[int_19h]

It's really weird, because this is literally lower quality of life than USSR circa late 70s. Sure, we had really crappy and tiny in-unit washing machines (http://pics.rbc.ru/img/cnews/2007/09/04/41a.jpg) - but most people did have one. We didn't have anything like a laundromat.

[woobar]

> We didn't have anything like a laundromat.

They were called 'prachechnaya'.

And the situation in the USSR wasn't that rosy. Only 70% of the population owned these tiny machines.

[int_19h]

They may have existed somewhere, but I'm not aware of any in my home town.

As with many things in the USSR, it may well have been regional and time-dependent. My memories are from mid-80s, although I know that my family had one before then. I didn't know anyone whose family didn't have one, and we weren't a nomenklatura family or anything like that - just a regular Soviet family with boring everyday jobs (teachers and engineers) - and neither were our neighbors and acquaintances.

[gpvos]

This may explain why Poland doesn't seem to understand the concept of a laundromat. As a tourist, this can be quite annoying. (Hotel laundry service is usually per-piece and thus way too expensive.)

[jessaustin]

When I've lived in hotels longer than a week at a time, I've sent just collared shirts and slacks to the laundry. Everything else can be satisfactorily washed in the bathtub. One place I stayed in Tokyo had this really long shoehorn in every room, which was ideal for stirring the tub.

[striking]

Yeah, plenty of people in Poland would just wash their clothes either by hand or with a really cheap washer. And dryers were rare and land was plentiful, you'd just air dry.

Not that people don't own them now, but what they own now is a straight-up upgrade from what they had before.

At this point I'm sure there will soon be a market for laundromats in Poland, at least in the more urban areas. But it'd be a hard sell for the vast majority of Polish folks.