Countdown to Employment 1: Taken to the Cleaners...

[f4f3]

Now that I'm about to be a wage-slave again, I thought I'd get a suit and some shirts dry-cleaned. Yes, getting shirts ironed is a lazy thing, but I'm a lazy person. Last year I'd go to my local supermarket and get them done in batches of five for £4.00 or so.
There's a local Johnson Cleaners not far from my flat, and they seem to be fairly ubiquitous, so I took my three piece suit and a coat belonging to unblinkered which she'd been unwise enough to leave on Scooby's back seat, and which had turned from a wool coat to a wool and cat-hair mix.

When I walked in with my stuff there were two staff there, one fiddling with the cash register, the other just fiddling.
"How much do you charge to launder shirts?"
"£1.99 each."
"Oh, in that case, I'll just put in this coat and suit."
Staff member one: "You'll have to clean that coat before we can take it - the cat hair could get on other people's laundry."
Thinks: No, I'm paying you to clean it. Why would I want to do it myself then pay you?"
"Ok, in that case just the suit."
"Fine..." fiddles with cash register....
"Name? Phone number? Do you want to join our priority club? Do you want a permanent press in the trousers?"
"How much would the be?"
"An extra £2.75."
"No thanks."
"You mean you want it?"
"No, I don't want it."
Shrug.
"Ok, that will be £15.40."
"Sorry?"
"£12 for the suit, £3.40 for the waistcoat."
Thinks for 0.5 of a second.
"In that case I won't bother."

So I walked out, thinking that maybe this was the new price of dry-cleaning. Bloody hell, inflation is really biting. Then I walked fifty yards to the local laundrette, The Steam Shop, where I've been taking service washes for the last 10 years or so - yup, they do dry cleaning - four items for £12. Yup, they'll launder and iron my shirts for less than a pound each. Yup, they got my business...

Comments

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I think I pay $1.50 for shirts and dry cleaning is not outrageous.

[kittenexploring.livejournal.com]

I put things in the washing machine once a week then hang them out to dry. Occasionally I iron something if it really cries out for it. I do have a bottle of dry cleaning fluid but have yet to need it.

I don't pay myself anything for my time, the cheap bastard. I have sometimes wondered about this strange other world of laundrettes, though.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Well this is about the third time in 8 months that I'll need to be wearing a shirt and a tie, and the first time I'll be doing it regularly since I last quit the office life. So I might as well knock them dead...

[kittenexploring.livejournal.com]

When my sister ran a laundrette I worked out it can actually be more cost efficient to use a laundrette, not counting time costs. It was close enough that it didn't take much to tip the cost over to doing it yourself but there's still the upfront cost to consider.

[mhaithaca.livejournal.com]

I bet they'll do a better job than the chain, too.

[unblinkered.livejournal.com]

To be fair, the coat ended up on the back seat *after* it got covered in cat hair on the drive up. Seems AnnaHair attaches itself to clothing even when you think you're being clever and sitting her on a blanket!