Pick-Up/Drop Off dry cleaning service - why?

[ilovesugar]

This is more curiosity than anything about this. I am assuming that pick-up and drop-off dry cleaning services cost more than just dropping it off yourself, is this correct?

The reason I ask is that two of my neighbors use this service. About once a week I see the guys hang the bag on their door and then see the van pick-up and drop-off their dry cleaning. Both of their wives stay home and have kids who are in school. The moms rarely leave their homes during the day. I know because I stayed home the majority of the last 8 months. Why on earth would they not just go to the dry cleaners themselves? I am just wondering if this kind of service does something special or something because I cannot imagine needing this if you stay at home.

Yes, I know this may offend someone, but I just think it is silly.

 

[Christine]

Actually, there was once a place where I lived that did this. The owners did not have a "store front" and just did delivery. I don't think it cost anymore because they weren't running a store. Not sure if this is the case.

 

[ilovesugar]

Actually, there was once a place where I lived that did this. The owners did not have a "store front" and just did delivery. I don't think it cost anymore because they weren't running a store. Not sure if this is the case.

No, I don't think so. It is a bigger named place that has a store actually about 1/2 mile from our house.

 

[kwelch10377]

For me it would be convenience. I wouldn't have to make the trip or worry about forgetting to pick the stuff up.

There may be a reason they rarely leave the house. Instead of spying on them, why not take to opportunity to go over and introduce yourself and invite them over for coffee or something and get to know them. If you do that then just ask them something along the lines of I noticed that you guys use a pick up/drop dry cleaning service, so do you really find it that convenient?

People have their reasons for doing certain things, in this case it maybe pure laziness. They may find something you do just as silly.

 

[allison443]

This is more curiosity than anything about this. I am assuming that pick-up and drop-off dry cleaning services cost more than just dropping it off yourself, is this correct?

The reason I ask is that two of my neighbors use this service. About once a week I see the guys hang the bag on their door and then see the van pick-up and drop-off their dry cleaning. Both of their wives stay home and have kids who are in school. The moms rarely leave their homes during the day. I know because I stayed home the majority of the last 8 months. Why on earth would they not just go to the dry cleaners themselves? I am just wondering if this kind of service does something special or something because I cannot imagine needing this if you stay at home.

Yes, I know this may offend someone, but I just think it is silly.

Wow, you must have been really bored during those eight months you were home if you have started critiquing your neighbors' dry cleaning habits....

 

[mjkacmom]

Around here, they don't charge more. They get the benefit of having a scheduled weekly business. We should do this - DH brings his shirts in when he has none left!

 

[ilovesugar]

For me it would be convenience. I wouldn't have to make the trip or worry about forgetting to pick the stuff up.

There may be a reason they rarely leave the house. Instead of spying on them, why not take to opportunity to go over and introduce yourself and invite them over for coffee or something and get to know them. If you do that then just ask them something along the lines of I noticed that you guys use a pick up/drop dry cleaning service, so do you really find it that convenient?

People have their reasons for doing certain things, in this case it maybe pure laziness. They may find something you do just as silly.

I am not home anymore during the day. I went back full-time after taking an extended maternity leave. One is really nice and we have chatted before, the other one is not so much.

 

[ilovesugar]

Wow, you must have been really bored during those eight months you were home if you have started critiquing your neighbors' dry cleaning habits....

It is hard to not notice a huge bag hanging on someone's doorknob.

 

[luvmy3]

I'm a SAHM and I would definitely use a service like this, then I don't have to turn off the soaps and put down the bon bons.

 

[diznygirl]

We used it because it was like magic - put it out and get it back, right on our front porch.

As a SAHM I can't tell you how many times I had the best of intentions to run errands, and something came up and I didn't get out the door that day.

I understand that some are SuperMoms and can do 100 things in a day with one hand tied behind their back while still keeping the precious snowflakes happy - but I'm just not one of them.

 

[Acklander]

I used to do this a zillion years ago, when I lived in Denver. The place that did it only charged a nominal fee, so it didn't cost me any more than if I had driven out to drop off/ pick up and I didn't have to deal with the headache of finding parking. I think the company did it as a customer service thing to draw in business. It worked for me.
Another place I lived had this guy who would drop off your groceries once a week. You just placed your order and he'd bring it right to your house and load it in your fridge. The selections were limited but the prices were cheaper than if I bought it in the grocery store. He just bought the stuff in bulk and didn't have a store front or anything.

 

[ZachnElli]

When we lived in Boise my dh used a service like this and I was a SAHM. It was FREE. Yeah, free! He'd forget to do drop off or pick up and he'd forget to ask me and this solved it, except when he forgot to put his clothes out!

 

[akcire]

My husband's company has a dry cleaning service that picks up in his office building. I love taking the full dry cleaning bag and throwing it on his passenger seat. He drives to work (where he has to go everyday regardless of dry cleaning) and drops the bag in the lobby. Like magic a few days later the clean clothes are in his office. The service keeps a credit card number on file--it is so easy. No more worrying about making it to the cleaners before they close, etc or wasting time.

 

[Mkrop]

Maybe they started using the service when the kids were younger and it was a pain to drag the kids into the cleaners and now just continue to use it because they like the service.

Who cares?

I mean why do people bank online when they could just go to the bank. Whatever floats your boat!

 

[Tinkermommy]

Typically they don't charge more. For the dry cleaner, they get their money from the customer every week (some people don't pick up dry cleaning for a loooong time). Also, it makes for a more loyal customer base.

If you have kids, especially more than one, shlepping them around doing errands is a pain. I think it's a great service for anyone that doesn't want to waste time, gas etc on errands.

And the line about eating bon bons cracked me up.

 

[emma'smom]

Maybe the SAHM got sick of cleaning her DH's dirty, ring around the collar shirts and sick of him complaining that they weren't "starched" correctly and said "You want them to look/feel like bleached cardboard--then do it yourself!"

....and so he does...by sending them to the cleaners!

 

[Gigi22]

Starting when she was in her early 40s my mother regularly sent all my father's shirts out to a laundry. I suppose our neighbours may have thought she was lazy, since she was a SAHM, and it was the 1960s--norms for women were different then. This is so far from the truth--the shirts went out because she had a major stroke when she was 42, and afterwards found keeping up with my dad's shirts was too much for her.
Sometimes jumping to a conclusion is just plain wrong!

 

[DizBelle]

No one is jumping to conclusions. If the OP was jumping to a conclusion, there would be no reason to ask the question on a thread - she would already have a conclusion. There is absolutely nothing wrong with asking a question on a discussion board.

I get so frustrated with people that get bent out of shape over a discussion on a discussion board. It's a DISCUSSION BOARD. Why are people surprised when they find discussion on a discussion board?

 

[ilovesugar]

Starting when she was in her early 40s my mother regularly sent all my father's shirts out to a laundry. I suppose our neighbours may have thought she was lazy, since she was a SAHM, and it was the 1960s--norms for women were different then. This is so far from the truth--the shirts went out because she had a major stroke when she was 42, and afterwards found keeping up with my dad's shirts was too much for her.
Sometimes jumping to a conclusion is just plain wrong!

I am not jumping to any conclusions. Neither of these women are handicapped in any way. People are getting so bent out of shape as if I am talking about them. I am not. I am talking about my neighbors. You (general you) are jumping to conslusions that I don't know either of them and that I sit around all day watching them, I don't. I just notice things that any other neighbor would notice. They live right next door to me so sure, I notice things hanging on their door. I also notice that both of them have cleaning services that come every week to clean their homes.

 

[kwelch10377]

Your original post it did come off as if you were judging them. Pointing out that they stay home all day, their kids are in school and they don't leave the house would lead me to think you were implying that they were lazy by having a pick up/drop off service. You may not have meant it that way, but that is how it came off.