Handholding in the Big Apple

NEW YORK - Commerce Bancorp's newest branch on the Upper West Side of Manhattan doesn't look like a typical Big Apple bank. It is filled with bunches of red balloons and baskets of free chocolates and lollipops, and anyone who walks in, customer or not, can use the shiny change-counting machine labeled "Penny Arcade."The $6.8 billion asset company, which is based in Cherry Hill, N.J., about 80 miles southwest of New York, has been making a push into the metropolitan area. It opened the West 94th Street branch last year - along with three other branches in the city - hoping to draw customers away from bigger and better-known banks.Commerce plans to open six more branches in Manhattan this year, including another on the Upper West Side.Part of the company's strategy is to makes its branches look and feel like stores. Commerce has a theme ("wow") and a color (red). Customers seem to like it. "We really market ourselves as a retailer," said Alan L. Nossen, the new branch's manager, who was hired away from HSBC North America. (He ran its branch nearby.)To further distinguish itself in the market, Commerce has stretched the hours at its branches to 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays, 8 to 6 Saturdays, and 11 to 4 Sundays. Also, to make up for the scarcity of its automated teller machines, it forgoes surcharges on foreign ATM transactions and reimburses as much as $5 a month of other banks' ATM fees.Victor Malave, 28, and Barbara Rodriguez, 21, have savings accounts at Mr. Nossen's new branch. It has "a good feeling," Mr. Malave said. "It's crowded at Citibank; it's open here." The balloons and chocolates are no big deal for him and Ms. Rodriguez, he said, but both said they appreciate the staff's courtesy.Mr. Nossen said he walks the floor saying hello to customers. At competitors' branches, he said, it is like entering "a fortress just to get to the branch manager."Charlotte Stock, 80, moved her accounts from a Dime Savings Bank branch four blocks away. (Dime was recently acquired by Seattle's Washington Mutual Inc.) She said the Commerce branch is "more comfortable" than other branches. She was "not dissatisfied" at Dime, she said, but Commerce "had better hours for me, and it's much more convenient" - just around the corner from her apartment."Also I like the lollipops," Ms. Stock said.Mr. Nossen said most of his customers are neighborhood residents or small-business owners. Some probably still have accounts at other banks, he said. There are indeed many other banks to choose from in the neighborhood. In addition to Dime and HSBC, there is a Citibank branch two blocks north and a J.P. Morgan Chase branch three blocks south.Though many New Yorkers have Internet banking, "they want the handholding" that Commerce provides, Mr. Nossen said. "That's what we sell here."