In response to "Laundry: A Load We All Must Bear," by Melinda Hamilton (August 18).





Editor:


Your article was very much to the point. Laundry has always been a problem for me that I put off and put off. Eventually, when I either can't take it any more or my clothes are on the verge of growing two legs and walking to the laundromat themselves, I think about doing my laundry.


I have used the laundromat at 9 Ulitsa Butlerova, mentioned in your story, many times over the past three years. In the two times I was there this summer, I was shocked by the prices. I was shocked again when I read that you paid only 700 rubles a load there. This summer I always paid 5000 rubles a load. This is about $2.50, or about twice what I paid at college in the United States. This is for self-service wash, spin and dry. Since I usually wait for my dirty laundry to accumulate, I often require four or five machines, which comes to 20,000 rubles or about $10.


Since I generally pride myself on my Russian-speaking and bargaining abilities, I would be surprised to find out that I was ripped off. But, perhaps I was. And perhaps lots of people are. I though that maybe when you went there you might have gotten some journalistic discount. Who knows?


All in all, I enjoyed reading the article, as it is indeed a problem that we all face in Moscow. Finding a good laundromat is a problem that I have found not only here, but all over Europe.


Hans Opsahl,


Moscow