Friends and Family

Bubbles first "Friends and Family Wash Night" was a success!
It was a great training experience as workers learned how to take 'wash and fold' orders, greet customers, stain removal tips, how to take and process an order start to finish, the importance of keeping orders separate and organized as they transfer from washer to dryer, how to operate the equipment, and customer service training.
Some of these things may seem intuitive, but that is because customer service and how a dryer works may be more common in the culture where you reside.
We also realized some details we've over-looked ... like a coat rack, garbage can in the restroom, and a table for customers to set their complimentary fruit-tea on while they wait for their clothes.
Finally, it was truly rewarding to see people stand in awe as they wash blankets for the first time ever, and feel clothes come out of a dryer, warm and clean.
Here's an updated picture of our work-in-progress Bubbles Chandelier ... a few hundred more bubbles to go, and it's going to be a dazzler!

A Broken Scanner

Before you can open a business in Ukraine, you must submit all the documentation (a moving puzzle game with many parts) to the local government ... then and only then, they submit a form of completion to the national government in Kyiv. Once Kyiv signs off on the paper, the paper is electronically submitted to a national data-base where your business receives a work number to operate. The local government (our case, Lviv) must then print that work number, and then we pick it up, and march it over to the city-council office for it to be filed and on record. No more signatures, but the city-council has to have a record of it before you can do business. 

Stock Photo

This process was painfully close to being complete last Friday ... we had everything submitted through the government in Lviv, and they forwarded their form of completion to Kyiv. We should have received the work number on Monday, allowing us to open our business for customers, but it didn't come.

So, we called to find out what the problem is ... A BROKEN SCANNER. That's right - our final documentation is sitting on a desk in Kyiv waiting to be scanned before it can be electronically submitted and printed off in Lviv, so we can file it with the city-counsel. 

Didn't Adobe solve this problem years ago with electronic signatures and pdf, you may ask? We ask that too - but since said technology hasn't made it this far east ... we are all waiting on a 'technician' to fix the scanner, so we can print, pick-up, drop-off, and file our official work number and finally get this laundromat show on the road!

Metal Trim

How did we get these great looking metal baseboards?

Here's how.
First, go to an industrial metal warehouse like this one.
Try not to think of all those scary Hollywood movies of Ukrainian mafia and torture, because if it does exist ...
this is probably the place it's all happening at.

Once the metal is purchased, and you have safely exited the premises with all extremities attached, find another abandoned looking building where they actually cut the metal. Mind your step, because there is a bit of a moat around this structure ... so good luck traversing (with all that metal) the wood and metal scraps to get to the door. If the first place didn't scare you just a bit - this one is sure to give you the creeps ... and if anything were to happen here ... we're pretty sure there would be no evidence, or remains, to find.

Great - now we're good to go. Have the metal, got it cut, head back to the store to have the baseboards installed ... just another work errand to check off the list for the day. 

Maybe there are some benefits to a desk job.

The Iron

This is Bubble's industrial iron:

It's great for sheets and other non-pleated items.

You need two people to operate it correctly. 

They stand on either side, and feed the sheets through - pulling tight on each side to eliminate edge wrinkles. Then in about 7 seconds the finished, pressed, and ironed product comes out the bottom ... 

Only time (and a few lucrative hotel contracts) will tell if it was worth the pretty penny it costs. 

Here's a demo:

Did you know there are machines in America that wash, dry, iron, and fold sheets and towels - all in ONE machine. Yes, they are several hundred-thousand dollars to buy ... but isn't that incredible?
Who knew the laundry business had so many facets.

Washing Up a Storm

Though not officially open for business (still waiting on that 'declaration' document) we had an employee training meeting today and invited each worker to bring a load of wash from home. Who doesn't love washing clothes at work?
It was good for us too, since we were able to run the machines, fix a leaky pipe, and show everyone how great the Dexter products are. The wash is done in 26 minutes and the clothes are dried in 30 - it's amazing - perhaps life changing.
So fast, so efficient, and so much better. Plus, Dexter machines really do look sharp. Aside from the quick turn-around time for washing, everyone was very impressed with the dryers - how fluffy and soft sheets and towels can feel, how clean and warm the finished product is compared to line drying.

See the woman in the red turtleneck and blue coat (far right) - that is the worker who tied two thousand bowline knots in the fishing line for the Bubble's chandelier.





Here is a video of the back of the gas dryer - sort of boring (nothing happens) but you can see why it was so important to have gas ... gas dryers just don't work the same without gas!

First Load

Bubbles ran the first load of wash today - a personal load of sheets and towels. Hot soapy water, working pipes, gas run dryers spinning, glowing lights that show things are properly installed ... all good signs.

Though not yet officially open for business (a few more stamps and signatures), we are finally able to run the machines, and thrilled to do our first loads of wash in Ukraine's first self-serve and full-service laundromat.

Sewage Connection

Abilit, the not so honest construction firm, insisted that we had to create our own sewage line - rather than taking the less expensive, more obvious road of connecting to the land-lord's existing line. So, we went through the lengthy, time consuming, headache causing process of getting 'official' documentation from the water and sewage department that insists we connect to the landlord's line rather than dig our own. In a meeting with Abilit two weeks ago this situation was among those discussed on our list of grievances ... we explained we were not paying more money and spending more time on construction to put in our own line, showed them the official paper from the water and sewage department and told them to connect us to the landlord. They consented.
So, we were a little confused yesterday when this crane, six workers and all this equipment showed up and started putting in a separate sewage connection. Apparently there isn't a lot of communication within the Abilit structure - we told the man in charge of the dig that we weren't paying for any of the parts or labor they were using to create our own sewage line - that we already agreed to connect directly to the landlord.
Well, that did not go over well at all - and a conversation of more expletives than actual words ensued. We ended up bringing in three other engineers, and our local attorney ... they installed the thing anyway ... and we are not paying for it.
Whatever.
As long as we're connected (finally) that is the main thing ... because we can't turn on washers if there is no where for the dirty water to go.