Worst dry cleaners ever?

I consider myself a connoisseur of dry cleaners, and in my life I’ve had some of the best and the worst.  I love seeing how cleaners operate in different cities and countries because I like to see how different cultures innovate (or don’t innovate) what is essentially the same process no matter where you go.  My first dry cleaners was the best: New Orleans in the 90’s.  They had next day service and each shirt was only $1.50 – sigh…good times.  Then later, on the Air Force Base where I worked in Korea, there was a one-woman-show dry cleaners, and she memorized the last four digits of your SSN and as soon as you walked in the door she remembered your face and pulled your uniform off the rack.  Aside from superhuman feats of memory, I’ve also had everything in between.  Since I know no one will ever compare in price and service to my first experience in New Orleans, I’m usually very relaxed and patient if my clothes are ruined, lost, or not ready on time.  That’s why my cleaners here in Italy, which could certainly qualify as the worst dry cleaners on the planet, doesn’t bother me, I just sit back and enjoy the comedy of errors that they provide me each month.  This month’s show was the grand finale, though, and I may have to finally start the hunt for a new place.

It always starts out the same: I come in, full of promise that THIS time I will walk out with my clothes on my arm.  I give her my ticket or tell her my name (sometimes they don’t give you a receipt, it just depends on their mood when you drop it off).  She looks blankly at me, then starts a charade of a search around the shop: looking on racks, under counters, as if my shirt is a set of keys (they were just HERE!).  Inevitably the search moves to the back room where she and her coworkers will locate the shirt, determine its state of unfinishedness, and proceed with negotiations from there.  On this particular day, it was Emanuele who had the pleasure/misfortune of stopping by, and like me, he relished every detail.   After the initial search and back room conference she proudly produced one of the two sweaters, but was at a loss as to the whereabouts of the second. 

Woman: It’s not ready yet. (-1)

Coworker shouting from the back: (explaining why it was late) It was a big sweater! (-5)

Woman: (triumphantly realizing the receipt pick up date wasn’t until tomorrow, 1 week after dropoff) It’s not due until tomorrow! (+1) But you’d better come back the day after, just in case. (-2)

I was in no hurry to pick up winter sweaters in May, so I gave them SIX MORE DAYS to finish the sweater.  When I returned, after the prerequisite searching, she produced my crumpled sweater and told me to come back in the evening.  I said, if it wasn’t ready six days after you told me to come back, I’m not sure it will be ready tonight, and that she should call me when it was ready.  She said better yet, someone would stop by the house.  WHAT?!  If I had known they did home delivery I would have been using that all along!  I actually did receive my sweater that evening, to my surprise. 

We all know how important customer service is in the US, but it's just not a factor in Italy (although, arguably, you'd never get home delivery from a US cleaners).  If this happened in the US we'd demand managers, we'd facebook it, we'd tweet, we'd yelp, and maybe if we got enough hits we'd be "trending".  But I try not to be the Ugly Americana.  I just smile sweetly and go home and blog.

So what do you think?  Should I move on to another cleaners?  Or stay so long as they provide me with cultural anecdotes?

"Bon An" from Friuli

     This New Year's Eve, or Capodanno in Italian, we celebrated quietly at home with Emanuele's family.  We had just returned that day from the US, so I lacked the strength to infuse any American elements into the evening -- except teaching my in-laws to play the card game "Spoons"; this was truly an Italian New Year's Eve.  His mother cooked lentils and muset (also known as cotechino, a type of cured/boiled meat) which is a traditional Italian dish for New Year's Eve. 

 

 

     Then we watched the President's address which happens every NYE.  President Napolitano spoke for about 20 minutes in a "State of the Union" type of speech which centered on the economic crisis, the aging population in Italy, and he also responded to letters which citizens had written.  This was funny for me; I just couldn't imagine Obama addressing everyone on NYE, since many people go out to eat or to a bar, and no one wants to think about politics on a night that is supposed to be joyous.  This was followed by a song and dance show filmed in snow-covered Courmayeur that counted down at midnight. 

 

     At a certain point, fruit and nuts came out, and reminded me of when I was little and we actually would have mixed nuts at Christmastime.  Do we still do that in the US?  I think it's a tradition that needs to be revived. 

     Emanuele had bought some assorted fireworks that day -- they're legal in Italy depending on the type.  Larger towns typically have their own display, although this year the nearby town of Cervignano cancelled theirs because they wanted to be more friendly to pets and thought the fireworks would scare them.  Max watched his first fireworks with minimal interest.  We had just flown back from the US and he was out of it with the time change.

 

     We set off our fireworks just before midnight in the park in the center of town.  It was a ghost town, with the only other noise coming from a party.  No cars or anything drove through our piazza.  We went inside and toasted at midnight with spumante followed by panettone, the Christmas cake that I LOVE and that you find all during the holidays.

     Italians say Tanti Auguri (best wishes, all the best) for everything.  I keep wanting to run around saying the appropriate phrase for the appropriate holiday, in this case, Buon Anno, but everyone just replies with Auguri, so I don't know why I bother.  Buon Anno translates to Bon An in Friulano, so that's actually my greeting of choice, since I'm always trying to make Italians laugh at an American speaking Friulano. 

     Starting 2nd of January we get to start saying Buon Proseguimento which was a surprise to me when I heard it last year.  When you say this you're in essence wishing the continuation of good wishes.  When I asked how long I can keep saying this I got mixed responses -- some said through Ephiphany, some said mid-January, some said until the end of January.  As a newbie to the Italian language, I will say it as much as I can to practice and see what response I get. 

     New Year's Resolutions are, as expected, more popular in the US than Italy, since we are the kings of self improvement.  In fact when my brother-in-law was asked what his Buon Proposito would be, he said "I'm fine the way I am!". 

     Wishing everyone a Happy New Year and Bon An wherever you are!