Laundry mart fails to re-attract customers

The modern laundry mart in Sector 15 has not been attracting many customers,a year after it was re-opened.

The modern laundry mart in Sector 15 has not been attracting many customers,a year after it was re-opened. The washermen claim that the number of customers they used to receive for the coin-operated machines has gone down. The laundry mart,the first of its kind in the city was started in 2008 by the Municipal Corporation. After having a successful run for some time,the laundry mart was shut down owing to dispute between the MC and washermen union over payment of electricity bills.

While the laundry mart was reopened last year,it is yet to regain its lost popularity. We have been receiving less customers as compared to the winter season. Initially we had a constant stream of customers,but now it is limited to 7-9 per day, said Vikas Deep,coin-collector at the mart.

The regular customers are the beauty parlours and guest houses,who give laundry like bedsheets in bulk. Otherwise the customers come in mixed bag,either working girls staying in PG,residents from the vicinity or students from the nearby Panjab University.

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The students of Panjab University,were once fascinated by the system,but now have complaints,I have stopped going to the mart to drop my laundry because the machine does not wash off the dirt properly and secondly every hostel in the university has a dhobi which turn out to be cheaper as they have both washing and ironing facilities, said a first year MA student at Panjab University.

The MC has plans for upgrading other dhobighats into modern laundry marts. Mayor Ravinder Pal Singh said,We need to see the response the Sector 15 laundry mart is receiving. With the initial reports being positive,there are plans to set up similar marts in Sector 7 and Sector 32.

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