Small town feels effects of nearby bank’s departure
SNOW SHOE, Pa. — Hall’s Market, cradled between Interstate 80 and waves of rolling countryside, has been in this former Centre County coal town for four generations.
A year after Troy Hall’s great-grandfather, William, founded the market in 1913, the Snow Shoe office of People’s National Bank was built at the corner of Fourth and Olive streets. For as long as the fourth-generation Mr. Hall can remember, his family has done business at the bank just a turn off Sycamore and onto Eighth and East Olive Street.
“There’s always been a bank in Snow Shoe,” he said. “Always.”
Each morning, Mr. Hall, who owns the market with his brother, Jason, organizes the previous night’s deposits and takes them to the institution’s current iteration, a branch of First National Bank. The drive takes less than five minutes.
But with news that the town’s lone bank is leaving, Mr. Hall’s daily commute will include a longer sojourn, one that will require a trip down I-80 and about an hour more out of the day.
“It’s going to be a major inconvenience,” Mr. Hall, 48, said. “I have deposits and lottery and money orders and utility bills I accept, and I have to put the money in every day, plus the regular banking.”
In a letter dated Aug. 19, First National Bank notified customers that it is combining its Snow Shoe branch with its location in Bellefonte, Centre County. The Snow Shoe branch, the letter stated, will close on Nov. 18 and any accounts will be transferred to the Bellefonte location three days later.
For the about 800 residents of Snow Shoe, the departure may be a numbers game. Bellefonte’s population, more than six times the size of Snow Shoe’s, boasts a growing business scene and combined merchant and retail sales of more than $100 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
“We continually evaluate our branch network to ensure it is optimized and operating efficiently,” Meghan Cole, a media and public relations manager for First National Bank, said in a statement. “Decisions such as this are based on an established evaluation process, which examines factors including convenience, operating costs, transaction volume and more.
“Our goal is to continue to serve our customers’ needs through alternative channels, including our Bellefonte office and our comprehensive range of online and mobile banking tools.”
The branch’s closing reflects a move away from brick-and-mortar operations in the banking industry. In 2012, more than 2,000 branches closed while about half that number opened, research firm SNL Financial reported.
In 2015, Citigroup announced its branch count had fallen 13 percent, while Bank of America had nixed more than 200 locations.
Online banking, meanwhile, has filled the niche. With customers handling transactions via mobile applications and internet services, fewer workers are needed.
A shift toward self-service style banking means lower costs for financial institutions, even if it comes at the expense of some communities whose residents remain used to walking inside a branch and dealing with a teller.
Jenn Nastase, who oversees the Mountain Top Area Pool Association, said the older population will be most hurt by the move.
“It’s going to have a huge impact on Snow Shoe and at least on a 25-mile radius,” she said. “I understand a lot of banking is done online now, but those elderly people do not do that.