Photograph by George Sakkestad
Wells Fargo Safeway Bank Center Manager Gene Quisisem talks to shopper Sheila Mazzoni at the Safeway at 470 N. Santa Cruz Ave. about opening an account.
By Clarence Cromwell
Customers of First Interstate Bank's Los Gatos office, 14251 Winchester Blvd., will have to conduct their transactions elsewhere after August 10, when the branch will close.
Nineteen of Wells Fargo's and First Interstate's 81 Santa Clara County branches, including the office in Los Gatos, will combine with other nearby outlets, Wells Fargo spokeswoman Lorna Doubet said last week.
Wells Fargo hinted in February, as it waited for federal approval to take over First Interstate, that some branches would close if the deal were completed. The Justice Department approved the $11 billion merger March 7.
Los Gatos First Interstate accounts will be shifted to the Wells Fargo Bank at 16100 Los Gatos Blvd. But account holders can take their transactions, including deposits, to any Wells Fargo branch or ATM.
Former First Interstate customers will have to choose an account currently offered by Wells Fargo.
"We'll try to find the account in Wells Fargo that's close to the First Interstate account," said Lorna Doubet, a Wells Fargo spokeswoman.
Newly-formed Wells Fargo & Company plans to open more branches, even as it cuts employees, according to Barbara Crist, senior vice president for Wells Fargo's central division.
The bank wants more mini-bank branches in grocery stores, Crist said. The branches reach many people, require little staffing and benefit both the supermarket and the bank. And they're open seven days a week, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
When Wells Fargo customers bank inside the Los Gatos Safeway store, 470 N. Santa Cruz, they spend money, said Crist. The location also puts Gene Quisisem, regional leader for in-store banking, in contact with people who aren't Wells Fargo customers--yet. Three days a week Quisisem staffs the banking center nestled between a magazine rack and the flower shop in Los Gatos Safeway. He performs the same services available at a full-size branch, even loaning money, with two phones at his banking kiosk and a nearby ATM.
"I'm no different from the banker behind the desk," he said. "The difference is, I go look for customers."
Quisisem said he strolls the aisles of the store, stopping shoppers long enough to tell them about his company's services.
After conversing with 60 to 100 shoppers in a single day, he might convince three to open an account.
Meanwhile, the bank plans to jettison 16 percent of its employees before the end of the year.
A batch of 1,750 pink slips went out April 1 to employees in offices other than branch offices. Next, 259 branches around the state will close, half of them in July and half in August.
The nine-employee bank at Knowles and Winchester employs three part-time tellers, three full-time customer-service representatives and a manager. The employees in the Los Gatos branch will find out before May 15 whether they still work for the bank.
They won't necessarily be on the street. Hiring freezes enacted during the fourth quarter of 1995 kept open 1,000 jobs, for which current employees of Wells Fargo can apply. And Doubet said branches remaining open may need more employees to handle an increased number of accounts.
If those options fail, employees can use one of the company's nine career counseling centers.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, May 1, 1996.
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