I had to visit a downtown bank the other day and, of course, the line I ended up in snaked through the lobby during lunchtime. Three tellers were working, but only one was making any appreciable headway toward reducing the number of people in line. You could see the steam rising from the queue.
I heard the woman behind me complain that she was going to have a pretty ridiculous cab fare because of the amount of time she was going to have to wait. I’m assuming that she didn’t have a car, but you know what happens when you assume things…
So, trying to be a nice guy, I let her move ahead of me in line to the next available teller (not the most effficient one, I might add). And the woman rips out a cell phone and begins jabbering away.
First I was a little miffed. Okay, she didn’t have time to wait, but suddenly the phone call (gossip I might add) gained priority over getting back to pay her cab fare? And nobody really wants to hear your personal issues on the phone.
But it started me thinking about a couple of things:
- Are cell phones and plans now so ubiquitous that costs have come down so much that anyone can afford them?
- If that’s the case, why do we still have landlines?
- Why hasn’t this government forced the industry to settle on one standard (TDMA vs. CDMA vs. FDMA)?
- Why am I standing in a bank line during lunch?
Guess I was bored.
I did get the teller who was fast and efficient. And nice.
And I missed the rest of the call.
I wonder if the cab waited.