By Deb Murphy
First JC Penney packed up its Arizona jeans and left town, not it’s Bank of America.
KSRW got the same canned confirmation printed in The Sheet; the departure date is September 11.
The reason: “changing needs and habits.” Conceding the decision was “a difficult one… driven primarily by changing banking behaviors as more clients overall have adopted our online and mobile banking offerings because of the convenience they provide.”
Tell that to Bishop Visitor Center host Chuck Kilpatrick who opened his first bank account in 1951, at BofA. It’s not hard to picture Kilpatrick trying to chat up an ATM, but he won’t get much of a conversation out of the machine.
The official statement provides some solace—“customers…can still access accounts” etc., etc. through mobile and online banking or at other locations.” That other location is in Ridgecrest, a two hour, 12 minute drive from Bishop.
As for current employees, corporate “will work to help place employees…in similar level roles within the company and offer severance for those eligible.” The bank’s regional representative couldn’t tell us how many locals work at the branch.
Between 2017 and 2018, BofA lowered its budget by 2.5 percent. From 2010 to 2017, the bank dropped 74,000 employees and reduced the number of branches by 27-percent. Then, oddly enough, a report by consumer advocate Clark Howard indicated BofA would add 500 branches over the next four years.
A 2017 report by J.D. Power didn’t pick up on the trend of online/mobile bank use. Seventy-one of bank customers surveyed for the report visited a branch an average of 14 times in 12 months.
Running those numbers by BofA probably won’t change the corporate mind. So, is the Owens Valley falling off the radar and is there any way to generate a more significant blip?
Bishop City Manager Jim Tatum may not have an immediate, fool-proof answer, but at least he makes you feel better.
“The community will have to pull together,” he said in a phone interview, “and figure out the needs; figure out what’s viable, what makes sense. We may end up looking completely different.”
The City Council started a dialogue with business and property owners earlier this year. Now, said Tatum, it’s time to listen to what people have to say and move forward.”
Some of the possibilities on the table are converting downtown commercial buildings to multi-use, including housing. Other viable options include gutting some of the larger retail buildings and leasing out spaces to small, start-up operations—like a business incubator. Businesses evolve, Tatum said. Now Bishop has to figure out where that evolution is headed. “The onus is on the property owners,” he said. “It’s a tough problem, but you gotta believe” it’s solvable.
Tatum anticipates some movement in the next month or so. “We’re going to shake it up,” he said.
I opened my very first bank account at the BofA Bishop branch circa 1986 which served as my main savings account until the mid 90’s when I received a $25 service charge for over drafting my account by 35 cents. I immediately dropped BofA, switched to a Credit Union and… Read more »
I left BofA years ago after my debit card wouldn’t swipe anymore, they wanted $5 for a replacement card. I cancelled all my accounts with them and moved over to Oak Valley and Ally (online bank). Good riddance
BofA pulled out awhile ago in Bridgeport, now we have Eastern Sierra Community Bank. It is only open Tues, Thur. And Fri – 11:00-3:00…you guys are lucky…
The only power Inyo and Mono Residents have here is to pull our business from BofA. Change your accounts to one of the remaining banks (perhaps keeping one BofA acct that is rarely used for occasional out of town use) AND close any BofA credit cards. They are not providing… Read more »
People need to wake up, lot’s of online ownership opportunities to make a great living. Stop thinking JOB. JOB = Just over Broke and a slave to debt
Good Riddance . The local banks and credit unions do a much better job.
The world is changing, like it or not. 40 years ago I would run out of checks long before the register was full. Now the register can go for pages without one check being written – everything is auto deposit and auto pay. In the good old days, if you… Read more »
What’s a “register”?
Just kidding, yup, the world is changing.
Try buying a car with $20s from the ATM….I guess that’s what we’ll be stuck with. How does one get cash for cash purposes? Not to mention, BofA created this ‘problem’. They routinely encouraged people to sign up for accounts that penalized them for going into the bank. They planned… Read more »
How many rural communities actually need more than one or two brick-and-mortar banks to service our local populations, especially with online banking and online payments so easily available? How many retail, brick-and-mortar-stores do we need when we go buy things when there is a larger variety of choices online and… Read more »
Recreation is a resource, and it has been one of the primary resources in this region for the better part of a hundred years. Many here recognize that resource and understandably fight to protect it. Throughout this country and world there are plenty of examples of where short-sighted people, looking… Read more »
COJ, thanks for sharing your comments. As someone who philosophically and politically leans “slightly forward and slightly to the left of center,” with an occasional, tilt to the “right of center and slightly “backwards” (tongue-in-cheek), I agree with your premise that “there’s a balance to be had.” I’ve been a… Read more »
InyoMatters/Charles James?? One and the same??? Maybe you didn’t specifically express your personal position towards: “local environmentalists, “no-growth” groups, and the “not-in-my-backyard” crowd,” But with comments claiming they “destroy the hope” of locals or “screw the economic quality of life”… etc. As a reader, how would you interpret such comments?… Read more »
My friend Charles must realize, now that he is reminded, that Bishop is more than a rural community. It is a regional center with important entities headquartered here. We have Cal Trans, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the CHP, the BLM, the Inyo National Forest, Northern Inyo Hospital,… Read more »
Hey, my friend Phil, You had me at “my friend, Charles.” And I truly do value your friendship…and opinion. You have my “thumbs up.” Very eloquent comments. I don’t disagree with anything you wrote, but the reality is that Inyo and Mono Counties are “rural counties” by almost any definition… Read more »
As usual you are too kind CJ. The entities that are the regional headquarters, the visitors who come and leave their dollars here, the tribes that bring federal dollars into the local economy, in short any economic activity that brings dollars from outside the Eastern Sierra is the foundation and… Read more »
This town is drying up faster than a mud hole in Death Valley. Nobody seems to care.
This has nothing to do with Bishop. It’s solely based on making more profit for the bank. Providing customer service to it’s customers is expensive and not what BofA shareholders care about. Plain and simple. They can get away with it, so they do it.