Christmas Wish List

Happy December! It is time, once again, for my annual Christmas Wish List.  Annually, I plea to the great St Nick for products that don’t exist yet but I believe should.  These are products of my imagination that, in my view would help plant operators run more efficiently.  These are products that would fill a real need.  Some of the products that I have imagined have, indeed, come to market, but most have not.  My wish list this year is different.

I still think that we need a better way to present folded shirts and a better way to package them.  When you unfold a shirt that has been “professionally” folded, the perfectly pressed shirt is horrific.  There has got to be a way to do that better.

I still think that there needs to be a hand-held button-sewer that isn’t a toy.  The industrial button sewers cost $1000-$2000 or more.  There’s got to be a better way.

I still think that shirt presses need to be kinder to buttons.  The pads that are near buttons should be made of memory foam or something like that.  Nobody wants smashed buttons.

I still think that it would be very slick to have a shirt press that makes hangers “to order.”  As the shirt is pressing, a hanger is being folded from a spool of wire and ultimately “handed” to the presser.  I’m told that this would be an engineering nightmare.  That’s Santa’s problem.  I’m the imagineer.

I still think that shirt pressing machines should have built-in “pace-setters” that would challenge the presser to keep pace and improve productivity.

I still think that a shirt body press should be height-adjustable.  Operator comfort is important.  When a presser is short, they struggle.

In 2006, I asked Santa for a shirt presser that doesn’t call in sick!  I still long for that!

But when I was a kid, where are a lot of things that I didn’t get that I asked for.  I never got that minibike.  I never got that train set.  I had to buy my own car.

Santa, I know that you’re gonna whine about supply chain issues and about how 20% of your elves didn’t want to get vaccinated.  So, let me guess, you aren’t going to fess up any of my much-coveted goodies this year.

I do have a one single item on my wish list this year.  This year I wish for a return to normalcy.  We, as citizens of the world, need to put Covid behind us.  These past two years need to become the past.  The sooner this plague gets lost in our collective rearview mirror, the better we will all be. 

The economy needs to get back to normal, our businesses need to get back to normal and our lives need to get back to normal.  So, Santa Claus, you haven’t been such a whiz-kid when it comes to all things drycleaning & laundry, so let’s see you pull a rabbit out of your hat this Christmas and make this happen.  We all need a break.