I recently gave four sarees of mine for steam pressing at the local dry cleaners. We have a major wedding in the family coming up. In India, wedding equals four functions, MINIMUM. So I had to give four sarees for steam pressing (and one suit for dry cleaning for the fifth function).
It is a woeful process. First you must go through your cupboard and locate the sarees. Now, being in my job, I have both cotton and silk sarees. Silk sarees are of two categories: office wear and shaadi wear. Shaadi wear sarees are needed for wedding type occassions.
Anything less would bring dishonour to your family.
So on this sombre note, I picked out my sarees. However, having gone through the magical experience of giving birth and feeding my child, my weight however has not managed to get back to my pre-pregnancy situation. Which ofcourse means, the blouses for the saree will need to be altered. You'll need to do a google on saree, if you don't know what I'm talking about. But sarees are accompanied by blouses, tight cotton stitched pieces of apparel that need to be fitted.
I think it is just a way for the tailors to stay in business.
Lo and behold.
Problem no. 1: No blouse will fit. In fact, no blouse will even go through my arm. It is embarrassing admitting this. But this is the price you pay if you want a child and don't want to go to the gym.
Problem no. 2: Buying the material for the blouses (4 since there are 4 sarees)
Problem no. 3: Getting the blouses stitched. That involved going to the tailor with the material. Then collecting the blouses
Problem no. 4: Getting the sarees steam pressed.
At problem no. 4 I realized just how much money dry cleaners make. They must be raking in lakhs every month.
Imagine. The first store, which was the nearest to the main road of the market, was charging me Rs 150 per saree for dry cleaning. When I pulled out my red saree (with the excessive embroidery), he took one look at it and said Rs 200. When I shrieked - after all, I'm not stupid - how can you charge different rates for different sarees, the man looked at me with contempt and stated
"Take your business elsewhere Madam".
Customer service in India is not up to the mark. They don't need to give you a reason.
So I did. I walked around 15 shops away and found a guy who would do each saree for Rs 100.
We should all become dry cleaners though. Excess competition would force the rates down, but I think there is a lot of margin for profit.
It is a woeful process. First you must go through your cupboard and locate the sarees. Now, being in my job, I have both cotton and silk sarees. Silk sarees are of two categories: office wear and shaadi wear. Shaadi wear sarees are needed for wedding type occassions.
Anything less would bring dishonour to your family.
So on this sombre note, I picked out my sarees. However, having gone through the magical experience of giving birth and feeding my child, my weight however has not managed to get back to my pre-pregnancy situation. Which ofcourse means, the blouses for the saree will need to be altered. You'll need to do a google on saree, if you don't know what I'm talking about. But sarees are accompanied by blouses, tight cotton stitched pieces of apparel that need to be fitted.
I think it is just a way for the tailors to stay in business.
Lo and behold.
Problem no. 1: No blouse will fit. In fact, no blouse will even go through my arm. It is embarrassing admitting this. But this is the price you pay if you want a child and don't want to go to the gym.
Problem no. 2: Buying the material for the blouses (4 since there are 4 sarees)
Problem no. 3: Getting the blouses stitched. That involved going to the tailor with the material. Then collecting the blouses
Problem no. 4: Getting the sarees steam pressed.
At problem no. 4 I realized just how much money dry cleaners make. They must be raking in lakhs every month.
Imagine. The first store, which was the nearest to the main road of the market, was charging me Rs 150 per saree for dry cleaning. When I pulled out my red saree (with the excessive embroidery), he took one look at it and said Rs 200. When I shrieked - after all, I'm not stupid - how can you charge different rates for different sarees, the man looked at me with contempt and stated
"Take your business elsewhere Madam".
Customer service in India is not up to the mark. They don't need to give you a reason.
So I did. I walked around 15 shops away and found a guy who would do each saree for Rs 100.
We should all become dry cleaners though. Excess competition would force the rates down, but I think there is a lot of margin for profit.
