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RALEIGH, N.C. — Financial information company Sageworks reports that privately owned dry cleaners and launderers anticipating higher costs for hangers due to anti-dumping tariffs are either not yet seeing a major impact or are somehow offsetting the additional costs, based on preliminary analysis.

Trade rulings this summer regarding steel wire hangers made in Vietnam as well as similar tariffs on hangers made in Taiwan could push hanger costs higher.

“Whatever may happen to their costs going forward, our data doesn’t show that increasing costs have been much of a problem for private dry cleaners or laundry services in the past few years,” says Sageworks analyst Libby Bierman. “Profit margins have been increasing or at least holding steady for the past few years.”

There has been an emphasis on recycling programs to help alleviate cleaners’ hanger expenses. For example, members of the Drycleaning & Laundry Institute have reportedly recycled 25 million hangers.

NEW YORK, N.Y. — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finalized its plan to demolish a building, dig up contaminated soil and sediment, and treat the ground water at the Crown Cleaners of Watertown Inc. Superfund site in Herrings, N.Y.

The soil and sediment are contaminated with volatile organic compounds (VOC) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and the ground water is contaminated with VOC from past operations at this former paper bag manufacturing, laundry and dry cleaning facility.

“EPA’s work at the site during the next phase of the cleanup is a step forward in our effort to protect the health of people who live or work near this abandoned facility,” says Judith A. Enck, EPA regional administrator. “Removing contaminated materials and cleaning up the ground water will reduce the health risks from this site.”

Thank you to the more than 700 drycleaners and distributors who have visited our cramped 10-by-10-foot booth.

Thank you all for validating our decision to create a pouch for hangers. Your enthusiastic response has been thrilling to us.

Thank you to everyone who not only wanted a sample of our new shirt box bag, but proudly displayed it as you continued to walk the convention floor.

CHICAGO — A drycleaner’s priorities often seem to be in a constant state of flux. Not long ago, everyone was saying you had to have a website. Today, you’ll hear that you have to be on Facebook and Twitter. Wow, when are you supposed to do the drycleaning?

Times change, customers change, and their preferred methods of communication change. Our methods of marketing, advertising, promotion, and delivery also must change, but we still have to find the time to clean clothes.

CHICAGO — More drycleaners are saying “‘Tis the season!” instead of “Bah, Humbug!” this year, according to this month’s Wire survey. The vast majority of respondents (79.5%) decorated their stores to help spread the holiday cheer, while only one in five (20.5%) did not.

“I’m feeling very blessed to have a business [and] a roof over my head,” one respondent says. “This is not the time to feel down. We have so much to be grateful for.”

HENDERSONVILLE, N.C. — With the race for North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District coming down to the wire, House minority whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) joined local drycleaner Jeff Miller on the campaign trail.

Miller, longtime operator of Miller’s Fine Drycleaning, is challenging incumbent Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) of Waynesville for the seat, which represents most of the state’s western tip. The No. 2 Republican in the House appeared with Miller at a rally last week in Hendersonville.

WASHINGTON — The Small Business Lending Fund Act, a $30 billion proposal by President Barack Obama to spur lending to small businesses, cleared the House Financial Services Committee this week. The 42-23 party-line vote garnered no Republican support.

To travel or not to travel — that is the question. To visit and investigate the latest equipment or not; that is the question. To buy or not to buy; that is the question.

Operators ask themselves these questions every time a Clean Show approaches. For some, there’s no doubt whether or not they can attend this year — they can’t; the economy is just too weak right now, and their plants are only eking by.

CHICAGO — Three out of five (59.3%) drycleaners say they plan to build or renovate at least one plant or store in 2009, according to the most recent survey appearing in the Wire, American Drycleaner’s e-mail newsletter. About a third (31.5%) don’t have any plans for a plant project, and 9.3% aren’t yet sure.

I visited a fairly new drycleaner recently, and what I saw there shocked me. A young couple owned the store. The wife stayed at the counter, and the husband processed the work in back. When a second counterstaffer helped a customer, the wife came forward and manned the cash register. When it happened a second time, I blinked hard.

You may not be familiar with the hemispheres of the brain, but generally speaking, the left side of the brain performs certain functions and the right side performs others. Sometimes they work together, but not always.

Why is this important to managing a drycleaning operation? Because today, the challenges aren’t always easy to solve. To address them, you may require a new way of understanding the business environment.

There’s no good reason for you to do a budget. You understand your business’ history. Your labor costs and rents probably won’t change (much), and they’re the biggest cost items you have. And if nothing is going to change, it’s a waste of valuable time and effort.

Before moving on, though, you may want to think about why other successful companies work through the budget process. They don’t want to waste their time any more than you do — maybe there’s something to it after all.