Who was undercutting the high-end, professional service of my pre-Pesach car wash business?

Moe: Your cheap rates are driving our businesses to the ground

Yechiel: I’m servicing the community at rates they can afford

Moe

The delivery would arrive tomorrow.

I sighed in relief and put my phone down. The air smelled like bleach  — Tali was in full swing with the Pesach cleaning, ably aided by Claudia. Sometimes it felt like Pesach kind of happened without me. While I used to feel bad about it, I have come to terms with the fact that it comes with the territory of running a business on Erev Pesach.

An email came in; it was from the insurance company. Great. I was still waiting to hear back from the clients, though. I’d emailed all our regular customers with the yearly We’re back email, and wanted to confirm contracts and start scheduling the jobs.

“You think we can turn over the kitchen on Motzaei Shabbos? I have the grocery order coming on Sunday,” Tali asked me.

Grocery order, wow. Produce and packaged goods, almond flour and grape juice and lots and lots and lots of potatoes.

Lots of money, too. That’s Pesach for you.

Well, that was why I was dealing with orders of my own, for things like car wash and shampoo, leather cleaner, microfiber rags, and several new large pieces of equipment to replace anything that wasn’t in great condition after last year.

“Yeah, should be fine,” I told Tali, but my mind was wandering. I’d hired several bochurim to do the actual car washing, but had I hired enough? Some of the guys who usually took the job hadn’t gotten back to me yet. Maybe I should call again.

“…Moe?”

I spaced back in. “Sorry, what were you saying?”

Tali sighed. “Never mind. You do your thing.”

I watched her retreating back. I felt bad that I wasn’t able to be more helpful around the house during Nissan — she was working so hard — but we’d made this choice, and the car wash service I ran in the run-up to Pesach was a major source of income for us. It covered our Yom Tov expenses, and then some.

It was important, it worked well, and the extra hours of Claudia’s help certainly didn’t hurt.

My phone started buzzing. Back to work.