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This is interesting to me because I spent over 6 years working at a laundromat/dry cleaners. I was the counter monkey, spending about half the operating hours there. My boss claimed to be the first Korean-American to own his own business in the state of Michigan, and had been operating for over 25 years when I worked there (and still is) so he must be doing something right. The area was one that once upon a time was nice, but had become very, very poor. The lion's share of our customers were folks who couldn't afford their own machines, and the like. Our amenities included folding tables, two tvs with cable, a vending machine filled with soap, a pop machine, and two arcade cabinets. We didn't own the games, but the space they took up were leased. I think the boss had a hand in choosing what was there though, because he was crazy over centipede, and that one never left, but when I first started working we had Golden Axe, which got replaced with Ms. Pac-Man, which got replaced by Capcom Bowling. The boss also made money by owning the strip mall we were situated in, and renting out to other businesses, and shortly after I began we opened up another location across town that was strictly pick up and drop off of the laundry and dry cleaning, which we still did. Also, as a money saving plus, the boss had a degree in engineering, so he did the lion's share of the repairs himself. Let me tell you, it was a HUGE mess whenever a pipe or hose would break. We did have a few corporate clients, but not a lot. We would service a few local restaurants, having to do all their tablecloths and whatnot, and we also ended up being the cleaners for Kalitta Racing, which would suck, because when they would come in every six weeks, it would mean I would spend the next several days folding their stuff all shift long. Oh, also I can field Plexiwatt's questions a little bit. Dry cleaning isn't exactly "dry". It's dry in the same way "Dry Gas" is, in that there's not any water involved, but instead there are chemicals used that are gentler on certain garment materials. By the time the great big machine that does the work is finished, the chemicals (most commonly perchloroethylene, or PERC) is pulled out, and the clothes are not damp at all. These chemicals are mildly toxic in undiluted form, and very stringent environmental standards are in place on the equipment to ensure safety. There was a controversy in my area when it was revealed that for decades one local cleaners was just dumping their waste in the ground out back instead of having it properly disposed of (having my father be the head of the county health department gave me the full scoop). Some state-of-the-art places use a new "wet cleaning" method that uses water and is more eco-friendly, but I don't know anything about that. Martinizing I learned about when my now-ex-wife who worked at a different dry cleaners got her place bought out and turned into a franchise. "One Hour Martinizing" is basically fabreezing your clothes, pressing them, and maybe spot cleaning them. Don't waste your money, go in for the full dry cleaning.
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Oct 29, 2014 02:41
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 15:38 |
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Actually it really isn't that big, maybe twice the square footage of like, my 2 bedroom apartment. The place is divided up into 3 sections: the dry cleaning side, where the register and whatnot also are, a section with the top loaders, and a section with the bigger front loaders. The dryers are then set up with their backs to basically the middle of the laundromat section, with a small maintenence room in between. There's enough space that there's 4 chairs in each laundry section by the windows. The remaining empty space is all countertops as folding tables. One of the tvs sits on the vending machine, and the second we got while I worked there and installed a wall-mount. This was from before the flat numbers were standard and more difficult. It's really not that fancy.
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Oct 29, 2014 18:27
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For the record, on the one hand I feel totally betrayed in the loyal order of laundromats (See the sticky thread in GBS for more info), on the other, props to the OP for being able to construct a convincing story. I suppose I can leave the thread on an appropriately spooky story for the season though. At the end of the night once, when I was cleaning the store, which mostly just entailed sweeping and mopping, and wiping down the equipment so they didn't have soap stains all over them, I got to one of the top loaders that is completely out of my sight from the dry cleaners counter. It was closed, but not running, so I open it hoping it's not jammed. It's filled to the brim with dark red liquid.  It's ten at night, pitch black outside, with nobody in the store, and I'd already turned off the tvs, so it's dead silent. Apparently my life had just become a slasher movie. I have to do it, I have to reach inside the machine and make sure the agitator isn't jammed on something.  Luckily it wasn't, and when I closed it, the machine kicked back into life. Eventually I would realize that someone had been dying their clothes in the machine (something that is clearly stated as being against the rules) and dashed out before I caught them. But I tell you, at the time when I opened that machine and saw it filled with blood-red water, I was one weird noise away from running right out of the building and saying "gently caress it" to finishing my duties.
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Oct 30, 2014 07:04
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