Abroad, such establishments have existed for a very long time and there are many more of them than in our country. Often they are small family businesses. Europeans and Americans use the services of such establishments much more actively. They, as a rule, are not familiar with tasks such as dry cleaning upholstered furniture and carpets at home. Single women and men almost never do their own laundry or clean their homes themselves. It is customary for them to send linen to the laundry and invite professional cleaners, despite the fact that every home has a washing machine and a sufficient amount of cleaning products. It's just that such services are inexpensive there, service is traditionally polite, and the work result most often satisfies clients.
The vast majority of our compatriots are accustomed to washing things at home and cleaning their homes themselves. Firstly, the services of consumer service firms in our country are much more expensive than in the West. Secondly, their quality is not yet high. Despite the increase in the number of dry cleaners, cleaning companies, and laundries operating with imported equipment and consumables, our technologists lack knowledge. In the territory of the former CIS, educational institutions do not train specialists of international level who know the world standards of cleaning technologies for different types of materials.
However, every year the quality of our establishments' work is still growing. There are more reliable firms, such as, for example, the cleaning company Svit Chystoty and others. People are increasingly turning to the services of professional consumer service providers. Our service has begun to approach European – polite customer service has become the norm.
It is also worth saying that there is a big difference in the chemical products allowed for use in cleaning items in different countries. In Russian dry cleaners, for example, the solvent perchlorethylene (tetrachlorethylene) is most often used. In America and Europe, it is banned, as it is considered toxic, harmful to human health, and dangerous to the environment. In Europe, dry cleaning technology with hydrocarbon is used, as well as aqua-cleaning with aqualin or aquatex. And in America, the innovative cleaning technology GreanEarth is popular. It is gratifying that our dry cleaners are also gradually starting to use less toxic agents.
_