ATMs and the city

This is one of those actions that, when they happen, make you think, "what took them so long?". Seems like a pretty obvious idea, post-facto! Wonder if security requirements at Duane Reade would go up now. Would you work in a shop that has a few thousand dollars of CASH lying around, albeit inside a machine?

There is one thing I don't understand, though - in the commercial capital of the world, in the "credit card nation", an ATM network (access to cash) is being projected as the differentiating factor among retail banks. Larger the informal sector, larger the need for liquid cash - Chicago and NY probably fit that bill (no pun intended).