Is there an actual reason why they charge more to clean ladies' shirts?

[FrequentFly3r]

We used a dry cleaning service to clear a backlog of laundry and I just got the invoice and couldn't believe my eyes that "Ladies'" shirts cost more than double the price of men's shirts to wash. (£2 for a man's shirt but £4.10 for ladies'!!!) - (London prices).

Why is that???

Just to wash, or to wash and press?

Women's shirts can be a right PITA to iron. More darts and fiddly bits.

Possibly the range in different fabrics?
Mens are more usually cotton or a cotton mix.
That's a guess though.

But my shirts are practically identical to DH's. In fact we each have a blue linen shirt and get them muddled up with each others' (mine'soversized). The only difference is the buttons are on the other side!

It is clear sex discrimination. The same as women's hair cuts costing far more than mens.

I used to work in a dry-cleaners. We had a pressing machine for shirts, so you put the wet shirt on it, clamped the shirt cuffs, and hot air blew through the whole thing so it looked like a balloon and “ironed” it. Minimal hand finishing. Price reflected this. Some women’s shirts were too small for the machine had had to be hand ironed which meant they ought to have been more expensive but sometimes we’d miss that when they handed them in. But if they fit the machine it should def be equal!

Oh my god, don’t get me started on this.

I have beef with the dry cleaner right next to me for this exact reason. I walk a mile out of spite to a different place.

The price for a dress vs a suit is not fair but whatever because apples and oranges but I categorically will not pay double for a shirt that is the exact same as my boyfriend’s.

Could you say that your DH wears them?

That pressing machine sounds like a real game-changer for efficiency! It’s amazing how technology can speed up the process and minimize hand-finishing, making the service more affordable. I can imagine how tricky it could be with smaller shirts that didn’t fit the machine, though—it’s easy to see how that could affect the pricing. It’s definitely important to ensure that every shirt gets the proper treatment, whether it’s machine-pressed or hand-ironed, to keep the quality consistent for customers!

But why have they designed a pressing machine that only works on mens shirts? Another tedious example of Male being the default in our world 😡

Laydeez have blouses ;)

It's old-fashioned, I agree. A proper throwback to times when shirts were men's underwear, changed daily and washed heavily. But in terms of units there was no comparison - so many more men were shirt customers, handing in 25 shirts at a time (Thomas Pink shirts from one customer. At over £150 a piece) every month. Women would hand in suits, coats etc and maybe, on occasion, two shirts. Just saying that I think for many businesses the financial incentive for a separate smaller machine is low.