Maharashtra: ‘Work from Home’ Hits Laundry Business Hard

Aurangabad: The ‘work from home’ culture adopted by many corporate houses and other establishments as a fallout of the coronavirus pandemic might have saved employees from the trouble of stepping out of their houses, but it has left an adverse impact on the businesses of several other professionals, including those providing laundry services.

Many people, who run laundry business in Maharashtra’s Aurangabad, say their earnings have dropped drastically due to the ‘work from home’ phenomenon that is in vogue since March last year.

They say that since many people don't have to step out of their houses for work, there is no need for them to wear formal or ironed clothes.

Some laundry service providers say that they used to iron nearly 200 clothes per day, but the number has come down to 40-50 a day now.

Shirkant Borude from Chikalthana area attributed the drop in his business not only to the ‘work from home’ culture, but also to smaller marriage functions.

“Markets opened fully twice since the pandemic began, but work from home policy has made the employees use less number of ironed clothes. Earlier, I used to iron around 200 clothes a day. Now the number is down to 40-50 a day,” he said.

The work of roll press and dry cleaning for sarees has almost come to a halt as small number of people is allowed to attend marriage ceremonies, Borude added.

Sainath Hajare, who runs a laundry shop in Shivajinagar area of Aurangabad, said people are not ready to pay if we increase the charges.

“Earlier, people would give us clothes for washing and we used to give back ironed clothes to them. For example, a man used to need at least five ironed dresses a week for going to office, now needs just a couple of dresses as he is working from home. The number of customers who would give clothes to us in bulk has declined by nearly 75%,” he said.

Now people are washing and ironing clothes at home as they are less in quantity. Moreover, schools are also shut, so there is no question of ironed uniforms, Sainath, who is the divisional secretary of Maharashtra Rajya Parit Seva Mandal, added.

Shriram Hajare, a laundry owner in Samarthnagar area said his income has come down sharply.

“The number of customers giving clothes in bulk as well as the walk-in customers has declined. In the past, I used to earn Rs 2,000 everyday, which has now come down to Rs 400-500. Even as the lockdown was revoked twice, the business is yet to come back on track. Work from home has played a big role in this.”