The Alhambra Laundromat

This is by far the worst laundromat I have ever been to.
At least four times I’ve been here waiting for their staff to appear to drop off or pick up my laundry. My husband has experienced this more times than I have. Usually we’re not the only ones waiting. More than once I’ve seen people give up on waiting for your staff and leave without dropping off or picking up what they came for. I’ve been tolerating this because at least when they show up they’re nice, or at least not overtly rude.
Today was a different. The woman working today (Monday at 1030am) was the rudest woman I’ve encountered in the year I’ve been coming. She stood in the office ignoring me, even after her friend, who noticed me waiting but doesn’t work there told me she’d be right with me. When she finally got to me, she gruffly said «I don’t know when this will be done I don’t have any change.» (wtf?!) I said I didn’t need it today and she said she didn’t even know if it would be done by Thursday or Friday.
Then she told me that the small bag I had with my large one could not be washed on cold in the gentle cycle. I asked why because they’ve done this every week for the last year, and she said, «well I don’t.» She bickered with me about this until she finished writing my slip.
If I wasn’t on my way to work I would have taken my bag home. After I pick up this final load (hopefully it’s not destroyed) I will find a new laundromat, regardless of how convenient this one is for my commute.

I live down the block from here and have always done my laundry here, for over a year. The employees are moody but it’s fairly clean etc. They try to hustle you our before the posted closing hours but whatever.
The last two times I have dealt with an employee who treated so atrociously I had to make a Unilocal account because I don’t know what else to do. On today Wednesday October 7^th the woman who was working there (mid thirties, black, short hair… in case the manager would like to know who this is) kept making repeated rude remarks about my outfit and body.
Straight up junior high rudeness/​cruelty.
I am in workout clothing as I planned on running while my clothing dried (but instead here I am on Unilocal). I heard her loudly talking about «to wear that you should at least have a good shape» or «at least wear a thong» and «fat ass»… I didn’t really register at first as I don’t think anyone has called me a fat ass in my life (I’m 5’10″ and a size 4… this woman also easily had 40+ llbs on me)… nor did it occur to me that anyone would purposefully be so rude.
It wasn’t until she started saying things like «don’t pretend like you don’t speak english and can’t hear me» that I realized she was obviously directing these comments at me and my spandex pants. I tried to ignore her but she was practically shouting. It was embarrassing and the other patrons were clearly uncomfortable. I put my laundry in the dryer and walked out.
Other remarks she made were that my outfit made her «ashamed to be a woman» and that she hadn’t had lunch yet and doesn’t want to «throw up» and why don’t I own a full length mirror.
I didn’t want to stay there and continue to suffer her abuse but I also was genuinely concerned for the welfare of my clothing in the dryer given the amount of hate she clearly had for me.
I’m gonna come clean — when I got home and looked in the mirror I did have some crazy VPL going on. It didn’t look good. But you know what you do when you see a fellow women suffering an outfit mishap? Do you berate them? Harass them? Humiliate them? Nope — you sympathize with them, pull them aside all like «Don’t kill the messenger but have you heard of Spanx?» OR better yet you leave them alone because their body is none of your business.
So did I change before I went back to pick up my dry laundry? Oh hell no. If anything I wanted to switch out my baggy sweatshirt into a bra Brenda Strong/​Seinfeld style. I’m not going to be shamed by some bitter middle-​aged woman-​bashing-​woman who hates her job and her body.
If you believe in women treating other women with respect and kindness DON’T COME HERE. If you ever wear leggings DON’T COME HERE. If you work out and have cute body DON’T COME HERE. If you support kind women with cute butts BOYCOTT this place.
There is another laundromat on Macon and Arlington which is well worth the 20 extra steps.

DO NOT GO HERE! Very shady spot and woman who runs it is NUTS! Bat shit crazy! Also, some weird stuff happens in the office. There is another laundromat just 1 block away. Family run and they are super nice people. Machines are older but cheaper. Too bad. Wanted to like this place. I’ll never return. Plus it was closed down for some weird reason for over a year…

BEWARE. Do not go here. Seriously.
It’s most likely a front for a drug business or something else shady, given the haphazard way it is run.
The dryers are horrible and will either burn your clothes or never dry them.
My roommate warned me but I figured I’d give it a try since it’s so close to my place. He mentioned that the place has a reputation for clothing being stolen out of dryers, but I figured if I kept an eye on my stuff it’d be fine. Well, it wasn’t.
Ten minutes after putting my towels in the dryer I look up to see an employee taking them out. She has orange hair and is most definitely the «meth head» mentioned in the previous post. So if you see her standing outside smoking before going to fold your laundry, run away. Far.
I asked her why she was removing my stuff and she got all up in my face screaming that the towels were part of the order she was working on, and not mine (even though I put them in just a little while before). Now, I understand that people make mistakes, and everyone’s laundry looks the same, but she caused a huge scene about it and then went into the office and shut the door. After a while she came out and I asked if I could leave my number so that when the customer returns the towels that aren’t theirs I can get them. The next day I came in and another person told me the towels would be returned later that day and they world call
me. I never got a call, and I never set foot back in that dump.

We live a stones throw away so this is the easiest laundry for us. During my last visit a woman who looked like a meth head was working. She was screaming maniacly at everyone who walked in the door to close it tight BECAUSE ITS COLD! I put my laundry in a machine, along with all my quarters and it wouldn’t start. I asked the woman for help and she threw her arms up like as if! She came over and yelled «HAVEN’T YOU EVER USED A MACHINE BEFORE?» And kept slamming it until it started. I responded flatly:-no-actually i’ve never done laundry before. She actually thought I was serious and said oh my god! and stormed away. haha
Then a woman sitting across the way screams at the woman «WHAT YOUR NOT GONNA CALL HER A FUCKING IDIOT LIKE YOU DID THE BLACK GUY!?»
She then explained to me that the guy’s machine did the same thing and he got that reaction.
I was happy to get out of there that day! This laundry matt has been closing at random times «for repairs» so we never really know when they are open.
This week the woman working was actually friendly and not crazy.

When this place is open, it’s adequate. Purely adequate. However I’ve been living in the neighborhood long enough to remember when it shut down without warning for over TWO YEARS and then suddenly was up and running again. That was a few months ago and today I walk over with my laundry, early on a Saturday afternoon, and the gates are down, no sign of life. WTF?! So yeah, fuck this place.

Alhambra is cool new laundromat on Nostrand ave and between Macon and Halsey. They have comparable prices to other locations in the area but their actual drop off service is hit or miss, we’ve had some inconsistent service over the past few months but hey i guess we cant expect someone to wash our undies as good as we would ourselves lol. My suggestion would be to drop your clothes off early if you are into drop off service. Afternoon drop off for us have come back sub-​par and not as good as morning drops!
For anyone who does their own laundry this place is great, they arent as spacious as some other locations but they are clean and they have free wifi. All they need now is a mini bar and they’d be set!