Chapter 25 Question ○ 20

Why do many laundries charge more for women's shirts than men's? (Don Adele) At the Judd Fall laundromat in Ithaca, New York, it charges $5 to dry-clean and iron a collared shirt for women, but only $2 for men's.Does this store discriminate against women? Evidence shows that women tend to pay more than men on expensive, negotiable items such as cars.But laundry services do not fall into this category.Laundries typically post different prices for men's and women's clothing, and customers almost never haggle over them. In general, the more competitive an industry is, the less likely it is to treat customers differently.Even in a small town like Ithaca, there are at least a dozen laundromats listed in the telephone yellow pages, which is enough to ensure fierce competition.If existing laundromats charge significantly more than they cost to process women's blouses, there's a free lunch on the table.Competing companies just put up a poster: No extra charge for women's shirts.It can immediately occupy most of the women's clothing cleaning market.

Since the above price differences are persistent, it may be rooted in the different costs of processing men's and women's shirts.Like most service industries, the main cost of laundromats is labor costs.But it's hard to imagine how women's shirts can be more expensive to clean than men's.After all, both types of shirts can't be thrown in the washing machine.So, if there is a difference in cost, it must be in the ironing segment.Whenever possible, laundromats iron their shirts with standard ironing machines, which greatly speed up the process.But if the shirt is too small, has too many buttons, and has too many details, it can't be put on the ironing machine.Standard ironing machines also grip the shirt tightly at the hem, leaving a noticeable crease in the fabric.Shirts that cannot be processed with a standard ironing machine must be ironed by hand, which takes longer.

In general, men's shirts are more secure with an iron than women's shirts, which tend to be more labor intensive and more likely to be damaged by the machine.And most women don't tuck their shirts into their trousers or skirts, and it would be unacceptable if the hem of the clothes was left with a row of indentations by the ironing machine.Men, on the other hand, tuck their shirts into their trousers (until recently this has changed), so it's not a big deal for them. In short, the most plausible explanation for why laundromats are more expensive to clean women's shirts than men's is that women's shirts take more work (in general) to iron.