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Published 07/07/2010 - 9:00 a.m. CT
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| iStock Photo/Janine Lamontagne |
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At the opening-night party of the recent Southwestern Drycleaners Association (SDA) Cleaners Showcase (I go to the swankiest soirées), an official said he was going to give me one opportunity — and only one — to explain why he should use a reusable garment bag.
But when I ran into him on the exhibition floor the next morning, I told him I couldn’t sleep — not because Dallas barbeque doesn’t agree with me, but because I believed he had the question backwards. “You have one opportunity,” I said, “after our conversation last night, to explain why anyone would ever use single-use poly instead of reusable garment bags.”
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Published 06/09/2010 - 8:00 a.m. CT
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| (Photo: iStockphoto/Lise Gagne |
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Choice in solvents has expanded exponentially in the last 20 years due to the regulatory pressure on the use of perchloroethylene in drycleaning. Ongoing research and development is a testament to the industry’s ingenuity, flexibility and importance, but the industry is still far from having a new “solvent of choice.”
“Drycleaning is a trade, but it’s also an art,” says Fred Schwarzmann Jr., president of A.L. Wilson Chemical Co. “Every garment is a unique challenge. Solvent marketers are giving people a lot of choice in how best to meet that challenge.”
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Published 04/30/2010 - 8:00 a.m. CT
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| Taylor Made's golf apparel prototypes await assembly at the Hangers San Diego plant. |
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There’s nothing like a recession to remind good drycleaners that they could use a fallback plan. Every time unemployment rises, operating costs jump or consumer spending dips, it seems, drycleaners see a little bit of their profits disappear.
Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to bolster business by bringing new and old customers cleaning solutions they may never have considered. Take the concept of cleaning beyond what people wear today, and there’s no limit to the business.
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Published 04/07/2010 - 9:00 a.m. CT
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| iStock Photo/Evgeny Terentev |
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Drycleaners are familiar with the power of an ecofriendly message. More than two-thirds (68.1%) market themselves using “green,” “organic,” “environmentally friendly” or a similar term, according to last year’s Wire survey.
Indeed, many industry operators were at the forefront of the movement, fighting the poor publicity stemming from perc use. Some switched solvents, thinking something other than perc would improve their standing in the consumer consciousness.
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Published 03/10/2010 - 9:51 a.m. CT
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| Photo: iStockphoto.com/José Luis Gutiérrez |
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With local, state and federal governments suffering the effects of the economic downturn, it should come as no surprise to anyone in the industry that tax laws will be subject to stricter enforcement to shore up plummeting revenues. What might come as a surprise is just how far the tax collector’s reach can extend, however.
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