Evening star., 1901-07-20
SWAPPING CUSTOMERS.

One Phase of the Laundry Business
That Ia Rather Unusual.
Talk about wireless telegraphy." said q
man in q downtown store the other day
while waiting for his change. there Is q
game going on in this town that beats 1t
hollow. 1t may be worked in other cities
as well. but have never heard of It. You
are a patron Of a certain steam laundry in
town and have an arrangement whereby
the wagon will call for your bundle of
soiled linen once a week. The bag Is al
ways ready on Mondays After two or three
weeks Of pretty regular service one day the
bundle comes home from another laundry.
You inquire of your wife or the servant and
get little satisfaction. No one has changed
the orders. A wagon came and got the
stun and later in the day another wagon
came for 1t, too. There had apparently
been misunderstanding and you are glad
to get your goods back. Next week the
old laundry wagon comes back. Mean
while you have been called up on the tele-
phone and some one representing the laun-
dry that did your washing by mistake will
apologize to you for the blunder and softly
suggest that perhaps you would like to
continue You switch off without reaching
bargain. The prices are all the same. you
see. Then for few weeks you get the
bundle back. sometimes from one establish
ment and sometimes from another. Then.
perhaps. for an experiment. you switch off
to serubbing bureau which has not yet
broken into the game. just to get things
Strengthened out, and behold! you have not
had single collar worn to shreds by this
establishment before the same process Is
on.
If you carry the matter to headquarters
yourself you will be told that the laundry
you have been patronizing has recently
discharged drivers and that these men have
been stealing their trade My experience
would seem to suggest that the explanation
lies deeper. l have watched the faces of
these laundry drivers and have become
pretty familiar with them. l have ordered
service OF one place and have had one call
from Its wagon. and the next week have
oeen waited on by man whom 1 have
never seen before You see, l became SO
interested In the game that I studied It at
hrst hand during one vacation 1 had to
spend in town for financial reasons. The
fact l found was that the drivers don't
shirt places as rapidly as the laundry man.
ayers would have you think. cannot avoid
the conclusion that there Is a system of
buying and selling information in vogue
whereby these drivers get a handsome
rake-oh. l may be doing them an injustice,
but there is no other way to account for
the otherwise mysterious manner In which
your laundry bundle will slip from one es-
tabi1shment to the other. What is to pre-
vent the driver of one of these wagons
from tipping off rival laundry whenever
he calls on new customer? OF course,
the game is worked on all Sides If at all.
and 1t Is possible that most of the drivers
IN town are on the same lay. If so, each
laundry is both buying the secrets of others
ana Is losing customers in the same man
ner. For 1t is a game for as many players
as can sit around the table
1t Is matter Of comparatively slight
Importance, except that once In a while a
man gets hold of a cleaning joint where his
linen will last something like its natural
life. and he hates to lose it, There Is one
branch of the laundry business which has
nv -
trade rivalry, as far as 1 have been able TO
Judge The Cinnamon don't try to drum up
business. They take all they can get and
smile whenever more comes. and when nc
more Is to be had they smile again and
take nap behind the partition and theu
wake up to mark tickets. There seems to
be lots of interesting variety to the life OF
the laundryman."