Dear readers, I went to the participating ATM in my neighbourhood shopping mall yesterday evening to exchange for the lunar new year Hongbao notes.
When I reached there, I noticed a long queue. The staff told me the new $10 notes have run out and that I could come between 830pm to 10pm again as the $10 notes would have been replenished.
I was confident that there would be a shorter queue at night and hence I was back in the queue at 840pm. Then, there were about 40 persons in the queue. The staff highlighted to me that based on my queue position, I might not be able to redeem the new notes as the two participating ATM machines would shut down at 1000 hrs.
I did a quick mathematical calculation. 2 ATM machines serving 40 persons in front of me. This translates to 20 persons per ATM. And assuming each transaction takes 3 minutes, it will mean around 1 hour and this means that probably I would reach the ATM machines by 940pm or thereabout, around 20 minutes before the ATM machines shut down. Hence, I chose to join the queue.
It was an hour-long queue that I was prepared for. Throughout the queue, I read and did online things, same as with many in the queue. When it was 940pm, this was when stress and excitement started to spread among the remaining people in the queue, including myself: will we get the new Hongbao notes after queuing for so long?
To their credit, the bank staff earlier also told folks who decided to join the queue after me that they might not have been in time to get the new notes if they decided to join the queue by 10pm when the ATM machines shut down. At the same time, the bank staff highlighted that they would not dissuade these folks if they decided to join anyway.
After 940pm, those few folks in the queue including myself inevitably found ourselves scrutinizing the folks doing the withdrawal at the participating ATMs. We murmured “Faster, Faster”. Some of us grimaced when we saw folks at the ATMs seeming to take an expectedly longer time. Earlier, the staff who chatted with us also shared that he advises folks in queue on a daily basis to make up their minds on the denomination package to redeem before they reach the ATMs. This will speed up the transactions and expedite waiting time for everyone.
At close of 955pm, it was my turn to use the ATMs to the cheers of those behind me. I was under quite a lot of pressure as I used up the maximum of 3 transactions and expedited the keying in of the transactions. I sprang off after making the transactions to the relief of the folk waiting behind me.
I recalled several years back, redeeming of new lunar new year notes was a fuss free experience. There were plentiful 24-hour pop up ATM machines for interested folks to redeem the new year notes and queues were relatively shorter.
I tend to believe that by having the participating ATM machines at the bank stores with other non-participating ATMS, folks who are just withdrawing monies and do not have the actual need to redeem lunar new year notes may inadvertently want to join in the queues as well just to lay their hands on crispy new notes. This hence adds to the long queues’ day in and day out for these new notes.