In a recent article found in the Wall Street Journal, dry cleaners get put under the microscope to answer consumers’ most pressing questions, such as what exactly is dry cleaning, why do women’s shirts costs more to clean than men’s and can some chemicals used by most dry cleaners be harmful to the environment? And as reporter Ray Smith attempts to mitigate these answers, we’d like to provide our own as well, from the perspective of a dry cleaner.
A lot of controversy has recently stirred up regarding the health hazards caused by a common dry cleaning agent called perchloroethylene, or perc. Many dry cleaners are required to find a replacement for perc by 2020 and in many states the ban of the agent could come even sooner as directed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
According to statistics cited in the article, perchloroethylene has been used since the 1930’s and 80% of all cleaners rely strongly on the agent. With such a high dependency many dry cleaners use the agent to tackle tough oil based stains. At Z Cleaners, we are aware of the environmental concerns and in an attempt to play our part in being eco-friendly, we are currently researching other alternatives available that will deliver the same results. In addition, we are also considering dedicated machines and better waste-handling technology that will make perc safe to use.
Another important consumer question that the article addressed was why do women pay significantly more for laundered shirts than men? And the reasoning for that is plain and simple, women’s shirts are smaller and because they are more uniquely designed they do not always fit as well on standard industry presses, therefore requiring more work done by hand. The increased prices for women correlate with the manual work required to hand press their shirts.
Also mentioned in the article was a study conducted by research firm Mintel, where customers were confused about what was actually happening to their clothes and felt that most dry cleaners were dark. We believe that this is a valid concern, as most consumers like to spend time in stores that are bright and welcoming. To mitigate these concerns, at Z Cleaners we try to keep the lights bright and will gladly give our customers a behind the scenes tour of our facilities and take them through every step of the dry cleaning process. We firmly believe that our customers should know what exactly they are paying for and that their garments are in good hands.
After tackling consumers’ questions, the article attempts to help customers create a better dry cleaning experience. The article lists several points on how to “judge a dry cleaner before handing over clothing”. Their first question asks if the cleaner has a certificate or decal? We believe that this question is also quite important and that is the reason why we take pride in our Certification from America’s Best Cleaners as a couture care specialist.
Two other points asks if the cleaner is orderly and if the cleaning is actually done on site? We can check off both of these points, we take careful inventory of each item that comes into our facility by attaching a small barcode that gets scanned into our system and tracks your item along every step of the way.
An important factor that we felt the article did not place heavy emphasis on is what steps or measure dry cleaners are taking to become more eco- friendly to appeal to green consumers. We believe in doing our part to save the environment, therefore, we offer our customers a hanger buy back program, where we offer incentives to our customers that return our wooden hangers rather than the traditional wire hangers. We also try to conserve energy by turning off the lights when our doors are closed. As we work on trying to become greener in some areas, we are doing what we can to be sustainable with factors we can control.
We appreciate the Wall Street Journal taking the time to address consumer concerns and in part bridging the gap between many dry cleaners and their customers. Our staff here at Z Cleaners have used the article as check points to clean up the “dirt on dry cleaners”. After all, we don’t like to have a bad rep.
To read the full Wall Street Journal article please visit The Dirt On Dry Cleaners
For any additional questions please email us at info@Zcleaners.com or 602-CLEANER
