Spending and Saving
I Miss My Dry Cleaner
His name is Willie, and he has a young granddaughter. He runs Jan Sun with his wife, Peggy, and is so known for his skill with an iron that one customer who moved across the country still mails his best shirts to New York to be pressed.
I give them my dry cleaning but not my laundry, because there are (or were) three shops on my block, and I wanted to spread my business around. My laundry goes across the street, where my guy always remembers my last name, and how to spell it correctly. When I owe him, say, $15.30, he takes only the bills and leaves the dimes on the counter.
I’m not the first to point out that New York–Manhattan especially–is a city of small towns. Within a couple of blocks I have all the basic businesses I need. My deli. A decent tailor, two cobblers. The place for flowers, two coffee shops. The all-night diner. The Tibetan guys at the greenmarket, who know I like to grab a chocolate croissant on my way to work. A friend of mine who lives a half mile away has basically the same amenities—he just patronizes the small businesses in his little town.
When I lost my job at the end of 2008, I started spending more time in my neighborhood—but spending less money there. Since I don’t have to dress up for work, I have little that needs dry cleaning. My heels don’t get worn down, and when you’re not buying new clothes there’s no need to visit the tailor. Fresh flowers are an indulgence. I reluctantly began to do my own laundry.
I felt poorer, but not in the way I had expected.
It’s often said that small businesses form the backbone of the American economy. According to the Small Business Administration, companies with under 100 workers represent more than 99 percent of all employer firms. They employ half the people in the private sector. But the SBA says nothing about the way they help bind communities together.
Conducting business in my neighborhood isn’t just about consuming or hating to do the wash. Being part of a local economy is also being part of a community. The people whose products and services I buy are a part of my life, and interacting with them is (usually) a pleasure. If my personal errands had a soundtrack, it would include “People in Your Neighborhood” and the theme song from Cheers.
I miss them. Even the guy at the fruit stand who always scowls. I’m thinking they miss me too—and not just my money.
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I miss my tax helpers.
After several family deaths a few years back, I needed tax help for the first time in my life.
My first tax lady was at HR Block in Florida, and she was a winner. Scary drudgery vanished once it hit her desk and was transformed into neat certainty. When we moved to another state, I got an accountant–a sensible low key guy who let me vent about difficult money decisions. Life seemed more worth living every time I left his office.
This year, there was no reason for tax help. My life is simpler, we’re in the same state as last year, and before my tax helpers came into my life I had been doing my own taxes for years. This year, I decided, I would do them myself again, now using Turbo Tax online.
Turbo Tax was great software and the job is done…but I feel kind of beat up. I miss my helpers.
I miss venting to them and confiding in them about being alone with hard decisions. I miss them more than full-price dinners, more than clothes-buying trips to the mall, more than Starbucks.
I’ve probably saved a few hundred dollars doing my taxes this year, but this is the first economy that makes me truly feel poor.
I miss my hair colorist. Luckily, I don’t absolutely NEED to get my hair colored; I only have a few gray hairs (yet) and it was a luxury, not a necessity. But it was also EXPENSIVE, and something in this economy I feel I can do without.
Great story. I certainly relate because the dry cleaner is in my building. I used to take a bag full of clothes to him. Now I take an item or two — a couple of nice jeans I don’t want to ruin in the wash. He told me that business has been slower.
I think that is the dark untold story of this recession. The impact on small businesses and on the service industry. The nannies, cleaning people, livery drivers. People on the edge to begin with.
New York had/has a trickle down economy. The trickle is stopping.
The Times had an article about the impact on nannies etc.. a few months ago but continues to run articles like the one the other day about a “Charity Circuit” woman home shopping, rewearing her designer dresses. Oh the indignity. Just obscene.
Did not see it in NY but where I am in Spain now the local shops are hurting. Many small stores and cafes have closed. Many of the older shops have closed for “retirement”. Lots of empty storefronts.
The owner of a small Italian cafe around the corner from us was crying 2 days ago in front of my building. He was embarrassed and did not want to be seen but mumbled about having to throw out food 2 days in a row. I fear he will be another casualty of “La Crisis”