Boston Globe columnist Steven Syre is basically telling everyone to get over it: that Boston's franchise era was inevitable, and it can't be reversed.

Will this eventually take jobs away from Boston? We asked how you felt about another iconic Beantown company, this one more than 300 years old, losing its hometown roots. Here are your responses.

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I used to have baybank, bankboston, fleet. What is the difference. Just very frustrated that I just got used to homelink and now they are probably going to change their whole site. I also heard that Bank of America has outragous fees and bad customer service, this completely sucks if you ask me. I would look for a local bank, but they just don't have the ATM's. Just surprised in beantown that the governement didn't step in to at least look at the merger. What a good time for Bank of America to do this while the economy is in the crapper.

b schlegel, Boston

A case study for Banking Industry analysts who want to know how poorly the customer experience has been for Joe Customer, in Boston, over the last decade. Once upon a time, in 1991, I was a happy college student with Greater Boston Bank. Then around 1997, they were bought by Grove Bank, while Grove was being bought by Citizens. Aaaaagh. Scary green signs and fees, fees, fees. I'm outta here. I went over to USTrust. Ah, lollipops and no fees. Soothing red signs.... Oh, no. It can't be... Nooooo! Please, make it go away! Citizens eats USTrust in 1999, and I start to panic. Here come fees, fees, fees. Citizens Bank, the nickel and dime vacuum. I was granted a reprieve from fees during a "period of grace." For one year, it'll feel like USTrust... Then the sickle of suffering would come down. While GW Bush and Vice President Halliburton were being sworn in on that snowy Saturday morning, I was notified by Citizens that my fees-freeze was ending. Timely. Marrying shortly thereafter, my wife and I decided that sleeping with the devil ain't so bad, if you have an elixir for the burns. We moved all our accounts to Fleet because Fleet still gave us free checking as a direct deposit benefit from a job she had long since left. Ah, we tricked the giant!!! Hee, hee! Free checking! No fine print! And of course, since they charge you for having a savings accounts and throw empty soda cans at you instead of paying you decent interest, we moved all our savings to ING, where at least they give you 6-packs of empty soda cans in interest. So now, 2003, I am sad again. I'm sure the migration of our accounts to BOA, an appropriate name for a slithery snake of a bank, will reveal our fee-free bliss and the hammer of the banking gods will strike us down. With such poor interest payout and paralytic fee structures these days, they really make the Bank of Mattress or the Bank of Fire Box an appealing alternative. To Fleet, the once innocuous Providence bank with a peaceful, sail boat logo, I spit on you. I shake the sands of your land out of my sandals. I hope the teats of the fat cats you nurse go dry! To Bank of America, unwelcome suitor, you are the new emblem of faceless greed in New England. Go ahead and pat yourselves on the back for contrived High Satisfaction Numbers, because your associates end every call with "Is there anything else I can do for you?" Let me tell you what you and the evil Con-Cast cable company can do...

Andre, Boston, MA

A takeover of Fleet was inevitable. Mergers are a fact of business life. In this case, Fleet's acquisition of other banks made it more attractive, and the window of financial strain following the BankBoston takeover made it vulnerable. I do believe that Massachusetts and Rhode Island will lose jobs. It always happens with acquisitions, and the smaller fish is at a disadvantgage. The larger company assimilates the smaller company with as little accommodation as possible. In the business community, not laying off workers, or eliminating jobs, is viewed as poor business planning. Workers have been considered increasingly expendable since the mid-80's. Regardless of how cumulative knowledge can, in the long run, make a company better, layoffs for short term monetary gains to a select few at the top has come to be standard operating procedure for businesses large and small, public and private. As for Fleet being a "hometown" bank, it isn't exactly warm & fuzzy. I don't see how it could get worse, but you never know.

Susan, Mansfield

PS, Steven Syre, you are pursuing a non-issue. Franchise future versus historical hometown hermeneutics. BUNK! Let me pick up your straw man so you can knock him down again. What New Englanders can't get over is that businessmen are sytematically ignoring the effects of their transactions on their customers and employees. Listen to them euphemize about job-loss as "churn". Disconnection from the customer experience will increase customer distrust and thelikelihood of longterm customer retention. And, don't even mention on the job morale at Fleet. But, if you want to focus on the loss of a so-called local icon, you've missed the boat. How many people lament the loss of the Eagle car brand?? It came and went without legacy, or heritage.

Andre, Boston, MA

Hopefully, badly. If there's any pain in Boston over the loss of their last big bank HQ then I can tell you that the people of Hartford have no sympathy. 15 years ago our great historic hometown banks were swallowed up by Boston banks...it's great to see this happening to Boston! Good for Charlotte.

Mike, Hartford

By the way, what's all this about "Fleet" being a Boston bank anyway? If memory serves, Fleet's a Providence born bank.

Mike, Hartford

As an employee at Fleet, I am a little annoyed at how "happy" people are that we were bought out yesterday. People's comments, such as it being a "good riddance" and they wish that the bank could have "gone under" - you people should be ashamed of yourselves. There are 47,000 people who work for this company who are worried about having jobs come April 2004, worried about having to move to Charlotte or New York and worried about finding a new job in one of the worst job markets around, and you are telling us that it is a good riddence and you just wish we could have gone bankrupt first? Think about your audience before you post messages like that, because there are a lot more important things in life that having your checking account messed up 3 years ago. This bank has worked hard since the last merger to reestablish ourselves as the best bank in New England - and as an employee AND customer I think we've done a pretty good job. Senior management may be telling us that there might be jobs for all of us, but as we all know in this sort of a situation - when a company buys another for a 40% premium and then announces cost cuts - the employees are the first to go. Think about us the next time you think about Fleet.

Emily, Boston