Sunday, August 09, 2009

Banking No Crisis

After our trip to Sedona, the car was covered in red rock dust from prowling the dirt roads in order to get to hiking trailheads and scenic views. So yesterday we went to the carwash. Phoenix has a million of these.



It wasn't busy at all, considering it was Saturday. But I counted a dozen-and-a-half people rubbing down the cars.

As we stood under the misters sipping iced tea while waiting, I noticed that workers were running across the street to a parked vehicle. One still nearby us asked another "Where do we cash our checks?" He held his paycheck in hand.



In turn, workers would cross at mid-street to approach the white pickup truck, then they'd come back counting their cash. I even saw a woman come up to this impromptu check-cashing service after walking from a nearby apartment complex.

One of the young men who used this service was the blue-eyed shaved head dude who asked us about a miniscule windshield chip when we drove up to the carwash. Every time you get your car washed at a place like this, they always provide the additional opportunity to have even the tiniest almost invisible little ding repaired, knowing that a lot of auto insurance companies will pay for several of these fixes every year.

Point being, not every person who used the bank across the street appeared to be possibly undocumented.

1 comment:

wstachour said...

Interesting. I suppose there is an analogous off-grid support structure for immigrants in my area, but I'm not observant enough to see it. (Or it's a smaller phenomenon.)