I asked my friend Eunice about this. Eunice is my dry cleaner as well, but as I am of the opinion that one should not engage in semi regular commercial transactions without knowing the person with whom you’re transacting (say that three times fast). So I was chatting with my friend Eunice, who happens to be a dry cleaner.

Apparently the issue is that men’s shirts fit onto a special pressing machine and can be ironed semi automatically. Women’s shirts are too small for the machine. A touch specious I think, but this is the cause of the problem.

A few months later, a similarly dry cleaning challenged friend and I detoured from our fun day in pursuit of wash and wear work blouses that do not look wash and wear. Ridiculously expensive and vaguely reminiscent of our high school uniforms, but, hey, wash and wear. We might actually own them, as opposed to our other shirts on which we put down a deposit at the department store and then pay another $5 in rent every week for the rest of their threadbare days.

As we stood in line to pay for these life changing items, another woman commented on how irritated she gets when she takes her shirts to the cleaners. I explained about the machine size. The three of us immediately chorused “Build a new machine!”

Women, after all, have been semi substantially represented in the professional workforce for about 40 years now. It just might be a trend.

And what’s wrong with us entrepreneurial types who know something about franchising? Do we require the damn near impossible to believe that we are truly innovative? “The underlying infrastructure of virtualized machines exists, which coupled with componentized software development, enables the cloud paradigm of services delivery. This represents the next ‘chasm’ in the relationship between software vendors and our customers.” I just made that up, but it could have come straight from one of our business planning sessions. Do we feel that we have to meet PhD dissertation like standards of novelty in order to feel that we’ve earned our stripes? Even if they do cost $4 a week to keep clean?

So here’s what Miss Management wants to know:

What’s wrong with 1) Make a better machine, 2) Create a franchise model for women friendly dry cleaners, 3) Change the current pricing model and still make money, 4) distribute the heck out of the new machines, and 5) give interviews about using business to advance the status of women?

As one of my best friends is an extremely successful tech exec who also happens to be the co-founder of PODS, I think Miss Management will ask her these very questions.

Wow, that blouse looks great on you!

We want to wait a few years before buying another car because we want a plug-in with market tested technology.  But if that is not possible, then we want something cheap, something fuel efficient, and something fairly green when it comes to the manufacturing carbon footprint.  We decided to look at the Honda Fit, the Smart Car, and the Toyota Yaris.  The Yaris felt like the tin can that the 1981 Honda Civic was.  The Smart Car is cute, fuel efficient, and easy to park, but, surprise!  Not really all that cheap, for what is essentially a Mercedes go-cart.  Mercedes – good, go-cart – not so much.  The Fit looks good, but I still don’t want to buy a car.  I want the Saturn to live on, but that is another story.

While we are caught up in new car frenzy, we look at everything.  VW, Volvo, Mazda, and hey, the Ford dealer is across the street.  Why not?  Besides, they’re probably giving them away.  We drive on the lot in our Civic Hybrid, which doesn’t exactly make the sales guys come running.  But as they appear to have nothing to do, they talk to us.

“What’s the smallest thing you have?”

“That would be the Focus.  They’re over here.”  We go to look. 

“That’s it?  That’s the smallest thing you have?”  This is not a small car.  We ask to see the hatchback version, because small cars aren’t, let’s face it, great sedans.  Discontinued.  Really?  Yes.  Where are the Fiestas then?  Not available on the US market, only in Europe.  Okaaaaayyyy.  Come back next year.

“Fine,” my husband says, thinking the Saturn can make it until next January.  “No, next, next year, not next model year.”  Oh.

But let’s maintain an open mind.  This is an expensive decision and we need to consider all possibilities.  We get in it, look at the engine, and all that car ya-di-ya that my husband mostly does while I sit in the back seat and ask about the colors.

It feels like a tin can.  It is not fun.  But okay, it’s an econo-box and that’s what we need.  “How much?”

“$18,800.”

WHAAAATTT?  The Honda across the street is fifteen, five.  “You’re kidding.”  No.  Okay, what kind of financing do you have?  The Yaris guy almost got us with 5 year, 0% loans.  My inner cheapskate was delighted.  Who cares about the car?

“5.9%, if you have a good credit rating, say 840.”

Though like the SAT’s of old, we can’t exceed 800, we’re still okay.  5.9% is not.  But that is the best they can do, even over 3 years.  Wow.

So here is what Miss Management wants to know:

How is it, in the era in which many of us feel like morons for not reading the fine print on our mortgage rates, that Ford can’t figure out that the American sensitivity to interest rates is at an all time high?  Charge an extra $500, give us cheap money, hit us hard if we don’t pay on time, and you win.  If we pay on time, you still win.   We bought a Ford, not a Honda.

How is it, that while we are at war in Iraq, that Ford can’t figure out that Americans might want small cars because of gas prices?  And the heck with Iraq – has anyone seen the hybrid sales figures?  Hmmmmm.  It’s not just about the carpool lane.

We walked away from that Focus, shaking our heads.  “What did we just see?” we asked each other.  “Did we just see a ton of retiree health care costs?  Screwball distribution?  What was that?”  But hey, it’s not like the Japanese and German guys who make the other cars we looked at don’t get cavities in their molars or have children that fall out of the occasional tree.  And I’ve heard that the Germans are flipping out over retiree health care.  So how does that work?

What is Ford thinking?  God knows.  But hey, they must be thinking something.   We’re a half Euro family, so we know how great the Focus and Fiesta can be.  We didn’t even slow down for GM or Chrysler.