It's not just a single drive-through window either, even in small towns in the US there will be multiple lanes at the bank drive-through, with pneumatic tubes to send your money and documents from the car to the inside of the bank [0]. When I was a kid, I loved watching the container get sucked through the tube, plus they'd usually send back candy with the receipt.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5pVJ8ID0DQ

Fun fact, there were originally plans to build entire city networks of those pneumatic tube delivery systems until the USPS decided it would be too much fun (as well as bypass their mail delivery monopoly). They successfully convinced congress to ban them in any situation where they could compete with delivered mail (basically, they can't run between any two addresses).

After email killed off intra-office mail, banks are one of the last viable economic uses for pneumatic tube systems.

Still bums me out.

I'm not sure where you got that story from, but there was pneumatic tube mail in New York city from 1897 to 1953, operated under contract to the USPS. Networks existed in four other cities but New York's was the largest. It eventually halted because it was ridiculously expensive compared to moving mail on trucks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumatic_tube_mail_in_New_Yor...

An example of USPS operating them doesn't really contradict parent's story about USPS forbidding anyone else from operating them.

Trucks probably weren't very competitive in 1897.

They’re used quite a bit in hospitals to transport blood transfusions, medications, etc. as far as I know

Although they’re using rails in pipes, not pneumatics, you might like https://i.pipedreamlabs.co/

They’re aiming to solve last mile delivery with city wide networks of pipes

My pneumatic tube story about things that can go wrong with them: A customer pulls up to the drive-thru, puts their money and deposit slip in the carrier and sends it off into the building. The teller receives it but it's empty and tells them "I'm sorry, but you need to include your paperwork" and sends the carrier back. The customer holds up the carrier so the teller can see that there's paper & money in there and sends it off again. The teller holds up the carrier they received at the window, and it's empty!

What had happened was a previous customer had driven off with the carrier, and the teller put their spare into the tube. Then the customer who had absconded with the carrier realized what they had done, and returned to the drive-thru lane - putting the carrier back in and leaving without saying anything. Now there were two carriers in the tube. So when the next customer arrived, the carrier that arrived at the teller was the spare, the one that didn't have their documents in it.

The drive-thru windows are often open LATER and EARLIER than the branch itself, because it's secure the teller can open it the moment she arrives and keep it open almost until she leaves. It's not uncommon for the window to open half an hour before the branch and close up to an hour later.

pneumatic systems like these are so fun, costco used to have big tubes they sent wads of cash and other things through, and of course there are great articles about the old pneumatic postal infrastructure in paris

From 1897 to 1953, New York City operated a pneumatic tube mail transport system. It consisted of 27 miles of tubing connecting 23 post offices and carried 95,000 letters per day, amounting to 30% of the city's mail volume. The canisters were two feet long and eight inches in diameter and could carry 600 letters.[1]

Jams were a bear. Crews would travel the route of the tube and check air pressure at test points every two blocks where the tube surfaced. When they found a drop in pressure at a test point, they would try to free the stuck canister by injecting extra pressure. If that failed, they would have to dig up the street.[2]

In the early 2000s, parts of the network were repurposed to run fiber optic cable.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumatic_tube_mail_in_New_Yor... [2]https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01870447/document

Imagine an automated system to transport, plug, and unplug fast SSDs on that system. It could be faster than the fiber.

Obligatory: https://idlewords.com/2007/04/the_alameda_weehawken_burrito_...

The Home Depots around here seem to still have them but I’m not sure how much they’re used.

This is addressed in the article:

> Bank branches are not destinations. Like Starbucks and cell phone shops, they rely on capturing your day-to-day custom when you’re out and about. In the U.S., that mostly means being maximally accessible by cars. (In Japan, and other places with different transit behavior, bank branches are among the most likely user for large parcels directly adjacent to hub train stations, with smaller light branches and ATM-only locations being deployed close to far-from-station workplaces.)

I've lived in a number of European countries and have had dealings with banks as both a private and business customer. The whole article sounds very different from what I would consider a bank branch in Europe.

Here a bank branch is basically a physical way of dealing with customer service. The people you talk to in the branch are no different than the people you talk to on the phone, they don't have any real power in decisions, they are just navigating the paperwork and submitting applications that someone/something in HQ (which may even be another country) makes a decision on. Some branches don't even deal with cash, you can only use an ATM to withdraw and deposit.

Sounds like most European bank branches are 'light' branches then.

Same here. When I went to visit relatives in the US I saw a place where you could drive to get both a coffee and then money, next to each other, without getting out of the car.

It is possible to get money, coffee, liquor, and ammunition in the USA without getting out of your car.

The simplest drive up bank isn't that expensive at all, and in areas with 6 months of below freezing temperatures, it was quite nice.

> money, coffee, liquor, and ammunition

Uhhhh... really depends on your state for those last two.

Years ago in New Orleans they'd sell you a mixed drink in a styrofoam cup with a straw from a drive-through window.

What do you mean years ago? All they do now differently is tape the straw to the side and tape the hole at the top half-heartedly.

In Portugal a few years back the McDonald’s had a “McBeer sold inside only” sign on the drive thru so it was a pretty recent change.

They don’t do this anymore? (The drive thru daiquiris)

North Carolina has places as well called “brew thrus”

You forgot drugs!

Found one! https://www.simpleea.com/news/londons-first-drive-thru-bank-...