Mary Diana was annoyed when a local laundry charged more to wash and iron her white blouses than to clean her husband’s white shirts. Actually, she was more than just annoyed. (9) Twenty-one of them quoted higher prices for blouses. Then she did an experiment. She cut the label out of a blouse, sewed in the label for a man’s shirt, and took the blouse to the cleaner along with three of her husband’s shirts. The cleaner charged her $1.25. (10) The cleaner charged her $ 2.25. Mary feels that the cleaner’s pricing is unreasonable--that they have prejudice against women and charge arbitrarily higher prices.
(11) The president of the Association of Launderers and Cleaners in Mary’s state has a different view. "The automated machine we use fits a certain range of standardized shirts." he said. "A lot of women’s blouses have different kinds of trim, different kinds of buttons, and lots of braid work, and it all has to be hand-finished. If it involves hand-finishing, we charge higher prices." In other words, some cleaners charge more for doing women’s blouses because the average cost is higher than the average cost for men’s shirts.
(12) A consumer-protection specialist in the Attorney General’s office in Mary’s state said that there were no federal or stare laws to regulate what the cleaners could charge. (13) Many firms face the same problem of how to set prices when the costs are different to serve different customers. For example, poor, inner-city consumers often pay higher prices for food. (14) Some firms don’t like to charge different consumers different prices, but they also don’t want to charge everyone a higher average price to cover the expense of serving high-cost customers.
A Later she did the same thing, but with a blouse that had the original label.
B Of course, the cost of cleaning and ironing any specific shirt may not be higher or lower than the average.
C But inner-city retailers also face higher average costs for facilities, shop lifting, and insurance.
D She telephoned 33 cleaners and asked each one’s price to launder a nonfrills, white cotton blouse the same style and size as a man’s shirt.
E Inner-city consumers enjoy better quality goods.
F Mary won’t take any actual measures to urge the government to pass such a law.
G She said that customers who don’t like a particular cleaner’s rates are free to visit a competitor who may charge less.
H She wants her local city government to pass an ordinance that prohibits laundry and dry cleaning businesses from discriminatory pricing based on gender.

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