A trip to the post office

A trip to the Post Office on pension day is something to behold and probably best avoided as it is awash with pensioners withdrawing their money to keep them going for another week.  I’m not sure if there is a collective noun for pensioners but there should be.  There are some unsavoury suggestions on the internet, as always, to which I will add my offering of a jubilation of pensioners. 

The reason for avoiding the Post Office will be obvious to you the minute that you walk in as even if all you want is a stamp you will be faced by a long queue curling around the shelves and credenzas that make up the shop.  It’s as if you have landed in a different age, where the colour of hair is grey and the pace of life seems a lot slower.

The financial transactions incurred in handing over the weekly pension are lengthy, cumbersome and to be honest completely unnecessary.  In these days of e-commerce, direct debits, debit cards and credit cards why is there such a push for cash on pension day?  Is there a run on the bank?  Is cash being withdrawn from circulation?

Although I not very far behind in terms of age it seems to be an anathema to withdraw all of money that I need to last a week in cash.  Apart from the obvious security risk fro the pensioners and also the Post Office, the temptation to blow it all in a mad spending spree would be too much. It is far better from my perspective to leave it in the bank and draw it out in small handy amounts from the hole in the wall.

Over the last few years there has been a real move away from using physical cash in the way that many people live their lives.  I estimate that of all the money that I earn, less than two percent is handed over in notes and coins, with the rest invisible to me.  Seeing the polite and well behaved shuffle of people waiting to draw out their money brought it home how different things have become. 

We have become a two speed nation or have we always been this way?  There is one nation where technology and advancement is taken in its stride and another nation which is left in a more traditional way of interacting and doing business.  Is the queue for cash a new phenomenon caused by the migration towards electronic commerce or a reflection of an age old issue (rather than an old age issue) where the more mobile are always that bit ahead of rest of society?  I’ll let you know in a few years time.