The life-style of Israelis and especially that of tourists in the Jewish State will soon be revolutionized. No longer will there be the endless wait for clothes to come back from laundries. No longer will tourists have to wash out their drip dry outerwear in the hotel wash basins. And no more chasing around for “quick wash” laundries which turn out to be quick wash but extremely slow dry.
It was announced today that the first chain of franchised automatic coin-operated laundries will be set up in Israel. Each store will be a turn-key operation which will be owned by a family of olim from the Anglo-Saxon countries. The announcement was issued by Howard E. Katz, president of the Israel International Corporation which is sponsoring this project.
Katz explained that it is contemplated to open a chain of at least 30 automatic laundries in various parts of Israel. Joint cooperation has been established with the Tour Ve-aleh Israel organization and the Israel aliya department of the Jewish Agency. These two groups will offer the plan to the thousands of applicants who are interested in immigrating to Israel.
The new units will be known as “machbesamatik”–a take-off of “macabesah” which means “laundry” in Hebrew. Each operation will be completely equipped with the latest washing machines and dryers and dry-cleaning automatic service. The concepts of the automatic laundry franchise is to provide a ready-made business for each immigrant family. It is planned that the revenue from each operation will provide an income for each family according to western Anglo-Saxon standards.
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