Which services is Poland still waiting for?

From what i see some people are afraid to use them!

I don't understand this sentence.

Travelers often need a laundrette. Washing your clothes in the sink/tub isn't fun. Of course high/middle level hotels have laundry service but not all do...and you ar trusing your clothes to who knows who..hoping they won't come back shrunk or blended colors. Poland is the only place I have ever been that I haven't found publc laundrettes. I suggested it as a business to several people here but all blew it off. If I had the funds I would give it a go. Yeah locals won't use them, nor do they in most places. They are for people passing through or people who have washers break and need a few days to get things replaced etc.

You are quite right. I forgot about travellers.

But....

Do you think that foreign capital which deals in laundrettes didn`t consider opening such outlets in Poland? I am sure they did. And they decided that travellers wouldn`t provide enough profit, as native local demand is going to be near zero.

Don't you get any results when typing "pralnia samoobsługowa <cityname>" in google? For Kraków I get at least a few websites that look promising. Or maybe it is just a matter of marketing to English speaking customers?

BTW, I suppose the biggest local group of customers would be students.

No, I didn`t get any results because I never tried to get ones. Sorry.

But I will try, I promise.


Holy shyt! You are right! :) There are about 5 - some since 2007.


Yes, though it is strange. I used to visit my uni mates in their dorms, scored a few nice parties there in 1980s. I saw washing machines in shared kitchens. I thought it is a standard facility in dorms.

Something else:

Take out sandwich shops.

Go into a store, order a sandwich, choose your bread, meat/cheese, toppings etc., and leave. So basically......Subway, but not corporate, and everywhere. Mom and pop shops that make all sorts of sandwiches, egg sandwiches with meat and cheese that you can get first thing in the morning on the go, for lunch, etc. Poland is geared towards buying stuff and cooking it at home but for the busy city dweller on their way to work, it's nice to be able to walk past a store, grab a hot breakfast sandwich or bagel, coffee....and keep on going to work.

Poland has awesome hams, sausages, great dairy products.....let the small privately owned shops put the meals together for you for those times where you're too damn busy and don't feel like eating a Snickers and a Fanta for breakfast or lunch.

Good point, but they have Milk Bars. Why get a sandwich when a full meal is the same price. And they do take away ,

In Krakow -
Re Laudrettes - I have used the one on Dietla/Starowislna since they opened. They used to be on Wrzesinska - where I used them for at least 5 years. There is also another laundrette on Dietla. The Starowislna is always busy - students, locals, visitors and they have a bar where you can have a hot/cold and alcoholic drinks. Brilliant idea.

As for sandwich shops/bars - I have recently seen 2 shops offering take-away home-made pierogis, golabki and other delicacies which you can buy to cook at home.

There is perhaps an idea that not many have thought of - and that is a 'mobile' shop selling say fresh vegetables, potatoes, tins of this and that. Older people especially might be willing to buy from 'the back of a van', if it was parked nearby rather than for people to struggle and walk to the nearest outdoor markets.

In the same way, a vegetable shop or a bakery could offer a delivery service.

Err, just like any other food you can cook at home???

My parents-in-law have a mobile shop that visits their village. Very old idea, quite common in the UK as well.

I have heard of no coin-operated laundromats in Poland, but first one would have to launch a major PR campaign convincing Poles of their benefits and conveneicne. In all cases, the cost factor must be considered. Poland is poorer than Western Europe, so not everything that is accepted there will automatically go over in Poland.

because again, it's a "full meal". it's just not as convenient.

much easier to just order a sandwich, it pops out, and you can sit and eat it with your hands and a couple of napkins. not saying it's all in all "better" than having a "full meal", it's just something Poland doesn't have that I constantly missed when I lived there. I'm in a damn rush to get to a 7:30 a.m. class and I want to eat something because I have to teach straight through to 11:00.....what am I going to eat? paczki? i'll pass.

milk bars don't solve the lack of "on the go" breakfast options in poland. sandwiches with eggs and meat and cheese, bagels/rolls with butter, etc., solve that problem.

Kebabs. And you can buy sandwiches in all sorts of places from grocery stores to small delicatessens. With meat, cheese, eggs whatever.

I am not sure if you live in Poland or not Fuzzy, but I don't think it is a good fit for you based on the amount of things you have a problem with here. And I am not Polish just living here so I don't have any nationalistic need to defend the place. It has a lot of issues. But the things you dont like such as small flats and food options seem to be pretty petty.

Poland is still waiting for more speed cameras, cameras at junctions to stop the red light jumpers.More speed bumps and road traffic cops who do their job effectively.

What? get outta here man, I love that about Poland.

4 years in Wroclaw, I did more walking than you could imagine, and it's simply not available. I have never seen a deli making fresh to go sandwiches excluding of course Subway, and the only Subway I knew of as of January 2011 in Wroclaw was at Magnolia Park, a good 3 miles south from the rynek.

Tell you what, I will start on the east end of Wroclaw with you and we'll start walking, in a zig zag pattern, to the rynek and beyond.....show me where it exists. You won't find it because I've walked every street there is to walk in that city. It's simply not Polish culture. Great meats, great bread, but if you walk into a deli, you cannot look into the cold cut case and say, "I'd like a sandwich with that bread, that meat, that cheese, with lettuce, peppers, tomato, onion, oil and vinegar, salt and pepper.....and I want you to make it, cut it and half, wrap it up and put it in a bag for me." There is no Subway equivalent, and for anyone that can bring up some random deli in Warsaw or something that actually does this now, it doesn't change anything, it's not Polish culture, and it's a service that would totally kick a$$ and make someone tons of money.

by the way eberhart, how long have you lived in poland?

I have never seen an egg sandwich or tuna mayonnaise or cheese and pickle and frankly that suits me cos i don't like them much.

Its all meat, gurkhins and maybe a bit of tomato and cucumber. Ohh with shite loads of butter

I'm coming round to thinking that a good sandwich shop is exactly what's needed and where an opportunity for a new business might lie.

Sandwiches, such as the ones which you get at Krakow airport - could be made much better and much more enjoyable and healthy.
By the way they have just gone up from 7.50 to 9PLN for 2 slices of bread and 2 slivers of ham, or egg majo. If you were selling them for 5PLN you would still make a profit. These can also be sold on a mobile basis to large firms or near Rynek or anywhere where there are people willing to buy.

poles love fast food. now, just give them classic polish sandwiches they've been eating for decades......but fast.

I think most Poles would think i can just go home and make that for less.

That may be so, but then what is the point of restaurants, milk bars, coffee shops - if you can make it at home for less?.

Off and on for 7 years. But in Warsaw so cannot speak to Wroclaw's sandwich situation. Here there are sandwiches everywhere. Yeah most are premade but its not like what you want doesn't exist in any form. And here there are several Subways as well.

Exactly and I would suggest the best is lubaszka.pl/4/sklepy-firmowe
a bakery who also sell fresh sandwiches cost 5-6 PLN and fresh coffee as well. This company has got to be the best deal in Warszawa.

Before you start any business in Poland you shoud know that you must have your own capital to start. Polish banks do not give credits for new business.

You would be the only customer. Nobody wants a sandwich for lunch, they don't want Macdonald's either as it over priced crap.

You may as well start moaning about the unavailability of Milk bars in USA, is US going to get communist food services at communist prices? I doubt it,


If they wanted it, it would be available. if there was a demand for it there would be Subways, Pret-a-Porter or whatever everywhere. Instead, Poles buy KFC by the tone, Galleria Cracovia, has two because its so popular.

Amrest, the franchise holder for CEE, changed the burger places (Burger king or McShits forget which) into KFC when they took them over becuase they know what Poles want. Not sandwiches or beefburgers ... Chicken.

Anyone can make a sandwich at home. its cold, its boring and its not special.


Warsaw is different.

If a sandwich shop is unlikely to be the next best thing in Poland,(outside of Warsaw) then maybe services such as mobile hairdressers, nail technicians might be an option.

Not exactly. If you open first Wendy's in Poland or a good chain steakhouse - you will be succeful.

I think thats a perfect idea to start Milk Bars in the USA,betya it will thrive...then again Milk Bars in Poland arent cheap! full meal ends up around 15/20 PLN infact!

made to order? when I walk in and tell them exactly what I want, does the shop clerk spin around and make it right then and there?

even so, like i already said, giving me one store in Warsaw is meaningless. it's not polish culture.


oh, right......because you never see people eating sandwiches for lunch in Poland.....and McDonald's is completely empty during lunch time, too. actually, it's empty all day long because it's "overpriced". WHAT are you smokin', weg.


haha, ok, you just topped your last statement. that's laughable, man.


then why oh why does the entire god damn country eat them at all waking hours, every day?


omg, i brought my wife's family to a steakhouse last year when they came to visit us in the USA....they literally couldn't even speak when the meal came out.....they just ate till it was gone. poles don't know what good steak is......oh, but i forgot, if Poles wanted it, they'd have it, right weg?

what a joke.

200% right! A good steak cut properly,marinated and cooked well is the key ...the only place I could find a good steak in Warsaw is a place by the gym on Pulaska street(I forget the name) as one makes right to go to the gym from Pulaska its right on the left...Little place but very good steak try it guys!