National Clothesline

The drycleaning industry has been one of the hardest hit industries by the pandemic. I know that personally, as I have a drycleaner located in central Florida and our sales were off by more than 60% in the second quarter of 2020.

If it wasn’t for the two loans from the Payroll Protection Program (PPP), we would have gone out of business and all of our employees would have lost their jobs. I know that many of you are doing everything that you can to survive COVID, just like we are.

The Southwest Drycleaners Association will be hosting an in-person meeting from July 9-10 in Austin, Texas. The association's Board and Membership meeting will take place at the Lone Star Court, located in the heart of The Domain, in north Austin. Registration is free for SDA/DLI members and $100 for non-members. A highlight of the event will be a presentation by John Rothrock, CGCP, President of Yale Cleaners of Tulsa, Oklahoma. He will discuss "Generation Now... Can Drycleaning Deliver?", emphasizing customer expectations and why same-day delivery service matters and how to implement it. For more information, visit www.sda-dryclean.com. To register, contact the SDA office at (512) 873-8195.

During the second half of April, National Public Radio had reported that the U.S. vaccination campaign was progressing well. Since vaccination began in mid-December, more than 209 million doses had been administered.

Overall, 84.3 million people in the U.S. were fully vaccinated, representing 25.2% of the total population.

The drastically declining drycleaning sales in the country during the past year have not painted a pretty picture for the industry, although it is indeed a pretty confusing one when you examine it even closer.

The best metric available to create those brush strokes has been the sales graphs compiled by SPOT Business Systems, which have publicly offered its statistical set tracking its base of hundreds of drycleaners.

Tiffany Couture Cleaners of Las Vegas was recently featured in Netflix’s new original documentary series, “Worn Stories.” Adapted from Emily Spivack’s New York Times best-selling book, the series explores the connection between clothing and memory and features a mix of dynamic interviews with inspiring cultural figures and storytellers.

After a year of travel restrictions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, many Americans are traveling by air again, perhaps seeking a much-needed, vacation. However, in late April, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still recommended those not vaccinated yet to refrain from traveling and increasing the potential to spread the virus.

One of the main reasons why we have employee turnover is because we do not have a solid on-boarding and training system or procedure that ensures that you will be able to retain your newer employees.

As we continue to see people struggle to hire, we are also seeing people bring in quality staff members and it’s all due to the initial buy-in.

Frequently, employees are promoted based on their skills as counter employees, mechanics, production employees, salespeople, clerical employees, or administrators.

Putting out product, handling customers, doing construction work, selling service contracts, entering payroll, and preparing budgets do not train individuals to be good supervisors. The net result of a promotion of a great employee can often be (1) the loss of a great employee, and (2) the addition of an inadequate

Growing up while working at Fox Cleaners of Greensboro, NC, Lindsey Beane was taught the keys to running a successful drycleaning plant by an industry legend — Sto Fox. Of course, she just knew him as dad.

“I was in the call office,” Lindsey recalled. “So, I was marking in, assembling and waiting on customers, and inspecting and the tagging and bagging... dealing with customer complaints. He wanted me to learn.”

Let’s face it, it’s difficult to find managers in this business. Wait. Let’s be more specific. It’s difficult to find qualified managers in this business. This is a very inconvenient truth because I believe that the most valuable investment that you can make — the one with the most significant return on investment — is a qualified manager. I see clear patterns.

Spotting is an art indicated by the fact that some spotters are able to remove stains while others cannot even when they have access to the same equipment and materials. The steam gun is the most commonly used item that is often taken for granted by many spotters. Some spotters use it correctly and efficiently while others do not, causing results to vary

In the past, companies supplying boiler maintenance chemicals like “boiler compound” had representatives visit your plant, take water samples and analyze them in order to prescribe the proper blow-down procedures and how much boiler compound to add and when.

However, the business model which provided that type of high-level service is no longer workable in most areas. Therefore, these test procedures must now be carried out by either sending samples to a lab for analysis or by onsite water testing by plant personnel.

If you find yourself in a position where your customers insist on speaking with you directly instead of your employees, then you might want to consider shifting your structure so you can improve the value of your business. When we bought Fashion Cleaners in 1992, we had one very high maintenance customer who always asked for the prior owner. I would just answer that he was not in today, but could I help? After a couple of months, she said, “Rueben isn’t there anymore, is he?” I said, “No, but can I help you?”

It is not often that drycleaning makes an appearance in the mainstream unless it is negative press, publicity, or jokes at our expense on Seinfeld. I can’t tell you how many times I have been called about how our industry has been portrayed by popular culture. If you are like me, Netflix accounts have gotten quite a workout over the past 12 months. I was intrigued to see a new Netflix show this April: Worn Stories.

Lately the weather has been improving and the vegetation is out and blooming. Things might actually be looking up. Since vaccination distribution began back on Dec. 14, 26% of the U.S. population had become fully vaccinated by press time — which means that over 1/4 of the population “got the jab’ in less than four months.