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Wachovia ATM in Enemy Territory

uptownliving

By uptownliving
in Charlotte Coffee House

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uptownliving Town

uptownliving

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Only in Charlotte would the opening of an ATM machine be considered "news." In this case it is the recent opening of the Wachovia ATM at the corner of Tryon and 5th on the first floor of the Ivey's building. It is very prominent and well lit at night. What is newsworthy about this ATM is that it is right across the street from BofA HQ and this is the first Wachovia ATM on that "side" of town.

Here is the story from News 14:

Last week, downtown workers walking through the intersection at Fifth and Tryon streets where the new Wachovia ATM is located responded to the alien presence, pointing and even laughing at the bright blue invader. When asked what they thought about the encroachment, several declined to talk on the record -- they work for the "other" bank.
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dubone Megalopolis

dubone

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dtown, Charlotte is a very segregated city. Tryon Street is our main business street. Everything on South Tryon is Wachovia, everything on North Tryon is Bank of America. It is a big deal to have a Wachovia ATM on North Tryon. :)

U/L, I saw them cutting out the doors at the corner of the Ivey's, and was SO excited that the Latorre purchase of the ground floor was paying off. I thought he was starting to make cuts for street retail on 5th. Instead, they are just metal doors to provide maintenance access to the new ATM. Argh. Oh well, I guess access to money is good for business all around.

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monsoon Gigalopolis

monsoon

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I think it is rather silly myself. Either the local news is inventing news again (a distinct possibility) or the banks are more interested in this nonsense over serving their customers.

I have noticed and commented before that despite CLT being called the 2nd largest center for banking in the USA, its very hard to find a place to actually do some banking in the center city if you are unfamiliar with it. I goes back to this "lets build monuments" instead of something that is useful for people at street level.

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dubone Megalopolis

dubone

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Of course this is invented news. News14 is 24 hour local news. We don't have that many gang shootings, and they've got to come up with other stuff to cover. :)

Maybe the real story is that Wachovia is trying to turn around the situation you describe, where there isn't nearly enough places to get money or do banking. The location of this new ATM is very good. This is where most pedestrian activity is in downtown, so it is reasonable to expect Wachovia customers there, and not just BofA. On South Tryon, they have built a very expensive branch that is very prominent and attractive.

Also, tens of thousands of people do work in those monuments, so they generate most of what is on the streets. But I agree, that they far too often just have lobby's on the ground level, rather than useful things like retailers, ATMs, and bank branches.

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turbocraig Burg

turbocraig

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It's always seemed odd to me that in this banking town, finding a street accessed ATM is like a scavenger hunt. I was at The Attic on Saturday night and stepped out onto the balcony (above that Binaco waterfall/tiki god weirdness) and thought I was in Vegas for a second. That's not run-of-the-mill ATM they installed. This thing is 12' high by 12' long and wraps around onto 5th St another 3 or so feet. It has a swooping awning-like wavy banner that wraps around the top with the biggest "Wachovia" script I think they could produce. The entire corner is one big blue and green Wach logo and I think they had special one million watt bulbs fabricated to illuminate it from the inside. That, or the white criss-cross sections of the logo are neon.

Definitely not newsworthy if you don't work at one of the banks, but a curiosity (and a new landmark for downtown) nonetheless.....

"Just meet us at the corner of 5th and Tryon."

"Where?"

"At the bottom of the Bank of America building. You know... the really tall one?"

"Sorry, I'm drawing a blank..."

"Across from the Wachovia ATM"

"OH... yeah, why didn't you say so? See you there."

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dubone Megalopolis

dubone

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It's just an ATM, guys. If it was dumb enough to put in news, its dumb enough to argue against. Obviously Wachovia didn't put it there for anything other than customer service for its customers and fees from its non-customers. That is the same reason banks put ATMs anywhere else, so why not on a very prominent corner, with some of the most pedestrian traffic in the city.

It is only news because there is a story angle, and tens of thousands of people have likely noticed it and have been talking about it. Newspapers and 24 hour news channels try to fill up their space with random 'good news' as long as it has an angle.

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