A bank runs

had to stop at a large bank today and saw some signs of the time

no, no that one, another of the Too Big Too Fail banks

it was very busy, and the staff looked a bit frazzled, it being the first of the month and all, and a manager came to ask me if I didn't want to do my transaction through one of their "quick drop" services - especially since I "had little ones with me

I politely declined, and told her I wanted a dated receipt for the transaction,
and, no, the handwritten-by-me counterfoil would not do

- on a side note, an acquaintance recently told us how a cash deposit through a drop-off was misrecorded a significant figure short, at that bank, leading to a cascade of cheque overdrawing and penalty fees - the bank flatly refused to correct it, until a federal officer contacted the branch - the bank did not seem concerned that the cash discrepancy would imply an insider stealing from customer accounts - but I digress

the reason the "little ones" were with me, is that this bank has always had bowls of lollipops by the counters, so they volunteered to tag along, but as we progressed along the queue, we observed a peculiar absence of lollipop bowls, causing some concern.
Finally the elder, having just watched Mary Poppins, said loudly:
"Dad, do you suppose they've had a bank run, on lollipops?"

We were then served, rapidly and pleasantly.
And the clerk produced two, most excellent, lemon flavoured lollipops,
from a stash now kept behind the counter.

The manager then approached us, and asked if we were done, and did we like the lollipops. We did.
We left, trailed closely by the very nice security guard.

PS: incidental to this - I had occasion to ask about closing an account and setting up a new account, at one of the TBTF banks, so they cheerfully provided me with their options.
Got to be fucking kidding!
Never seen worse terms for bank accounts in my life.
They're trying to nickel and dime their customers to death.
I'll be keeping the grandfathered account, thanks. At least they can't unilaterally change those terms, yet, unlike the credit card companies.

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