Posts Tagged ‘economy’
“Why do you cost so much?”
Thursday, May 6th, 2010
Last week, I received this letter from a customer:
Dear Madam or Sir,
I just picked up my dry cleaning (7 shirts) from your Orchard store and to my AMAZEMENT it cost $53.01!! I am completely shocked. I cannot imagine why your prices are so high when other places charge $1.50 a shirt. That would have been 10 dollars… far less than your charges. I will not be returning to your store and I will definitely let my friends and family know about your ridiculous prices.
Sincerely, (name withheld)
In my response to this customer, I explained one of the six shirts, a 100% cotton button-down, was processed in the executive shirt laundry at $2.84. This is our lowest price service. The other five shirts were either made of 100% silk or 100% rayon. Both of these are specialty fibers and require extreme care to prevent shrinkage and fading. We hand-finished these to preserve a like-new appearance and charged accordingly. The blouse might deserve a second look. If this is a basic button down style and at least a size 10 we could have processed it through the executive shirt laundry for $2.84. In that case, we owe this customer a credit. I am not aware of any competitor charging as low as $1.50 for laundered shirts. Even “bang and hang” discounter charges a flat rate of $2 per garment, pre-paid, with no guarantees.
However, this person’s letter touches on larger things going on in the dry cleaning industry.
Over the past few years, there’s been increasing differentiation between local dry cleaners. Some, like Westco, are trying to stake out the middle of the road, trying to offer the most service for the least price. Others, especially some long-established local cleaners, are trying to offer the least service for the least price. Clothesline Cleaners has responded too and we have moved up to the premium category, offering the most service for the most price. That’s where we see our niche and no one can match it in our service area.
Like so many other things in life, you get what you pay for. People trust us with their clothing, which in some cases could be thousands of dollars for a custom suit or dress. It may be a wedding dress that is really irreplaceable. If that gets damaged while in our care, we purchase a replacement or do the best that is humanly possible. We don’t reimburse for the current estimated value of the garment. We do whatever is necessary to set things right and replace the garment. That’s a form of insurance and we have to build it into our cost structure.
We offer pickup and delivery, automated 24-hour pickup and dropoff and attention to detail in all aspects of what we do. We send our employees regularly for training. We have invested tens of thousands of dollars in computer automation to ensure garments are processed, tracked, sorted and delivered promptly and without errors or lost items. We have more staff to attend to details, like pressing each shirt collar, spot removal and careful sorting before washing. All this costs more money, but it results in fewer mishaps, a higher overall level of fabric care and customers who are very pleased with the appearance of their clothing.
With the discount cleaners, there’s no guarantee. Someone who is charging $2 per item, flat rate, simply doesn’t have the resources to pay for your $200 designer jeans if they come out damaged. At the same time, they aren’t doing a whole lot to provide any special handling the garment requires. It’s a completely different system than ours. Very little care or concern goes into the cleaning and finishing of those items, there’s a lot of steam tunnel work, very little hand finishing and no guarantees. The fact that you pay up front tells you you’re going to take what you get.
The middle-of-the-road cleaners are the ones struggling to create a market. Because of the economy, everyone is price-conscious. Discount cleaners are doing fairly well as consumers are trying to spend less, abandoning the mid-market cleaners. But before long, someone is going to become dissatisfied with a discount cleaner, sending that customer back to a more expensive cleaner.
We know who we are, we know who are customers are, we know our capabilities and their value and we are not shy about charging for it. Given our level of service and commitment, we are actually pretty competitive with the mid-level cleaners. If you are looking for premium service and unmatched commitment to customer satisfaction and quality, we are your dry cleaner.
Tags: Clothesline Cleaners, cost, economy
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Methods for Management conference provides guidance, good times
Wednesday, April 14th, 2010
We were fortunate to attend the Methods for Management biennial MfM Success Conference March 22 – 26, 2010 aboard the Norwegian Sky cruise liner traveling between Miami and the Bahamas. The theme was “Sailing Out of the Slump,” focusing on cooperative activities to promote business development and profitability by sharing creative solutions and ideas among owners in the dry cleaning industry.
Clothesline Cleaners was presented with the awards for New Store of the Year and Social Media Effort of the Year and we earned a runner-up award for our van designs. We won these awards among a pool of applicants who had submitted their efforts to a panel of judges consisting of leaders in the fabricare industry who were featured presenters during the conference, including:
■ Trudy Adams, Director of Customer Service and Sales for The Cleaner’s Supply
■ Don Desrosiers, President of Tailwind Systems
■ Carolyn Nankervis of Marketwise Consulting Group Inc.
■ John Rudolph of Cleaning By Page and Nationwide Carpet Cleaning
■ Tom Pisani, Finance & Economics Adjunct Professor and Former CFO of a Fortune 500 Company
These are all top industry players in the industry and we are fortunate to have had their participation in the conference. Methods for Management serves the drycleaning industry through independent consulting relationships as well as coordinating and facilitating Management Bureaus. MfM Management Bureaus provide a safe, non-competitive environment where members are comfortable sharing information, issues, and concerns with peers that they trust and respect. MfM as helped clients, nationally and internationally, improve profits and operations since 1953.
We also went on two plant tours during the conference. Our first tour was through New Oriental Cleaners in Nassau, led by Lana Lee-Brogdon, her husband Chris, and her father Henry. The group enjoyed the experience of this dry cleaning plant on the Bahamas! Angel and Franky Suarez of Rey’s Cleaners led our second tour through their plant in Miami. The group was thrilled to see their large warehouse plant operation which reaches all over the city and even miles outside Miami.
It wasn’t all work. Keh gave the group hula dancing lessons and together we wrote a song dedicated to MfM.
Keh and Gary McCracken perform a song they composed at the business retreat
Success 2010 Blues
Well we want to welcome you to Success 2010
A four day cruise sponsored by MFM
Chance to meet and greet old colleagues and friends
A floating business trip for not much to spend
If this is bad economy, then I like the trend
Sail on to success, I hope the fun never ends
Oh Yeah,
A great trend!
The waters been rough we’ve got to stem the tide
But don’t you fret cause along for the ride
We’ve got guest speakers here from far and wide
Giving us pointers on how to survive
The storms may blow, the waters may rise
They are here to teach us, how to be wise
Oh yeah, we’ll survive!
Diana Vollmer, is the big cheese
Say; Girl, Staple, Upcharge, pass the dinosaur please
She dosen’t like excuses she’s as tough as a nail
Marta will tell you she’s a tiger by the tail
Expenses and costs, your profit and loss, the EBITDAL
Nothing gets by her, like a fly on the wall
Oh yeah, that ain’t all!
She packs a lot of business into just a few days
There never is time to sit around and laze
The schedule is tight, from morning till nigh
When it’s all done we just sit back and sigh
Benchmarks to beat, case studies, and feats
It’s so exhausting, I think I could die
Oh yeah, but I’ll try!
We’re all about the same; we’re on the same track,
Cleaning people’s clothes like sweaters, coats and slacks
Mustard stains, the boiler pains, drapes on the line
Hangers, clips and tissue paper, shirts done on time
A million different messages, buttons and soap
We lost that one shirt now we feel like a dope
A dope, on a rope!
Well there’s a lot of us here, with individual names
Like, Anton’s, Balfurd’s, Blue Sky, and Greene’s
Ablitt’s, Art, Bowen, Burke, and Kean’s
Cleaning by Page, and Crest Quality
The Cleaning Company, Crouse, Dandy, and Don’s
Davis, Drake, Glyndon, and Fashion
Oh yeah, we’re not done!
Hallmark, GreenStreets, and Dublin
Hallak, Hilker’s, and Martinizin’
Hill Street, Lemon Tree and New City
Moons, Modern, Nichols Hills and Spiffy
Prestige, Shirtland and Shaffers Dry Clean
Westbank, Tripps Fine and Supreme
Oh yeah, we’re all clean!
Now’s the time for cruisin’ let’s go
Swimming, Dancing, Dining and a casino
When business is done how bout a massage and spa
Island excursions – PinaColada
One last thing that we’d like you to know
We’re Gary and Keh from Clothesline that’s in Idaaahooooooo!
Tags: Awards, Boise, Clothesline Cleaners, economy, Idaho, Meridian, Methods for Management, music
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