The “Eastern European” carwash

They are also a respectable front for the distribution of 'recreational' substances

well, they've never offered me any!

Thanks for the heads-up petra. How do you let them know you want more than a valet? Nudge, nudge, wink, wink or something more sophisticated? Please pm me your method.... I'm dying to know.

No offence meant, jalima but do you look like their target market
Also, you don't get if you don't ask

We usually give them a tip! What shall we do when they all go home?!!

If they are here legally, then they may continue to live here.

How does one recognise an eastern European?

Usually by the language Baggs
I can recognise Czech and Russian, but even those with which I am not familiar have a Slavonic intonation suggesting Romanian, perhaps, Slovenian maybe Albanian.

No offence taken petra

They say things like “My name is Drakoola ( Dracula) may I vosh ( wash) your car pliz ( please) and I veel ( will) not bite you if you geeve ( give) me a tenoh ( tenner )
Joke btw.

MawBroon
Romanian sounds like Italian, it comes from Latin, I think.
It's a nice language to listen to, unlike the others which are hard sounding especially Russian.
Lemon
Very good, and sooooo accurate might not go down as funny, though, with some.

Hmm. I don't think I could tell anything from a few half-heard words. And, forgive me for being impertinent, but I don't think most people can. I was just puzzled by how many people on this thread seemed to just know when someone was an East European. I think there might be a certain amount of careless labelling going on. (Not by you, maw; I believe you are a linguist?).

Of course, it could be that I'm just useless at understanding spoken language. It takes me all my time to understand some speech that is English! ?

Mind you, when I was working in Thailand I soon learned to distinguish Thai (some of which I even understood) from Chinese and both those from Malay(sian). Maybe I just haven't had enough practice listening to eastern European languages.

I haven’t used one for a while as our latest car has a finish which the book says in large letters DO NOT USE A PRESSURE WASHER. But, I did get chatting to one of the lads at our local car wash who wanted to chat to use his English. He was there for the summer to earn money to see him through training to be a vet in Romania, another apparently was getting money to buy land. They weren’t stopping for more than a year and the hard work and discomfort was obviously worth their while. I think now with the dropping pound it might not be as profitable.

I think Baggs that if you live in an area where these operations are common you have seen them spring up and then evolve and it begins to raise alarm bells. Then if you read the background to these businesses and the research that is going on you realise that at present (it hasn’t always been so) they are run mainly using people from Eastern Europe (car washes) and Vietnam (nail bars).

So whilst it may be casual labelling it is based on known facts. I don’t really care which countries they are trafficked from I just want trafficking to stop, slavery to be abolished (finally) and workers in this country to be treated with respect and accorded the rights that have been so hard won over the last century.

That’s reassuring NfkDumpling. I suppose that’s the answer if you want to use these places, speak to the staff and see what you find out. If they appear nervous/ get shouted at by their boss/ avoid communication then I think it’s a warning sign. I’ll carry on using Gary my mobile valeter who has run his business for 20 years and charges £20 inside and out. I can’t justify the cost more than once every couple of months but I just hate washing my car.

Could you send Gary round to us nightowl neither of us like washing the car either and that seems fantastic value.
I never understand how the inside of our car gets so messy,
We don’t live on a farm, don’t smoke, and yet it needs ( valeting is too good a word) mucking out regularly.

We have a Paul and Sue - £10 for wash and hoover and dust.
£30 for complete valet including wax and polish.

Car is washed every month and waxed about twice a year.

nightowl, I agree it really depends how cosmopolitan the area you live in is. I can only assume if you haven't stumbled across this not so new phenomonen of the Eastern European car wash, where you live is rural. I wouldn't be able to recognise the nuanced differences between the Eastern European languages, although Russian does have a very clear tone and there are lots of them in London. I agree with Petra these languages tend to be harsh sounding and lack the attractive lilt of romantic languages, such as French/Italian/Spanish. I did read that Romanian is different because it has evolved from Latin, maybe because Roman soldiers on retirement were given tranches of land in Dasha (modern day Romania). I live in South West London and I'd say our area has been awash with Eastern Europeans since the UK granted permission for free movement back in the noughties. When they first started arriving their languages stood out, not anymore though, they're everywhere now. My husband always chats to the guys where he goes for his car wash, even if they have a rudimentary command of English, where they originate from tends to be the topic of a conversation.

We have a very good car wash attached to a petrol station near us, staffed by Eastern Europeans. They do an excellent job (£5 a wash ) and are very polite, friendly and efficient. They have been there for perhaps ten years.

We know some are from Romania as one of them lodged with a friend of ours, he was sending money back to his wife. There was a police raid on them a year or so ago and they have now improved the safety equipment and clothing. I don't suppose they are paid much. Are they working for low wages for a gang master? Perhaps, but it seems they can make better money here than they could at home in Romania or similar places. So it works for them.

We would miss them if lack of EU immigrant workers post-Brexit meant they had to close.

I meant to add I agree with what you have said about trafficking nightowl, it's so depressing to read that we now have more slavery/enforced labour than before slavery was abolished. It made my blood run cold to read that some of the young African men who are making the perilous journey to Europe have been sold and resold at slave markets in Libya.

I have made my opinion known on a few threads over time that I really have an issue with this type of business.

Not only is their exploitation of labour there are other considerations such as legitimate businesses in the area who pay tax and give employment rights to compete with cheal labour and there is of course the environmental issue of where the water/trade waste goes.

I know there are posters who on this and other threads in the past said they use these 'businesses' but please do your homework and see the pitfalls of paying cash in hand to these outfits .

As long as there willing customers there will be a continued source of cash that is flowing into what can only be called a shady economy, a black market .

The black market did not start with these businesses it has been alive and doing very well for donkeys years, way before we ever thought of Eastern European car wash

We know there is money laundering and people trafficking going on and not just in businesses run by Eastern Europeans. I was told that little is done about it because of police and local authority cuts.

whitewave

Who said the black market started with the European Car Wash trade?