Sunday 8 November 2009

Mąż do wynajęcia!

Or rather 'Husband for hire!'

Not the desperate cry of a frustrated housewife, but the name of a new agency recently set up in Warsaw and featured in GazetaPraca.pl.
Yep, in a bid to beat the recession, ordinary Polish guys are renting themselves out to put up shelves, deal with spiders, accompany single thirtysomethings to awkward family dinners, explain the off-side rule and generally make themselves useful. The owner of the firm, one Massymiliano Boscaro, is quick to add that more intimate services are most definitely off the cards.

Apparently the agency is popular with women who feel let down by their own less-than-perfect spouses as well as single over-thirties whom Mr Right has passed by. Sometimes even men call in.

Unlike real husbands, according to the author, these professionals actually clean up after themselves.

Poland never fails to surprise me.

Link to the article here.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think you would agree this is a way of selling handy man services and they seem to be guaranteeing quality workmanship which is always a big seller. It will be easy to sell it to single women but there marketing will fail when it comes to couples because the husband will feel like a cuckold especially if she can ask him to stay for tea and chat etc. Although if she can ask him to stay for tea(when I say tea I mean only tea) it sounds a bit like prostitution to me. You shouldn't have to pay for friendship per hour.

I wonder will these husbands for hire be young and arrive when you call like a pizza or will they be varied like the current crop, some old, overweight, a little peeved that you called them out for a small job, keep you waiting for weeks before they arrive if at all and be overpriced.

Ok, I am taking all this too seriously!!! :-)

pinolona said...

This is the article's description of the guy who shows up at the author's doorstep:

'stoi niski, łysiejący facet. Koszulka z napisem "Tester wódki". Na ramieniu nowiutka torba z narzędziami. Wydaje się, że 35 lat skończył, ale dość dawno'

:D

Anonymous said...

It sounds so unlikely given the stereotype of Polish men, doesn't it?

I wonder how well the company will do.

Glad to hear you're back in Poland. Have some Krówki for me, please.

pinolona said...

Ohhhh Tom, I'd love to eat krówki for you but I've been and gone, I'm in Brussels now! What happened to you? You went off the radar for a while... How's life in back in Blighty?