Page 12 - Sect1

PAGE 12 / NATIONAL CLOTHESLINE / DECEMBER, 2020

Fall Fest EXPO fuels industry interest

Continued from page 1 by flipping the script.” during a slow period. “Now is a Fall Fest was whether or not according to the experts.
emphasized delivery routes, Speaking of scripts, customer good time to clean your equip- there may be more financial as- “There’s about 75% support
wash-dry-fold and have been service expert Trudy Adams ment, noted Michael Tungesvick sistance coming from the gov- for pretty solid growth in 2021,”
marketing more with their POS spent ample time on how to cre- from Sankosha. “Do the main- ernment soon. The answer is a Kuehl said. “So, among the mar-
computer systems. ate customer service scripts for tenance that you should be doing definite maybe. kets and among the economists,
For Respess, his Southside front counter personnel and how all the time on it. Pay a little “The FFCRA [Families First there is confidence moving for-
Cleaners business has relied on to make sure reluctant staff ad- more attention to the inner work- Coronavirus Response Act] is ward.”
an unorthodox approach for here to it. “Following a script is ings of your machines.” until Dec. 31, but we can imag- As for what that future will
building routes in 2020. “Now, not about being a robot, and it’s Tom Stites of Unipress ine that being extended,” look like for the industry, DLI
we use it as a selling tool and not about being impersonal,” she added, “If you do these things Boehmer noted. “There’s al- Executive Director Mary Scalco
just flip the script,” he said. noted. Instead, the right script as you go along, it doesn’t snow- ready talk about it just being has given that a lot of thought.
“What if we contact you once a can create a more personal ex- ball on you.” complete adopted, forget Covid “I think we’re going back to
week, or twice a week? If you perience and it’s helpful when In a time when costs can eas- — just adopting that as part of the future,” she said. “I think
have something, let us know. If dealing with irritated customers. ily snowball out of proportion, the federal law. I’m not going to we’re going to have less mom-
you don’t, no big deal. Now, we While keeping customers is many cleaners have creatively say that’s going to happen but and-pops, less one-operator
have a lot more people that imperative, so is keeping ma- come up with clever cost-cutting there’s a lot of conversation stores. I think we’re going to
we’ve just added to the route just chinery maintained, especially measures. Johnathan Boehmer about that.” have more dry stores and large
of PuzzleHR noted that 26 states At Fall Fest, there was also a production facilities that have
currently have a workshare pro- lot of conversation about the fu- less rent, less costs, out in an in-
gram. “If you hire military vet- ture of the drycleaning industry dustrial park. We’re going to
erans, you can get a tax credit.” and overall, the speculation was have routes. We’re going to
Larry Fish of Pier Cleaners of a positive nature. That doesn’t have, basically, less cleaners in
in Rhode Island has ample ex- mean easy, however. the industry.”
perience with the initiative. Economist Chris Kuehl from “I think our industry will
“We’re using the workshare pro- Armada Business Intelligence come out stronger and better for
gram a lot,” he explained. called 2020 “the year of living it,” she added.
“They’re self-monitoring, so dangerously,” but he is skeptical The Fall Fest committee
they’re moving faster or slower that 2021 will be “the year of plans to keep all videos of its
but they’re worried about ‘I rainbows and unicorns.” programs online for at least three
can’t work more than 25 hours,’ Following the November months so registered attendees
and they might be doing 50 elections, it is clear that America can still access them. Those who
shirts an hour when before they has a very divided and angry didn’t attend but would like to
were doing 38. So, our costs per electorate, but as Kuehl empha- watch the videos can still regis-
shirt that we monitor has come sized, government is now more ter for the event by visiting
Peter Blake, one of the coordinators of the first Fall Fest down considerably. The quality balanced moving forward. www.nefabricare.com. The cost
EXPO, believes the industry is not giving up during the pan- is the same.” While the pandemic will con- is $359 for DLI members and
demic. “I think you’re going to see more people invested in
their business than before,” he said. Another popular topic during tinue, so will the business world, $399 for non-members.
CA phases out perc in four counties

During the 1930s, the end, perc’s long reign continues The deadline to stop using comply. In that time, California at the start of the year, California
drycleaning industry began to to gradually decline toward po- perc for drycleaning in those ar- agencies such as SCAQMD and will inch forward toward its next
widely adopt a new miracle sol- tential extinction by legislation eas arrives Jan. 1, 2021. the California Air Resources major milestone involving the
vent — tetrachloroethylene or as various state and federal reg- From that point on, all perc Board (CARB) have attempted complete phaseout of perc
percholoroethylene as dubbed ulations reach critical deadlines. drycleaning systems in those to buffer the financial blow to drycleaning from the state by
by scientists. Cleaners just called A major one takes place in counties are expected to be re- the industry by offering grants Jan. 1, 2023.
it perc. California courtesy of the South moved from service by actually for cleaners who replaced perc California cleaners now have
It wasn’t dry and you cer- Coast Air Quality Management physically removing the ma- systems with a professional wet- just over two years to com-
tainly didn’t want to ingest any, District (SCAQMD), which chine or by disconnecting utili- cleaning system or other ap- pletely remove all perc machines
but man could it clean — and passed Rule 1421 with the goal ties to the machines and draining proved technological systems from service.
that it did better than any other to phase out perc drycleaning in all perc from the tanks. with approved alternative clean- The Environmental Protec-
available solvent on the market the four counties it oversees: Los The rule was originally ing methods. tion Agency approved the state
for the better part of a century. Angeles, Orange County, River- adopted in 1994, so drycleaners After perc becomes fully ban back in 2011. The environ-
Now, as 2020 comes to an side and San Bernardino. have now had over 25 years to banned from the four counties mental watchdog group also in-
stituted a national ban on all perc
machines in co-residential build-
ings by Dec. 21, 2020.
While perc’s position at the
top of the industry remains pre-
WANT TO IMPROVE demise might turn out to be a bit
carious, reports of the solvent’s
exaggerated. True, various
cities, counties and states have
YOUR PLANT’S often proposed phaseouts for the
dynamic degreaser, but a poten-
tial federal ban seems to remain
PRODUCTIVITY? out of reach.
In April of this year, the EPA
conducted its Draft Risk Evalu-
ation Findings to determine if
further federal regulations are
needed on perc.
On the EPA’s “Assessing and
Managing Chemicals under
CONTACT DON DESROSIERS TSCA [Toxic Substances Con-
Over 40 years of experience in dry clean operations, trol Act]” web page, the agency
work昀ow engineering and management consulting notes: “The risks found in the
means that you will be in good hands! Solutions for draft risk evaluation, including
all types of plant operations; bar codes, automated those associated with this chem-
assembly and conventional tag systems. ical’s use in dry cleaning, are
preliminary and do not require
617.207.5218 I TAILWINDSYSTEMS.COM any action at this time.”
Following a public comment
period and peer review on the
agency’s research, the EPA’s
opinion appears unchanged.
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