy.world 6 days ago
Ah I’ve never seen that. Big city? ATM vendors sucks… Can’t imagine banks here surviving without tellers. I’ve only seen multiple teller drive throughs and an ATM eating one of the drive through spots.
TheEEEdiot@sh.itjust.works 6 days ago
It’s true that most banks haven’thad new branches in a while. In Florida, a lot of old banks are being converted into Cannabis dispensaries because of their vaults. I hear they even repurposed the tubes as a delivery system.
4am@lemm.ee 6 days ago
Now? Banks have been rocking those since forever. If anything they’re much less common now
FearMeAndDecay@literature.cafe 6 days ago
Oh shit you’re right. I think I vaguely remember banks having those when I was really young. I mostly remember the suckers they’d give us tho. Fuck those things are cool tho. We should bring them back
villainy@lemmy.world 6 days ago
They’re still a thing. You can still find them at banks with drive thru tellers. My local department of motor vehicles has a drive thru for vehicle registration so you can do your inspection and registration without leaving your car. You send the registration documents back/forth via pneumatic tubes.
kobra@lemm.ee 6 days ago
They left? All the banks still use them in the middle of the US. So do drive through pharmacies that have an extra lane.
FearMeAndDecay@literature.cafe 6 days ago
The drive thru pharmacy I go to just has like a shelf thingy they can lift and push down. Not one of those cool tubes :(