A lesson in line-ups...

I can hardly believe this one myself!

How many lines do you think should form at a bank that has more than one Automated Teller Machine (ATM)? I have to assume that the majority would agree that one line is all it takes. As a machine becomes available the first person in the line takes it, the next person takes the next machine and so on...right? Seems like common sense to me but, today being a day for lessons I learned a valuable new one about ATM line-ups.

Today my sons and I walked into the TD Canada Trust at Hastings and Kamloops and, seeing a line for the 2 ATM machines, did what came naturally and stood behind the last person in the single line to wait our turn. The fellow in front of us was at the front of the line so it wasn't that big a deal for us and we weren't in that big of a hurry anyway. At some point as we waited another man (a large white man) entered the line, only instead of standing behind us he took up a position to the left of the guy in front of me.

Soon the machine on the left became open but, against traditional ATM line etiquette the guy that had just recently joined the line went for it, ahead of the fellow that had been waiting before me! Well the natural thing happened of course, the guy who had been waiting longest said "Excuse me, I was here first." This is where my years of ATM Line experience were suddenly cast into doubt. The large white guy (LWG) then replied "You were standing in the wrong line." The fellow in front of me, who happened to be a middle aged Asian guy (AG), answered (as I would have) "There's only one line."

So the LWG, seeming to realize his mistake, let the Asian guy go ahead and thankfully, all seemed right once again in the land of the ATM line.

The machine on the right opened up and I took it. As is usually the case when I go to the bank with my two sons (Salt and Peter), my attention was pretty much absorbed with preventing them from pushing buttons out of turn, stopping them from taking all of the deposit envelopes out of the rack, handling my transaction and grabbing the cash before one of them can do it. Needless to say I had pretty much forgotten about the exchange between the LWG and the other guy, that is until the Asian fellow was finished with the machine beside me and the LWG took his turn.

As the large white guy approached the ATM and the Asian fellow headed for the exit, the former made some kind of strange comment that none of us really heard that clearly. But although we may have missed the actual words I think the intent was pretty loud and clear. The Asian guy asked "What?" and here is kind of what followed...

BWG: "You were in the wrong line."
AG: "There's only one line!"
BWG: "There's 2 machines, there should be 2 lines"
AG: "There's only one line!"
BWG: "Why don't you go back to where you came from."

Thats right... I couldn't believe it either!

AG: "What? I've probably been here longer than you have." (in absolutely perfect English)
BWG: "I doubt that, I've been here since I was born 63 years ago."

At some point during the last statement the Asian guy had left the bank, and me, standing there in complete astonishment at what I'd just heard. As much as I really like to look at my community through rose colored glasses sometimes, I'm not an idiot (unlike the BWG) and I understand that sadly, attitudes like this still do exist. But while attitudes like this are absolutely unacceptable anywhere, they seem especially out of place in a community like Vancouver-Hastings whose population is approximately 48% Chinese, 10% Italian, 5% Vietnamese, 3% Filipino, 3% Aboriginal, 3% East Indian, 2% Portuguese and a mere 14% English (whatever Elections BC means by English)

Finishing my transaction and gathering my boys, I turned to the BWG and said "There's only one line." Its not what I really wanted to say... but my kids already had one crappy experience that I would have to spend the day explaining and de-programming. Although it probably made no difference to the attitude of the BWG, I had to say something!