The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights will take up the issue of discriminatory pricing practices by providers of goods and services at a briefing on June 14.
Allegations of gender-biased pricing have troubled the cleaning industry off and on for years, this year in particulars activists and lawmakers seek to make an issue out of cleaning prices.
Activity has been primarily in western states, starting with California where a law banning gender-based pricing took effect Jan 1, but it has cropped up on the east coast, too, where a gender-bias pricing bill was introduced in the New York legislature.
Drycleaners are not being singled out by the Civil Rights Commission, said David Norford, executive director of the Mid-Atlantic Cleaners and Launderers Association. A broad range of services for which women reportedly pay more than men -- automobile purchases, for example -- will be considered along with other civil rights issues not related to pricing.
Norford, along with Ed Boorstein of Parkway Custom Cleaners, will attend the briefing to represent the industry. They are slated to be part of a panel of business representatives who will have about 60 minutes of the 2 1/2 hours allotted for the meeting.
In inviting Norford to attend, the commission said the purpose of the briefing will be to "provide commissioners with information about civil rights matters and bring problems to the attention of the public." The commission is an independent agency of the U.S. government and has no regulatory or legislative authority.
If there is any immediate result of the briefing, it would be in the form of news media coverage. Even that, Norford said, is more likely to center on other issues slated for the briefing such as whether security personnel single our minorities in stores or the treatment of minorities as patrons at restaurants. Problems encountered by disabled people as customers will also be addressed.
Nonetheless, the media has been quick to pick up on stories concerning drycleaning prices and whether women are routinely charged more than men for the same services.
When legislation was narrowly passed in the Illinois House in April, the press was there with articles excoriating cleaners for discriminatory pricing. The legislation eventually died in a Senate committee but the impression left by press reports such as one under the heading, "Taken to the Cleaners," lives on.
Customer's pet peeveThe customer, it was reported, had noticed that she was being charged $2.20 each for drycleaning shirts that should have been laundered for $1.25 each and that there was a $3.60 charge for one shirt because it was considered to be a woman's blouse.
The customer said she showed the clerk the label and noted that the shirts were machine washable and didn't need drycleaning. Then she pointed out that the man's shirt that had been counted as a woman's blouse had a 16.5-inch neck size and 35-inch sleeves, i.e., that it was a "man's" shirt.
This customer's cleaner apparently ignored oft-repeated advice from industry trade groups on the pricing issue. While those advisories vary in detail, the thrust is always the same: Prices must be based on the garment and the amount of labor and expertise required to clean and finish it, not on the gender of the customer who wears it or brings it in.
Norford said the Mid-Atlantic association has to deal with this issue several times a year.
Sometimes it goes beyond putting out fires created by bad publicity. Late last year drycleaners in the Charleston, West Virginia, area found themselves on the receiving end of a price discrimination suit in the local circuit court.
Fair price guidelines
MACLA responded by providing members with material on gender-based pricing issues and a Fair/Non-Gender Pricing Policy Guidelines pamphlet. Norford advised several steps for cleaners to take to avoid legal action. Those included:
Existing civil rights statutes may cover gender-based price discrimination, but across the country state legislators have jumped into the act with bills aimed at corrected the perceived ill, often specifically targeted at cleaners and other small retail service businesses.
Legislatures take action
California adopted such a law last year after two years of debate and discussion. That law, which took effect Jan 1, allows businesses to charge more for a similar service if it takes longer or costs more to provide to one sex than to the other, but it strictly prohibits different pricing for the same services based solely on the gender of the customer. Violators of the law face the possibility of paying the consumer at least $1,000, or up to three times the amount of actual damages and attorney's fees.
Lawmakers in other states have followed California's lead although none have successfully passed gender-price bills this year. In addition to Illinois, legislation has been attempted this year in South Dakota and Washington State.
In South Dakota, Bob Howell of Modern Cleaners in Pierre, SD, the FLARE state director for the Fabricare Legislative and Regulatory Education council (FLARE), testified before two state government committees after State Senator Pam Nelson introduced legislation aimed at price discrimination.
When Senator Nelson was asked in committee why she felt that the proposed legislation was necessary, she answered: "All drycleaners are born this way... sexist."
When the legislation was taken to the state's judiciary committee due to constitutional questions the opinion was that it was "shallow" compared to most of the issues that under consideration and that it inhibited the free market process.
Free market prevailsContrary to the usual tide in the press, an article in the Seattle Times listed the proposed gender bias legislation as the number-one worst law to be proposed by the state government.
Illinois cleaners found themselves suddenly drawn into a similar battle after the state House passed gender-price legislation in April.
Jim Rusciolelli of Evans Cleaners in Springfield quickly contacted his state senator's to make sure that when hearings were held drycleaners could present their side of the story.
In a letter to State Senator Larry Bomke, Rusciolelli wrote in part: "The reason men's shirts are priced lower is because they are all constructed alike, they are washable and they fit the equipment that is designed accordingly and can produce 90 to 100 shirts an hour."
Blouses or shirts that need to be hand-finished because of small wrists, expanded sleeves, and extra details and materials need to be charged more -- and they should be regardless of whether they are a "man's" or a "woman's," he noted.
The Senate committee has decided not to hear the issue for the time being.
Rusciolelli said he believes some of the negative press could be stopped if news reporters are given a chance to see the difference in labor required to finish shirts that can go on presses versus those that require hand-finishing they will understand that there good, sound business reasons for different pricing.
That's one of the bits of advice continued in an advisory issued by FLARE in April. "Invite interested reporters to try processing different kinds of garments, FLARE suggested. "The difference in labor between a common shirt and a detailed silk blouse should quickly be apparent."
Advice from FLARE
Other words of advice from FLARE for cleaners facing this issue include:
FLARE encouraged all cleaners to help on this issue: "Let us nip this trend in the bud by encouraging industry awareness and education.
"Even if you have been practicing unbiased pricing for years, encourage your fellow cleaners to do likewise. Bad media coverage for one cleaner is bad press for the entire industry."
Communication with customers could go a long way toward heading off questions about pricing.
To help cleaners comply with the new law in California, the California Fabricare Institute has set provided members with a call-office sign that notifies customers of pricing policies.
Texas Congressman Joe Barton said he doubts now that action on his legislation to set new cleanup standards for perchloroethylene will take place in Congress this year.
In a videotaped message he sent to the April 26-28 convention held by the Southeastern Fabricare Association convention in Atlanta, Barton said he had been optimistic earlier this year "about making something happen" in 1996, but that time is quickly running out for Congressional hearings.
He remains hopeful about the long-range prospects of his plan, introduced last year as the Small Business Remediation Act (HR 2522) and known informally as the "Barton Bill."
"I am confident we will be able to get something done within the next year or two," he added.
The act would have EPA base its groundwater and soil contamination cleanup standards for perc on the maximum workplace exposure standards set by OSHA.
"It's just common sense that if one federal agency says a standard is safe for daily workplace exposure then it should be safe in the environment, too." Barton said on the tape.
His bill would ensure environmental safety by using one-tenth of the amount of exposure allowed by OSHA as the cleanup threshold for perc in soil and groundwater. Currently OSHA's permissible exposure level is 100 parts per million. Under the Barton plan then, soil and groundwater would be considered in need for remediation if it contained more than 10 parts per million. OSHA is in the process of reevaluating its standards; if it lowers the perc standard for the workplace, the soil and groundwater level would decrease accordingly.
EPA currently applies the drinking water standard of 5 parts per billion to determine soil and groundwater contamination.
His legislation would set "a very defensible standard and a very common-sensical one that has been proven in the workplace to be safe," Barton said.
Barton said there are two Republicans and two Democrats sponsoring HR 2522. The bill has been assigned to the House Subcommittee on Health and Environment, chaired by Rep. Michael Bilirakis of Florida. Bilirakis is willing to hold a hearing on the proposal as part of another hearing, Barton said. For his own part, Barton said he would hold a hearing on it in his own committee, but not in this session of Congress.
Barton said it would help the cause if the industry's national association would write a letter endorsing either his bill or at least the concept that his bill embodies -- applying OSHA's workplace standards to soil and groundwater cleanup.
"The bottom line is to get something done as soon as possible to remove environmental liability and the threat of litigation," Barton concluded.
Chances of passing any kind of Superfund bill in Congress during this election year are doubtful, according to Mary Scalco, government relations director for the International Fabricare Institute.
Speaking at the SEFA convention in Atlanta, Scalco said Democrats believe environmental issues can help them at the polls in November and the Republicans are hesitant to give Democrats any ammunition.
Scalco said she believes if a Superfund bill is passed that it will include some kind of help for the drycleaning industry, but the cleanup fund component of the Small Business Fabricare Coalition's Superfund proposal is off the board now
Still alive is the Coalition's proposal for a four-year moratorium on state and federal cleanup lawsuits which would allow time for states to develop their own cleanup programs. States that do so would then have a permanent liability exemption under federal law.
Seven states have passed such legislation to date: Florida, Connecticut, South Carolina, Minnesota, Kansas, Oregon and Tennessee.
The cleanup fund component of the Coalition's plan, in which drycleaners would pay a surcharge on solvent purchases and an annual fee to build a fund for cleaning up soil and groundwater contaminated by drycleaning solvents, won't be pursued further this year.
In an article in the May issue of Fabricare magazine, IFI said the Congressional Budget Office determined that the proposal would be considered "a new tax."
"If the full proposal were included it could subject the entire Superfund bill to a preliminary challenge," IFI said.
The four-year moratorium language would be included in the Senate's Superfund bill, subject to approval by Senate Democrats.
"We could still offer the coalition full proposal as a floor amendment, but that is a tougher battle and a decision which will have to be made when Superfund comes up for a debate," IFI said.
The pick-up and delivery service that Rick Miller started several years ago wasn't an overnight success, but it has been a success nonetheless, even though some of his fundamental assumptions turned out to be incorrect
Miller, the president of Barton & Miller Cleaners in Ft. Lauderdale, told the tale of his experience in starting up a route service at the South Eastern Fabricare Association convention in Atlanta in April. The key to making work, he said is finding a good driver. And, as a former basketball coach, Miller was flexible enough to change his game plan when the situation warranted.
The first week for the route netted $283 in business, a bit short of the $6,000-a-week goal and even less than the $375 weekly pay guaranteed to the driver. But that didn't last long. In the second month route's revenues topped $1,000 a week. By year's end it reached $3,000 a week and by the end of the next year $5,000 a week.
At the end of the last year, the routes third year on the road, weekly revenues had made it to the $6,000 level. Miller says the route now brings in $250,000 to $300,000 a year and he believes most of that is business that Barton & Miller would not otherwise get.
The driver, who has been on the route since the beginning, now does far better than the $375 minimum guarantee. At 15 percent commission, the driver earns $900 on a $6,000 week. He also gets a $10 bonus for every new customer he brings in once that customer spends $30, Miller noted.
When the route started up, Miller planned to have the driver on the street from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays and during the day Saturday, that he would have a better chance of making calls when the customers were at home. Instead, it turned out that the customers didn't really want to see the driver at all. Miller assumed Saturday would be customers' favorite day for pick-ups and deliveries, but that hasn't been the case.
And as far as he is concerned, that's fine. The driver spends less time at each individual stop if all he has to do is pick up or drop off the cleaning bag, Miller said. With most customers, pick ups and deliveries are made by leaving the bag in a protected area outside the house. Laundry bags from Safety-Kleen that have a slot for cards that contain all the necessary customer information are used.
Customers can hang the bags in a closet to collect clothes for pickup. And the cost of the bag is partially borne by the customer who puts up a $7.50 deposit for it.
There's a side benefit to this, Miller said. If a customer wants to discontinue service and requests return of the deposit, he gets a chance to talk to them first and find out why the customer is leaving. If it's because of a problem with the service, Miller gets a chance to fix it. And customers who have their problems solved become the most loyal customers of all, he said.
The bags also eliminate the need for covering the garments with poly, Miller noted.
Miller also discarded the notion of having the route service office buildings. Even though those offices have many potential customers, he found that people simply don't want to bring the dirty laundry to work. Home pick up is preferred.
Customers who want to be on the route must spend at least $100 a month on cleaning, Miller said. When the driver calls on a customer, he solicits new business by making a quick call or leaving a door hanger on the five nearest homes. The route is concentrated in an area of homes with a value of at least $350,000, so the prospects are potentially good customers. The door-to-door contact is what builds the service, Miller said. Attempts to drum up interest by advertising through the mail did little or nothing for him.
If the driver finds no cleaning bag at the customer's house, he leaves a note telling the customer that he was there and when he will be back. It's important for the customer to know you were there even if were are no clothes to pick up, Miller said. That heads off possible complaints from a customer who thinks the driver "missed" the pick up.
The driver carries a beeper in case the store needs to contact him during the day. He also has a cell phone. But that's for emergency contact only. Miller feels it would be too distracting to have a phone call interrupt a conversation the driver may be having with a customer.
Customers pay on charge and are billed monthly, but Miller is working on moving that over to automatic credit card billing. He uses a DCCS computer route system to track that part of the business.
Another key to building the business is membership and participation in local business association's Miller said. He belongs to the executives association of Ft. Lauderdale, a group of 150 business people who meet for breakfast once a week.
"If there's one such group in your area, die to get in," he advised.
Miller also supports the local business community through the Chamber of Commerce, which named him Businessman of the Year in 1986.
WAKEFIELD, MA -- Cost/management groups for drycleaners who operate residential and commercial routes are being organized by Alan G. Robson, a National Clothesline columnist and the management consultant for the North East Fabricare Association.
Groups are being formed for plant owners and operators who want to improve the operating and financial performance of their business. Participants must be willing to share their experience, ideas, successes and failures with other, non-competing route operators.
NEFA also offers interactive management groups for all drycleaners along with specialized groups for users of specific counter computers. For information on the new route group or other groups offered by NEFA, call the Michelle Stephan at the association's office, (800) 683-NEFA (6332).
Moving up in a company can be achieved in a number of ways. Good companies recognize skills and talent and make sure they provide pathways for the employee who has those attributes. More often than not, however, the way is stymied by someone else standing on the next rung. It has proven to be Alaska's gain that Tim Crawford switched ladders on the way up to managing a cleaning plant.
"Back in 1966 I was the laundry foreman at Troy Laundry" in Portland, Oregon, Crawford recalled. "There was no where to go except wait for the general manager to pass away."
He knew this was "no way to spend my life. I was too ambitious; I had too much energy."
Fortunately, his wife did more with the newspaper than read the obituaries every day. She "happened to see an ad for a drycleaner's in Anchorage. At that time Alaska was the other side of the world."
Crawford applied for the position and they "hired me as the laundry manager. But after three months they said they needed a general manager." It was a much-preferred promotion path.
Upon his relocation to Alaska he found there were adjustments to make.
"When I first worked here we got bills that said 'In US funds only'. I called Alabama for parts and they asked if we were a foreign country."
The business was a whole different animal back then too.
"That was in 1967," Crawford observed. "At that time we had about 65 workers."
But how the times have changed. Today, Alaska Cleaners has 210 employees.
"We operate a commercial laundry with two separate facilities. Our retail business and our commercial laundry have their own facilities. The retail division alone has roughly 90 people with the balance in the commercial..."
On the retail side it's primarily branch locations, he explained. But his branch sites can be widespread
"At the moment we operate 14 locations. The furthest is 350 miles north in Fairbanks. We run everything out of a central plant. We don't get too much today by airplane but 20 years ago we did a lot out of it. We have a healthy market share."
heir biggest problem is a slippage in per capita consumption. For cleaners, "the decline has been more acute. Casual dress is the principal cause and I think as the relative price of garments versus cleaning rise, it will get more acute."
Crawford said the problem is greater in Alaska because "there's a casualness about our state, a casualness about our society. When the opportunity presented itself, Alaskan firms were quick to embrace it."
Fifteen years ago Alaska (and Anchorage) had the highest household income in city over 100,00 in America. Now it's 25th. "That's had quite an impact on discretionary spending," Crawford noted.
The impact on Alaska was one "I call a secret. Many Alaskans don't realize it, but we went into a depression in 1985, acute in 1986. Unemployment was never over 15 percent because 10 percent of the population moved out of state. We've never really totally recovered from that."
Prices collapsed as condos bottomed at 30 cents on the dollar. Residential housing fell to 60 cents with 50 cents common on the commercial side, Crawford noted.
"We're just now seeing commercial property return to 1985 values," Crawford said. "We had friends who were heavily invested in real estate and, in one of the saddest cases, the wife ended up working as a maid in a hotel. They had a net worth of $5 million one day, the next day they're working in a hotel."
"Southern California take note," he warned.
His operation was fortunate as they built a commercial plant in 1984 "but we weren't leveraged."
Alaska has a service economy. Since that depression-spurred time, population has restored itself back to where it was. But in a relative sense, there was no growth.
"We're just now seeing a rise in vacancy rates in the last nine months."
Crawford is happy with his life in Alaska. And he has very warm words for Anchorage.
"It's a modern town. At the end of World War II there were only 5,000 people here. Today you'll see a modern town.
"I doubt if the highest building in town is 15 stories. There's nothing higher. Geography is given as fairly flat, with mountains on two sides and water on two sides. The neighborhoods weren't developed until the late 1950s or 1960s."
It's a tough town to keep clean -- something a cleaner must like. The reason is a "lot of glacial silt and the sand in the winter."
In answer to the inevitable weather question, Crawford offered an overview.
"A typical winter day is about 20 degrees. I've never seen it below minus thirty. We usually get two or three weeks of minus 20. The first snowfall is around the first or second week of October. That snow is pretty much gone by May."
On the typical summer day it's 63 or so with not a whole lot of rain.
Snow is variable. Some years there's a lot, some not much.
"We're well equipped for snow," he said. "If they get a heavy snowfall one night they might have to shut schools because of hilly areas around town. I live in a cul-de-sac off in the boonies. Our street's plowed the second day."
There's a lot of travel by plane. "When you get off the road you have to get in the airplane. Years ago when the jets started becoming common, people were irritated when they didn't have jet service. Now a town with 5,000 people has a jet runway with most of them paved.
Alaska has two other major population centers -- Fairbanks with 65,000 and Juneau with 25,000. After that 5,000 is a whole lot of people. There are 550,000 people spread out all over a wide area."
The history of Alaska Cleaners also involves people who came from elsewhere.
"The business was founded by two GIs in 1946. They had worked part-time for a small plant in town and then went in business together," Crawford began. "They bought a log cabin for the first plant. I have a picture of it in my office. They used an old Maytag washer and put Stoddard in it. There were 6,000 people in town with a major subsistence economy."
Then in 1989 the business was passed through to the son of each of the founding fathers. Each family gifted it to the son.
One owner is the operations manager, Gerard Harris. The other is Dana Martens, who runs the textile sales division, a direct sales business -- Alaska Textiles.
"They both entered the business, seems to me, back in the early 1980s," Crawford said.
Both of them had work experience outside the family concern. Harris owned his own business, an automotive repair shop with frame and body repair.
"Dana, I believe, worked at a bank," Crawford added. "They each had other work experience. It gave them an opportunity to learn that the nature of business is business. What we do is fundamentally the same, no matter what our service is."
"When asked what I do, I say 'I do dirty wash for a living.' What can you say to a guy who says that?" he asked.
Crawford's operation exists as a petroleum plant. They don't use perc anymore -- "we got rid of it." They've always used petroleum.
"We had our first perc unit in 1981 and removed it last year," he said. "Wished we never had it in the door."
Alaska Cleaners uses DF-2000. "It's the wisest choice, but I don't like the cost," Crawford offered. "We went with Hoyt reclaimers back in the seventies. We have 12 or 14 of the things. The problem is we always had a hard time getting the product to dry thoroughly. When we sent emissions into the atmosphere -- no problems."
"DF-2000 is odorless; it really is odorless. We've been using it exclusively for nine months and have burned up 12,000 gallons. The principal reason we went to it is we like the higher flash point."
"What we were fighting was a garment going out the door with damp pads," Crawford continued.
"What I worry about is its greater benefit and a potential Achilles heel. People don't know if their product's drying. We use a VOC vapor detector from Davis Instruments, very expensive. It allows us to quantify the dry cycle time. We were able to measure what the dry time is."
They do run into perc, however.
"We get PCE from other people's clothes. We have no spotting agents with perc."
Hazardous waste is shipped. "Our still bottoms are used in kilns for residual fuel in making cement. We still have to ship it as hazardous waste. There are no hazardous waste disposal sites in Alaska."
If he could re-live his life, what would his choices be?
"I would do it all over again. Alaska is a great place to raise a family. We have no regrets."
The man who went in the industry in Portland at age 16 because he wanted a car and whose father said "you have to get a job" has come a long way from his first job at Allens Cleaners. But he's found a place where he loves his home and his job. As he said, "You can't get enough of it."
SILVER SPRING, MD -- The International Fabricare Institute and WestFarm Technology Park Inc. signed the final agreement last month for complete settlement of WestFarm's monetary claims against IFI.
The agreement eliminates all outstanding legal bills for IFI. Nearly three years ago a jury awarded $2.5 million to WestFarm in a judgment against IFI and the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC).
Under the terms of the court award to WestFarm, the suburban sanitary commission was liable for one-half of the $3 million owed to WestFarm, a figure that includes accumulated interest since the time of the court judgment. However, as a result of a non-related court case, IFI had won a $235,000 judgment against WSSC. With this applied to the WestFarm damages award, IFI's share is $470,000 less than WSSC's. A year of negotiations with IFI insurance carriers, WestFarm, and WSSC, led to the final agreement.
"This is great news for IFI," said IFI president John Siedhoff. "This settlement -- along with our nearly concluded cleanup agreement with WestFarm and the Maryland Department of Environment -- is representative of our continuing progress with moving IFI forward and dispels the black cloud that some have claimed was there.
"A lot of work has gone into this over the past eight months -- and I would like to thank Bill Fisher for his work in getting this wrapped up, Siedhoff added."
WSSC has presented its check to WestFarm, including the additional $235,000 credited to IFI. Following discussions with an IFI insurance carrier, IFI paid its portion and simultaneously signed the agreement with WestFarm, settling all damage claims.
The next step is the cleanup process. IFI, WestFarm, WSSC, and the Maryland Department of the Environment are negotiating over that. IFI and WSSC will share in the cleanup costs which are estimated at $1 million. IFI has approximately $600,000 in escrow to be applied to these costs.
Bill Fisher, IFI's executive vice president, said the amount in escrow should be sufficient to cover IFI's share.
"We are close to the point where we can say WestFarm is behind us, Fisher said at the Southeast Fabricare Association convention in late April.
VANCOUVER, WA -- Two-day drycleaning classes will be offered in British Columbia and Georgia this month and in Missouri in July by E. Childers & Associates.
Everett Childers, Norm Oehlke and Doug Porter, all experienced instructors and educators in the drycleaning field, teach the courses.
Porter will lead the session in Vancouver, BC, June 22-23; Oehlke will conduct sessions in Atlanta, GA, June 29-30 and St. Louis, MO, July 19-20.
The course covers fibers and fabrics, dyes and trims, drycleaning technology, classification, chemicals, running procedures, basic and advanced spotting, wetcleaning and bleaching. Class time is allotted for individual consultation on equipment needs, correct operation, technical matters, wetcleaning, personnel and customer relations.
The course fee includes all instructional handout material, a copy of Childers' "Master Drycleaners Notebook," one garment analysis per student at the class, refreshment break and lunch both days.
For information on these and other classes, call Childers at (360) 604-0267.
Two wetcleaning events, both billed as "International Conference on Wetcleaning," will take place in June, one in Germany and the other in New York.
The month will also bring the first of a series of wetcleaning courses sponsored by the International Fabricare Institute in Silver Spring.
The conference in Germany will be held at the Hohenstein Institute June 17. The technical state of the art of wetcleaning in Europe and North America will be discussed in the morning after a brief presentation by Josef Kurz of the Hohenstein Institute on problem definition and objectives of the meeting.
The possibilities for the development of wetcleaning technology will be the afternoon topic with scheduled presentations on consumer behavior, the retail trade, ready-to-wear production and technology. A presentation on the US EPA's Design for the Environment program will conclude the afternoon program.
Speakers announced for the afternoon session include Nancy Cassill of the University of North Carolina; Dr. Stephen Mecheels of the Hohenstein Institute, Kaspar Hasenclever of Chem. Fabrick Kreussler and Ohad Jehassi of US EPA.
The morning session will highlight wetcleaning developments in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, France, Sweden, Austria, the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium.
Also planned is a reception for conference participants the afternoon preceding the actual conference.
The New York conference will be sponsored by Aqua Clean at company headquarters in Inwood, NY, June 7-28.
Discussions and demonstrations will center on how to wetclean different types of fabrics, wedding gowns, suede and leather as well as issues concerning stain removal, production and marketing. Negotiations with landlords and the experiences of wetcleaners in Europe will also be discussed. Those interested in attending should call Aqua Clean, (800) 381-7222.
The first wetcleaning classes at IFI using a recently installed Aquatex wetcleaning system donated by Iowa Techniques Inc. will be June 29-30. Additional classes have been scheduled for Aug. 3-4 and Sept. 7-8 at the Silver Spring, MD, headquarters the International Fabricare Institute will be held in June
The classes consist of 10 hours of hands-on instruction in which students will learn about load classification, cleaning cycles for various fabrics, hand-cleaning precautions and procedures and fiber and fabric construction and identification.
IFI instructors Anne Hildebrand and Jane Rising and IFI speaker and consultant Sue Armstrong have been trained on the equipment under the guidance of Chris Dolan and Cathy Reisner at the Aquatex facility in Cedar Rapids, IA.
Class size is limited to 24 students. Registration is $225 for members and $295 for non-members.
To register of for more information, call IFI, (800) 638-2627, ext. 144.
"The Future Uses Of Chlorine: Issues In Education, Research, And Policy," is the title of a June 12-13 conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The conference is sponsored by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Chlorine Project, an interdisciplinary program of research and related educational activities.
The conference will conclude the project's third year of work and will include the research of affiliated students and faculty.
Conferees will exchange perspectives on the future uses of chlorine with a chance to learn from and to educate decision-makers who will develop and implement chlorine policy.
The two-day meeting will include general sessions, workshops and informal discussions.
The plenary sessions will address the toxicology of organo-chlorines; public concerns about current and future uses of chlorine; how industry is responding-and leading; the use of science in environmental policy-making; and strategies for education, outreach, and stakeholder participation
Confirmed speakers include: Barbara Dudley, executive director of Greenpeace USA; Dianne Dumanoski, environmental journalist and author of "Our Stolen Future"; William Farland, director of the National Center for Environmental Assessment, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Also listed are David H. Marks, director of the MIT Chlorine Project; Mario J. Molina, MIT Professor of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences and Winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for work on stratospheric ozone depletion; W. Joseph Stearns, director of environmental affairs for Chemicals and Metals, Dow Chemical Co.; W. Ross Stevens III, manager of corporate issues for DuPont; Robert T. Watson, associate director for environment, Office of Science and Technology Policy, The White House
Workshops exploring themes outlined by the plenary speakers will be led by senior scholars and will feature papers from graduate students, faculty members, and researchers from industry and environmental groups.
General topics will include pollution prevention; environmental and human health; sources, fate, and transport; and negotiation simulation
Professionals working in business, environmental groups, government, and academia; are invited to attend. The registration cost of $200 covers registration, meals, and materials.
The conference will begin at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, June 12, 1996 and end at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 13.
For more information call the MIT Chlorine Project, (617) 253 3586.
Responding to growing interest in wetcleaning and hydrocarbon solvent cleaning, the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists has reactivated its RA 43 Drycleaning Test Methods Committee.
The committee, now chaired by Dr. Manfred Wentz of R. R. Street & Co. Inc., met in Baltimore May 7 to consider the need for test new test methods to evaluate dimensional stability of textiles in professional wetcleaning and the possibility of round-robin tests to assess textile performance in professional wetcleaning.
The group will also review nearly completed wetcleaning tests by the European Wet Cleaning committee and follow the progress of the that committee's work in Europe.
The AATCC group will asses the status of new petroleum drycleaning technology and its potential effect on the performance of textiles and review the test procedure proposed by the International Hydrocarbon Solvent Working Group.
Wentz said he was pleased by the turnout for the Baltimore meeting which drew 36 people from a variety of aspects of the textile manufacturing and care industry as well as government agencies who are interested in the work.
"It shows there is interest in what the industry is doing," he said.
Dr. Charles L. Riggs of Texas Woman's University in Denton, TX, will serve as the committee's secretary, he said.
In a letter to AATCC technical director Jerry Tew requesting reactivation of the committee, Wentz said he believes the "the structure of AATCC has much to offer to anybody seriously committed to find realistic solutions to the problems facing the drycleaning industry today."
"AATCC has the organizational structure in place to coalesce people from the textile, apparel, retail and textile care industries, educators, regulators and consumers," he added.
The International Fabricare Institute's World Wide Web site on the Internet debuted last month.
The IFI home page can be found at http://www.ifi.org.
Two other industry trade associations have changed the addresses of their home pages.
The Neighborhood Cleaners Association International now has its home page located at http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/ncai/dc2.htm.
The Illinois State Fabricare Association has moved its home page to http://www3.interaccess.com/ISFA/isfa.htm.
All three World Wide Web sites provide information about the association, general industry news and links to other fabric care World Wide Web pages.
Change is one of the consistencies of life. Adaptation to change marks the difference between a successful person and one who complains "we never used to do it this way." Textile care is changing. Of course, it has always been changing. Solvents change, garments change, styles change. Although the commercial laundry was once the star of the industry, drycleaning moved in and took center stage. We must now anticipate what sort of changes we will see in the next few years.
One piece of that puzzle is the interaction between consumer and cleaner. Route service has always been a part of the industry. We have written of highly successful cleaners who now make extensive use of routes in their businesses. The next step in the process is around the corner, a step which means connecting cleaning service delivery with that of other industries.
In Kansas City, Missouri, drycleaner David Porter has developed a plan which incorporates textile care, groceries, parcel deliveries and more into a home receiving system. His vision extends into cyberspace and to the day when virtual shopping is an everyday experience. What most people don't know is that the technology he proposes is comprised of established, off-the-shelf electronics most of us have been using for a decade or more. One part ATM, another part heat pump and a third part infrared scanner, this concept allows for a smooth pickup and delivery system for all kinds of services, drycleaners included. Imagine, the textile care industry could be ahead of the curve and not trying to play catch-up.
Textile care is a mature industry that has followed the same patterns for decades. The changes taking place in the world are creating an electronic village. Some people are afraid to visit, let alone relocate to. Porter proposes that we not only move in, but also set up our own business block and let other industries come to us. It will happen. After all, there are customers your business will serve in 20 years who have already connected to the electronic village. And they're only eight years old. That's the change. There's no going back.
It's been said many times, in these pages as well as elsewhere, and we're sure some people a sick of hearing about it. Be assured, we've had our fill of writing about it over the past decade or more.
But the problem persists, so we're going one more time around the track. It would be nice if this would be the last time.
The problem? It's those nasty charges of price discrimination that keep getting leveled at drycleaners. You know how it goes: so much for a "man's shirt" and two or three times that for a "ladies' blouse." That's about all some people need to see on a price list to set themselves off on a binge of complaints about being "taken to the cleaners."
We all know that there are sometimes good reasons why that blouse costs more to process than the shirt. But we also have to admit that cases continue to come up in which the cleaner can't really explain why the woman pays more than the man. And those cases spell trouble, sometimes in litigation and almost inevitably in bad publicity for the whole industry.
So we'll say it once again. Be sure the prices your customers pay reflect the work that you do, not the gender of the customer or the imagined gender of the garment. And make sure the customers, investigators or media reporters get good answers when they question any price differences.
Wasco, California, a sleepy little town 130 miles north of Los Angeles, is home to Wasco State Prison. This all-male institution, which houses about 1,200, is five years old and has a drycleaning and laundry school. I volunteered to visit the drycleaning and laundry class taught by Shirley Biscar.
As I drove towards Wasco I thought about all the prison movies I had seen, the latest being the Shawshank Redemption.
As a matter of fact, because of that film, I selected The Four Tenors CD to entertain me on the drive. My mind flashed on Burt Lancaster, Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney and numerous others who played in prison movies. I was going to jail, I was not passing Go and I was not collecting $200.
My first view of the prison was the guard towers and the fences with razor wire at the top. No brick walls, no Alcatraz conditions for these prisoners. Beautiful sun overhead and a clear view of the inside for me and the outside for them.
I checked in at the reception center and was escorted by Officer Lanier to the drycleaning school. This was an adventure in itself. Checkpoint one, pass through electronically controlled gates and enter a guard house, present my driver's license and be given a visitor's pass. We walked down another path through more electrical gates into another checkpoint where I presented my pass, driver's license and signed in. The electrified fence was pointed out to me during the stroll.
Next I entered the prison yard. A warning sign above the fence, alluded to the fact I was entering dangerous territory, and the possibility of disease and other bad things could occur. Basketball and handball courts and the weight-lifting yard were well utilized.
Second thoughts
Tattooed prisoners in blue pants and blue shirts or no shirts, looking and staring and then pumping iron. "I do not think I want to be here," I said to myself, then further wondered, "Why did I volunteer?"
I entered the building which housed the drycleaning and laundry school and felt better. Shirley greeted me and introductions were made. International Fabricare Institute text books are used for instruction and, depending on the student, the learning time could be as long as two years.
A perc dry-to-dry 50-lb. machine did the work though they only ran 30-lb. loads. The price for garments was 50 cents per item. This charge is to cover the cost of chemicals.
Monday through Friday the students receive one hour of classroom instruction, four hours of hands on, such as pressing, and one hour of life skills such as how to get a job in the real world. The men voluntarily go to the class and can receive 13 cents per hour. Those in attendance were considered Level 3 convicts or inmates.
The difference between a convict and an inmate is seniority. The new arrivals are inmates and the old-timers are convicts. The scale for all prisoners goes from Levels 1 to 4 with Level 4 the worst offenders. "How bad were these Level 3 prisoners?" flashed across my mind. Yes, there were a couple of murderers and rapists in the class, but by and large the majority had not committed crimes of violence.
The warden, Mr. Mike Carrillo, and the community relations supervisor, Mr. Alf Christensen, dropped in to introduce themselves. People working in the prison are state civil servants. Mr. Carrillo worked up through the system to his position.
Making it outside
Another story of achievement was about one of Shirley's students. He went to work in Southern California and when the couple he worked for retired he bought the plant and now operates a successful business.
Approximately 5 percent of the students get jobs on the outside and never return. Shirley is like a mother hen to these men and she really makes a concerted effort to prepare them to work in the drycleaning industry,
I walked the floor and talked to the men as they produced work. Yes, there are gangs within the prison. The Latinos have the Border Brothers (undocumented aliens) and two other groups divided geographically by where they come from. The Bloods and Crips are there, but a one-year-old peace treaty is working.
The bad gang is the Bulldogs, a primarily Latin group from Fresno that will accept as members whites or blacks if they are tough enough. I was getting a real education and also learning that the men I talked to wanted to know how they could fit in on the outside.
Shirley stopped the equipment operation and all the students sat around a table for a question and answer session. Topics covered were production, wages, wetcleaning, drycleaning and anything else that you can think of that pertains to our industry. As the questions and answers progressed the group warmed to me and I to them.
The main concern was, "Will someone on the outside hire an ex-prisoner?"
I was as straight as possible answering these men. Time flew by quickly and when the lunch hour arrived, I felt a real connection had been made with some of these people.
Fear changes to warmth
The warmth and appreciation on the part of these prisoners was heart-warming. There was a genuine feeling on their part I was not trying to hide the truth about hiring practices and business operations. The warmth was a two-way situation and all the doubts and fears I had when I entered Wasco State Prison were washed away with the smiles of gratitude on the part of the men.
To say that there is a feeling of hopelessness is an understatement. Most of these men just want an opportunity at a real job, in the real world, to prove themselves. Not every prisoner will make it, but those who do will be totally appreciative of their freedom and the job we provide in our industry. Hiring the people who are screened and recommended by Shirley can change a man's life. Please consider this, before saying no to an ex-convict or inmate!
My wife asked, "Would you do it again?" My response to Barbara was, "If I made the difference in one man's life, then the trip and time were well spent."
Shirley needs all the volunteers she can get. If anyone is interested in joining me on my next visit to one of the state prisons can give me a call.
The International Drycleaners Congress has announced the three recipients who have been awarded IDC Fellowships for 1996. The recipients are Colin Murray from England, Josephine Moufarrige from Australia, and Allen Gershenson from the United States.
The IDC fellowships are named in honor of IDC leaders who made significant contributions to the Association and to the drycleaning industry. Each fellowship provides $1,000 to the recipient to assist with the expense of study tours in other countries.
Murray received the George Laumann Fellowship, Moufarrige received the Campbell Redenbach Fellowship; and Gershenson received the Leroy Burch Fellowship.
The fellowship program was founded in 1985 to strengthen international understanding and goodwill by providing an opportunity for the sons and daughters of IDC members to visit drycleaning companies in other countries. The program enables recipients to observe and learn about drycleaning in other countries and to experience the life styles and customs of different countries.
During the past 11 years, IDC has granted fellowships to recipients from throughout the world, including Japan, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, England, India and the United States. Ray Edwards, president-elect of IDC, is the chairman of the Fellowship Committee.
Colin Murray
Murray, who will visit operations in the United States during his fellowship tour, began his drycleaning career when he was 16, working as a Saturday relief driver for his father's company in England.
He now owns his own business that includes two plants in Kent, England.
His parents, Simon and Elfreda Murray, are long-time IDC members. Simon Murray was one of the speakers during the 1995 IDC Convention in Yokohama, Japan.
Josephine Moufarrige
Moufarrige joined her parents' company, Bell's Drycleaners and Foxy's Fast Fotos, on a part-time basis in 1985. The company operates plants and photo stores in the Camberra and Queanbeyan areas in Australia.
She is actively involved in the business and is especially proficient in data processing.
Now studying for an associate degree in accounting, she plans to visit operations in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Her parents are Nick and Rona Moufarrige. Nick Moufarrige was President of IDC in 1993 when the convention was in Melbourne, Australia. He was recognized as International Drycleaner of the Year in 1994.
Allen Gershenson
Gerhenson is vice-president of sales for the family business, Sterling Cleaners, in Los Angeles.
A graduate of the University of California, Irvine, he had an active college career serving as president of the Inter-fraternity Council and administrative vice-president of Associated Students. He was also a Congressional intern and was listed in "Who's Who in American College and University Students."
A graduate of IFI and a board member of the Greater Los Angeles Dry Cleaners Association, he will be visiting companies in the United States and England.
Allen's father and uncle are long-time IDC Members. His uncle, Barry, is president-elect of the California Fabricare Institute.
This year's fellowship recipients will attend the 1996 IDC Convention in Edinburgh, Scotland, June 1822, to report on their experiences.
Information on the IDC Fellowship program is available by calling William Pulley, IDC executive director, (513) 523-4121.
For more information on the IDC convention and pre- and post convention tours, call the Yamato Travel Bureau, (800) 334-4982, or (213) 680-0333; fax (213) 680-2825. The international association has planned a variety of education and social sessions for the week.
SILVER SPRING, MD -- By mid-May the Olympic torch had made it as far east as Omaha, NE, but still had thousands of miles to go along a winding path to Atlanta.
Along the way, cleaners are pitching in to clean the garments of the 150-person support crew that is enabling the torch's journey.
Jim Foasberg of Foasberg Laundry in Long Beach, CA, was the first cleaner to handle the garments on the 34 scheduled stops. Up to 500 pants, 500 polo shirts, and 150 mesh bags for personal items need to be cleaned at each stop.
Among cleaners who volunteered their services along the first leg of the torch's journey were a group in Phoenix, AZ. David Link of Comet One-Hour Cleaners took control of the project there and with eight other cleaners handled the job. Plants helping out included Acme Cleaners, Regency Cleaners, Swan Cleaners, Johnson's Cleaners, Uptown Cleaners, Carriage Cleaners, Marone's Cleaners and Paris Laundry and Drycleaners.
At the next stop, Haciendea Cleaners in Pleasanton, CA, took charge. Then it was another team effort in Seattle with Corry's Fine Drycleaning, LeatherCare/Fabricare, Madison Carnolia Cleaners, Spic N Span Cleaners, Clampitt's Cleaner and Midway Cleaners.
In Salt Lake City, UT, four International Fabricare Institute and Rocky Mountain Fabricare Association members donated their time and work. They were Henrie's Drycleaning, Red Hanger Cleaners, Canyon View Cleaners and A Clean Impression.
Armstrong Cleaners provided the service in Omaha.
"Our whole plant was alive with laughter and for five and a half hours it was teamwork at its best," said Sue Armstrong.
In Wichita, KS, garments were dropped off at Best Cleaners, part of the Dryclean USA group.
The project is being organized by IFI. Before the torch relay began, The International Fabricare Institute's Fran Sadler figured out the type and size of equipment needed and the total cleaning and finishing time. IFI estimates that this donation is worth approximately $100,000 of our industry's services.
At each of the stops along the 84-day route all the relay team's clothing must be processed in less than 24 hours. The journey began April 27 and by the time it reaches the end of its run in Atlanta in time for the July 19 opening of the Olympics the torch will have passed through the hands of hundreds of runners.
Besides the 10,000 torch bearers who each cover one kilometer, the support staff traveling the entire route need to eat, sleep, and have their clothes cleaned. IFI employees Roger Schilling and Fran Sadler have been intensely involved not only in setting up the program but in seeing to the logistics of the stops and helping the member plants who are participating.
Before the start of the relay, the plum and gray polo shirts and khaki pants were tested at IFI's laboratory to ensure minimal color loss and proper finishing procedures. We wanted to give participating member plants around the country the best information on the performance of these items before they encountered any problems.
Participating members are receiving a press kit with sample press releases, technical support information and names and numbers of other drycleaners and launderers involved in the relay so they can share stories and media tips. IFI is contacting major regional media outlets in each state.
At the games in Atlanta, IFI plans to help area drycleaners sort out the international fibers, fabrics, and care labels.
For more information about the torch relay, call Fran Sadler or Roger Schilling at IFI, (800) 638-2627.
DOWNERS GROVE, IL -- The Coin Laundry Association will hold its spring workshop in Seattle June 7-9 in the Madison Stouffer Hotel.
Seminar topics on the agenda include alternative laundry income sources, lease negotiations, attendant training, waste water recycling, security and tax law considerations.
Two special afternoon seminars are planned. Coin Laundry 101 is designed to help new owners cope with the challenges of store operation. A program on multiple laundry management will look at how to run more than one coin laundry.
As an added attraction, CLA is offering a post-meeting cruise to Alaska June 9-17. The trip starts in Vancouver and sails to Anchorage.
For more information, call CLA, (708) 963-5547.
Cleaner by Nature, Southern California's first 100 percent wetcleaner, opened its doors on February 1, 1996.
The cleaner is serving as the demonstration site for the UCLA Wetcleaning Demonstration Project. Tours for drycleaners at Cleaner by Nature's Los Angeles plant began in April and future tours can be scheduled through UCLA.
The results of a year-long evaluation of wetcleaning will also be made available to the drycleaning community.
UCLA researchers from the Pollution Prevention Education and Research Center are evaluating wetcleaning's financial viability, performance and environmental impacts and comparing them to typical drycleaner operations. The test protocols and methodologies for each of these three areas of evaluation will be described in a forthcoming issue of this publication.
UCLA's study parallels as well as extends research conducted by the Center for Neighborhood Technology of a 100-percent wetcleaning operation in Chicago that uses the Aqua Clean wetcleaning system.
The Cleaner by Nature plant is using an Aquatex 30 lb. washer and a natural gas powered Aquatex dryer. While the plant is in Los Angeles, the Cleaner by Nature agency is located in Santa Monica.
At a February 6 Open House which publicly launched the demonstration site, drycleaners, government officials, and environmentalists observed a wetcleaning demonstration and listened to speakers.
Speakers included Barry Gershenson, vice president of the California Fabricare Institute, and Ung Sin Na, past president of the Southern California Korean Drycleaners and Laundry Association. Both men are members of the UCLA Wetcleaning Demonstration Project's Advisory Committee.
Robert Gottlieb, director of PPERC, Bong Hwan Kim, executive director of the Korean Youth and Community Center (which has also established a technical assistance and outreach partnership with UCLA), and Deborah Davis, owner of Cleaner by Nature also spoke at the event.
Cleaner by Nature plant manager Sharon Brown, who has 15 years of drycleaning experience, decided to work for Cleaner by Nature after attending the Open House.
Although Brown was initially skeptical of wetcleaning, she now says, "I'm amazed that I'm managing a facility that uses this process. In the past two months, I've successfully cleaned everything from designer wool suits to leather jackets."
UCLA will have a booth at the Fabricare '96 trade show in Long Beach, CA, in August.
Members of the project team will be on hand to answer questions and sign up members for tours of the plant.
Scheduled tours are being held on Thursdays at 10 a.m. by prior
arrangement.
Special arrangements can be made for out of town visitors. To arrange a tour or get on the project mailing list, contact Jessica Goodheart, (310) 206-4450.
Jessica Goodheart is project manager of the UCLA wetcleaning project. Robert Gottlieb is director of UCLA's Pollution Prevention Education and
Research Center.SILVER SPRING, MD -- The International Fabricare Institute and the Mid-Atlantic Cleaner and Launderers Association are offering evening classes in stain removal on Wednesdays and Thursdays at IFI headquarters through June 27. Classes are held from 7 to 9:30 p.m
The Wednesday night courses will be in English and the Thursday night courses in Korean. The series provides 10 hours of instruction covering fibers and fabrics, use of stain removal tools, pH scales, stain removal agents, stain removal procedures, and identifying stain removal problems.
Registration is $125 for members and $250 for non-members.
IFI will also offer a one-week stain removal course later this year.
The Sept. 16-20 session will cover the fundamentals of stain removal, including fibers and fabrics, fiber identification, care label rules, stain removal tools, agents, techniques and bleaches and identifying and solving special problems.
The cost is $350 for members and $455 for non-members.
Drycleaning courses
Regularly scheduled drycleaning courses are continuing at IFI, also.
The next basic drycleaning course gets underway July 8; the next advanced drycleaning course starts July 15.
The basic course is for persons with less than one year of experience in the industry.
The advanced course is for graduates of the basic course or for those who have more than one year of hands-on production experience.
The basic course covers elements of drycleaning, stain removal and finishing.
The basics of textiles, the drycleaning machine, cleaning and drying cycles, elementary stain removal and finishing procedures for pants, coats and skirts are also covered.
The advanced course covers advanced stain removal procedures and techniques, finishing pleats, dresses, silks and rayons, wetcleaning, bleaches, fiber identification, fabric construction, specialty fabrics, drycleaning equipment, plant lay-out, solvents, detergents, moisture, distillation, filtration and government regulations.
Tuition for IFI members is $350 for the introductory course and $700 for the advanced course. If the two courses are taken consecutively, the cost is $995.
Other starting dates for the basic course this year are August 12, Sept. 30 and Nov. 4.
Other starting dates for the advanced course are Aug. 19, Oct. 7 and Nov. 11.
Information about the programs is available from the IFI Education Department, (800) 638-2627, ext. 144.
Self-study courses
A variety of self-study courses are also available from IFI. Subjects include:
The Drycleaning and the Environment course is automatically sent to all candidates for the Environmental Certification Program and is included as part of the registration fee for that program. The cost of each self-study program is $95 for IFI members and $125 for non-members.
KANSAS CITY, MO -- The Korean Drycleaners Business Group held its inaugural meeting in Missouri May 1112 with 35 industry members attending the two-day event. The participants represented 15 state and regional associations.
The group opened its working program with a tour of the Utilicorp United headquarters in downtown Kansas City.
Utilicorp is the energy company with whom the group deals. After the tour, four executives answered cleaners' questions on a proposed natural gas purchase program for KDBG members. Among the participants was Utilicorp vice president of commercial markets Van Bedell.
The sponsors of the meeting included Utilicorp United, Korean Drycleaners Times president Jin Oh Hwang and CNS Leasing's John Kim.
The regular business session started immediately after a tour of the corporate meeting rooms.
The discussion began with Moon Chong Chun acting as the moderator. He is president of the Korean-American Dry Cleaners Association of Connecticut and chaired the business group's meeting committee.
Chun and Max Oh have been the driving force behind the business group. In the first order of business, Oh was nominated and endorsed as the group's president.
He accepted the nomination and the members approved his election after discussion. A point highlighted by some members were fears that Oh's election might indicate a split in the Korean community.
The contention was a fear that the group and federation identities may be at best confused by those not familiar with the situation.
He responded by telling the audience "KDBG will be a separate organization. However, it will be very supportive of the Federation of Korean Drycleaners Associations, not the other way around. It will not divide FKDA and I have no intentions of it" doing so.
He left the door open for a candidacy as FKDA president. However, he made it clear that he has no reason to be the president as long as the "opposition group" will shake hands with his group.
Oh will remain an advisor to FKDA.
A presentation of another program was also included on the Saturday agenda. John Kim, the president of CNW Leasing, presented a program to the business group.
He told the group members that CNW will give rebates to the KDBG when one of its members gives the company a productive lead.
As for the business group's plans, Oh said the gas program will move forward. The New York association is an early enrollee as is Korean Drycleaners Association of Greater Washington, which plans to expand into Virginia and other areas. KDA of Chicago is another group which is in the process of participating.
The business group plans to add other programs, such as electricity and telephone services. Although some of these utilities are not yet deregulated, the group is looking at its long-range plans.
The next day, a quorum for a federation business meeting was achieved and that group sat to discuss federation business. "This directors meeting became the official board meeting of FKDA," a participant said.
One order of business was the resignation of current federation Hank Kim, who has been ill for a number of months.
A federation member observed that the board "decided not to elect a new president of FKDA.
They decided to declare at Yellowstone that they do not recognize or approve of Hung Pai Yi as the next federation president." The meeting referred to is the annual general assembly meeting, planned this year for Yellowstone National Park.
Byung Il Cho is chairman of the federation board and presided at the Sunday board meeting. Byung Chul Cho of Chicago assumed the FKDA presidency with Kim's resignation.
By consensus, the participants said FKDA's presidential election will be held Labor Day weekend.
"Both contending groups will likely agree to nominate one single candidate and there shouldn't be any election which may result in a division of FKDA," a board member said.
"They have to negotiate for the unity of FKDA at the board meeting in September. Both sides need to elect a new president."
The participants gave special thanks to Jin Oh Hwang, Max Oh, Moon Chong Chun for their work over a number of months in organizing and making the meeting a reality.
The drycleaners business group is now planning a meeting in the fall to bring members together to discuss the developments it unveiled in Kansas City.
Although technology in the workplace and at home might evoke images of complex devices, Kansas City drycleaner David Porter is out to prove otherwise with a proposed home delivery system called "Smart Box."
The idea evolved from his realization that the Baby Boomer generation doesn't have enough time to get everything done. Home pick-up and delivery systems are a time saving solution, but the sticking point has been how will the service and a customer transact business? Porter points to a cabinet-like box which he calls "secure, climate-controlled and electronically networked." In short, it's his "Smart Box."
A promotional flier shows the box, with a key pad on the door, attached to the wall of a garage. A delivery person is walking up the driveway with a parcel. Underneath is a caption which reads "Groceries, drycleaning and more -- right to your home."
The question is, how does it work? Porter explains.
"You're at work and you decide you want groceries. You go to the grocery store's web site and you pull up your list. Now you're cruising the aisle and you fill your basket. You go to the end, check out, click in your identification number."
Not only have you completed and paid for your purchases, but a message has been sent to your Smart Box to activate the cooling unit. The delivery is made by a person who can access your box.
Off-the-shelf hardware
Fantasy? Hardly. It's all from common off-the-shelf technology available today. For example, take the cooling unit. There's a company in Traverse City, MI, called Telurex Corp. that has a unit. The Z-Max unit powers an Igloo-brand camp-type box. With miniature refrigeration and heating capabilities, it fits the bill.
"Take that ability for cooling and heating, add a controller with an input device and a Smart Card infrared scanner for access," Porter continued. There's the basics of the Smart Box.
The box can have controls so both the consumer and the vendor know a package has been delivered. All this is generally and specifically outlined in the patent application. The only unique thing is the technology combination and the home site.
People are getting acclimated to using technology to buy items. QVC on television and virtual stores and mail order on the internet are just basic examples of how purchasing habits have changed.
"Assume I don't have to go to Wal-Mart. Let's assume I can order anything I want through the Internet. I can't get to the store but UPS can deliver," Porter explained.
From an economic standpoint, the cost has to be justified by the savings it will allow, and in academic studies Porter has reviewed, savings come through two prime commodities -- groceries and laundry.
In the case of a Smart Box, the cost cutting offered by the product is time. The big factor is to create a process to get the item to the drycleaner.
"Add marketing potential that takes away risk," Porter called it. "Then you find out how much people like doing laundry."
At a meeting Porter recently attended, he participated in a session called "How to Commercialize Your Invention."
"The consensus seems to be the easiest way to get this thing floating would be to make some large manufacturing company interested in it. They manufacture it so it's accessible by multiple vendors," Porter said. "It's got to be seen as an appliance that some major manufacturer can take a hit on. My major function is to make it visible to the point where some major manufacturing company takes an interest in it."
The future market
Laundry work, he contended, is the big market for the future. In two surveys -- April 1992 and June, 1995, he asked: How much do you enjoy laundry? He found that consumers don't like it and they value their time high enough that they'd jump at the chance to have it done. There's a huge market waiting to be tapped.
"The big thrust is the growth market in laundry," Porter predicted. "What you have to do is construct it so it minimizes damage to traditional markets."
If the money generated from changes in cleaning process doesn't come soon enough and if the market gets less formal, murmurs will turn to screams, he warned. "The potentiality to take the opportunity is upon us."
Porter has pursued this project for months. In a February, 1996, letter the U. S. Secretary of Energy Hazel O'Leary, he explained how the Smart Box is an important adjunct to low cost commercial wash processes.
"We believe that regardless of how efficient any new commercial wash-process can be made, it must also be accompanied by new technology allowing convenient and efficient distribution," Porter wrote. "Fortunately and coincidentally in this area of emerging 'cyber commerce,' we believe that enhanced distribution capabilities will also be needed by most any industry wishing to sell consumer goods on-line."
He describes his device "as a secure, climate-controlled and informative closet attached either on, by or through-the-wall of a home." The advantage a homeowner enjoys is the savings on trips to the store which waste time, money and energy.
Survey shows support
Porter supports his idea with the results of two surveys he conducted between March 19 and April 22. He received 434 responses from approximately 1,750 contacts.
The overwhelmingly message derived from the survey is that the Smart Box is a good idea. A significant number of people added that they wanted more information on the product. Concerns ranged from size to matching the home's exterior. Price also appeared in a number of the responses.
The key factor is the buying public. Given a growing consumer base which is comfortable in cyberspace, the Smart Box technology is no more alien to them than a radio. Porter's premise is if the cost can be contained and the consumer values his or her time, then the market will embrace the idea.
When writing an order for alterations, do not create a confusing term for your tailor. Here are some examples.
Confusing: Take 2 inches out of the waist.
Understandable: Make waist 2 inches smaller.
Confusing: Let out waist 2 inches.
Understandable: Make waist 2 inches larger.
Confusing: Take up pants 2 inches.
Understandable: Shorten pants 2 inches.
Confusing: Let down pants 2 inches.
Understandable: Lengthen pants 2 inches.
Confusing: Taper pants 2 inches.
Understandable: Taper each leg 1 inch double, 2 inches total.
Confusing: Hem skirt 2 inches.
Understandable: Shorten skirt 2 inches.
Confusing: Take in sides 2 inches on skirt.
Understandable: Taper skirt 1 inch double, 2 inches total, each side.
Confusing: Taper skirt 2 inches.
Understandable: Taper skirt 1/2 inch double, 1 inch total, each side.
Confusing: Take up sleeves 1 inch or Take up cuffs 1 inch.
Understandable: Shorten sleeves 1 inch and move buttons accordingly.
Confusing: Hem buttons one inch on angle.
Understandable: Shorten pants one inch, with slant.
Tip #2: Watch the temperature in your boiler stackMost of us are lazy when it comes to our boiler's stack. We take for granted that everything in the stack is OK but what we don't know is that the stack temperature is critical to economical boiler operation.
The formula is: The temperature of the average steam pressure plus 125 degrees F. is the maximum temperature that would be going into the stack. The average steam pressure is the pressure reading (psig) when the burner cuts off, (Example: 100 pounds) added to the pressure reading (psig) when the burner cuts back in, (Example; 90 pounds), leaving an average pressure of 95 psig (190 divided by 2 = 95).
The temperature of steam at 100 psig is 337.9 degrees F, and the temperature of steam at 90 psig is 331.6 degrees F, making a total of 669.5 degrees F. Dividing 669.5 degreesF by 2, we get 334.75 degrees F. Adding 125 degrees F to 334.75 degrees F equals 459.75 degrees F, or 460 degrees F normal stack temperature.
Temperatures of steam at various gauge pressures are:
Gauge Pressure Steam Temp (F)
70.3 316.25 degrees
80.3 324.12 degrees
90.3 331.36 degrees
100.0 337.90 degrees
110.3 344.33 degrees
120.3 350.21 degrees
Note: A very high steam temperature above normal stack temperature would indicate too much scale on the water side of the tubes or too much soot on the fire side of the tubes.
Insulate your stack portion which is in the boiler room and insert a long stem stack thermometer (dial-type with large numbers) into the base of the stack about six inches above the boiler flange. The insulation will retain the heat and avoid over-heating the room.
Some plants install a heavy-duty stainless steel water coil in the stack 12 inches above the base thermometer to pre-heat incoming cold water. This will cut your energy bill for heating water considerable but, just like another heat exchanger, you must require enough hot water supply to avoid an overheating of the (cold) water to the water heater due to the stagnant water contained in the coil when there is no demand for hot water.
While there is no demand, the incoming city water can be bypassed around the stack by using electric valves controlled by a wall switch.
Boiler stacks take a lot of punishment from excessive heat and outside contaminants, etc. It is, therefore, recommended that a heavy gauge rolled steel be used instead of the usual cheap galvanized sheet metal.
Tip #3: Have all the tools for proper maintenanceMany times you have to tighten the hold-down bolts to your drycleaning machine, replace a screw in the cover plate to a switch, clamp two small items together after they have been glued, replace a small part, etc. Other times the wall panel has thrown its nails and hangs down, a cleaning machine needs grounding, a small piece of tubing needs cutting, etc.
You have to pull maintenance per the equipment manual quarterly, semi-annually and annually. And daily cleaning machine maintenances includes cleaning the lint filter to the condenser (and beyond the front with a vacuum cleaner), cleaning the button trap, cleaning the pump strainer (get one if you don't have it), cleaning the pre-lint filter (cartridge system), etc.
Every week NESHAP requires an inspection of the rear of the cleaning machine for fugitive leaks of perc vapor. This may require you to simply tighten a cover or a fitting, which may require the use of certain types of wrench.
Here is a comprehensive list of tools that you need for your complete tool inventory.
Tools & supplies
Oil and grease
Miscellaneous
I had the pleasure of reading a chronology and personal histories of two of our great industry leaders.
I say "great" for not only what they have accomplished in the past five decades and under many trying challenging circumstances, but also for the fact that they have managed to influence and somehow bring out the greatness in all of us.
If you even take the time to talk to some of their followers, you will hear the same tributes.
"If it weren't for Stan Golomb and Bill Seitz, I doubt if I would be enjoying the good life and success that I and my family have been privileged to experience."
This column would not be long enough to list the many people whom they have advised and the businesses that have flourished by heeding their advice during their illustrious careers of the past 50 years.
What also pleases me is that they have no intention of slowing down, stopping to smell the roses or resting on their laurels. Thank the Lord.
There are a some personal stories that are so typical of both of these gents and they give flavor to what it means to be altruistic. I am only relating two such incidents, but both stand out as showing the kind of unusual people theses men are.
A matter of prioritiesIt was classy and had all the earmarks of a win-win situation. I closed this well thought out and careful presentation with the words: "Bill, this is good for Bill Seitz, Ray Colucci (I was capitalizing on our 30-year friendship), good for my company, good for NCA and membership and good for the drycleaner!"
You know what his answer was?
"You have to reverse your priorities! It has to be good for the drycleaner only! All the others, including you and I, are the very last to be considered."
I think that has been his creed and he has said it so often, that it cannot be described as a "secret" of his success. If you wanted his support on any issue, you better start with, first, what will be the drycleaner's benefit, then the membership or the industry, but always the individual cleaner.
To this day he continually preaches the importance of being professional and that no one went out of business by offering too much quality.
What saddens me is that as strong as the message is given, as important as it has become to "stand up and be counted" and support your associations, we still have those who are too blind to see. They feel they can go it alone and not take advantage of the multitude of services, the technical research and the strong continuous representation to our legislators that the association offers.
I was also impressed by the description of Bill as Vince Lombardi from his right-hand man, Tony Terrell, who gave a "look inside the man and his dedication" in a recent article. It's typical of both these men and the people who surround them that it seems dedication and enthusiasm are indeed contagious.
A helping handI guess we always remember the low parts our lives and the uncertainties of what tomorrow will bring. I, of course, went through such a period and although I was confident something would turn up it was Stan to the rescue!
Not only did I get a new position with more benefits and support but two of my fellow regional managers were also hired with starting increases in salaries.
It might seem like it was a small act of a recommendation and a well placed phone call to the right party, but it was much more. There were several detailed interviews that were conducted, each in a different distant city, and always under scrutiny.
Stan acted as a protective advisor, freely giving his time and encouragement each step of the way. I'll never forget it.
As I started out by saying, there are hundreds like me who will long remember the generosity of spirit when they needed a boost the most. It was gents like Bill and Stan who came to the rescue.
Fortunate are we who read and follow their advice. I know of no one who has a pulse on our industry better than these two individuals who freely give predictions that are always right on target When I inquire, "How do you do it?" they modestly say they know people who are smart.
I would be remiss in this article if I didn't praise the staff and the dedicated people who work daily with Bill and Stan. Dedicated is really too soft an expression to describe these individuals.
I have the pleasure of dealing with most of them. They all possess that air of harmony that you find in all successful shops. They like coming to work and almost say "Hooray, It's Monday!" instead of "Thank God It's Friday!"
That seems like a small tribute to these two leaders, but it goes a long way in showing appreciation to the people you work for and your co-workers
It's the 50th year of the Neighborhood Cleaners Association, now the Neighborhood Cleaners Association International, and very close to the 50th year in the industry to both of the fine gents who rose from humble beginnings and starting at the very bottom at the menial tasks of working in a drycleaning plant.
Unfortunately, I couldn't be at NCAI's anniversary celebration last month due to a commitment made over a year ago, but I will certainly be there in spirit and raise my glass and say "Salute" and, as my father would say, Chendanni! (wishing 100 years).
Prespotting by definition is any stain removal done before the garment is entered into the drycleaning machine.
Prespotting provides many advantages such as:
The agents used for removing stains before drycleaning are the same as those used after drycleaning.
Tannin stains. Acids and tannin formula.
Protein stains. Alkali and protein formula.
Dryside stains. Alkali and protein formula.
Soil removers. Oily type paint remover (OTPR) and amyl acetate.
Soil removers. Drycleaning solvent and drycleaning soap.
Ground-in soil. A) Moisture stock made up of an emulsion of solvent, drycleaning soap and water. B) Spray spotter are specially formulated water-based detergents Prespotting with detergents is commonly used on light-colored soiled garments, especially rainwear, denim, chinos, silks and corduroys. Wedding gowns and delicate fabrics are best prespotted because of the limited cleaning time required and hard ground-in soil (hem or train) that requires special treatment.
Prespotting problems
Many routine spotting procedures are misused and result in color and fabric damage. The chart at left shows problems that frequently occur due to faulty spotting.
Rules of prespotting
Conversely, acid that has affected color may be helped by neutralizing with a mild alkali, Otherwise, discoloration occurring in prespotting can rarely be corrected.
Fabric Problem Cause
Silk Color Loss,bleeding 1. Protein formula and ammonia
Wool 2. Paint remover and water
3. Drycleaning while wet
______________________________________________________________________________
Linen Color loss 1. Dryside and excessive
Cotton Color change mechanical action
Ramie 2. Tannin formula; acetic
Denim acid; general formula;
rust remover
______________________________________________________________________________
Acetate Color loss 1. Paint remover and water
Color change 2. Tannin formula, general formula
______________________________________________________________________________
Light colors Redeposition 1. Drycleaning while wet or
or damp
______________________________________________________________________________
Wool Shrinkage 1. Drycleaning while wet
or damp
Last month I told you about the Golomb Group and how it came into being. Now I'm going to tell you about a breakthrough of extreme importance that I think will revolutionize the drycleaning marketing process.
The key to understanding the value of a market area is demographics.
Let me define a market area for a drycleaner operating out of a fixed location. The same rules apply to drop stores or multiple plants since each location is a focal point and must survive on it's own.
I have to qualify my next statements because there are always exceptions to rules. For instance, there are markets in rural areas that draw from great distances. As a result, I will use the word, "most," to qualify my statements.
Fact: Most cleaners draw the bulk of their business from a one-mile radius of their plants.
Fact: Most cleaners draw the remainder of their business from the second mile ring. The second ring is larger in area than the first mile ring, but closer to competition that exists in all fair to good market areas. In this illustration, we're dealing with markets that are contiguous to other markets so plants as far as three miles away from our site will draw into our market area.
Fact: All plants draw beyond the two-mile radius but this represents a small percentage of total sales.
We've always known this and for the past dozen years we have been able to buy information showing us the number of homes in each mail carrier route surrounding the site. We have also been able to find how far away each carrier route is but we never knew the specific area the mail carrier's route covered. We knew the distance from the site but could not locate the area without contacting the post office and identifying the location.
A breakthroughWe can now print a map showing each mail carrier in a different color and the drycleaning and shirt laundering potential of each individual mail carrier route, which represents about 300 to 500 homes.
This tells you at a glance where the money is. Once you know where the big customers are, you can go for the "Big Tunas" and not waste time or money going after the minnows.
We know that all customers are not created equally. The Declaration of Independence puts it this way:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."
From a business standpoint, we know that those people who were created equally have gone on to become whatever level their adult life takes them to. Some are very successful, some struggle all their lives, while others can't make it for whatever reason.
Without being mercenary about the nature of the market, we know it's the successful people who represent the biggest customers and support most drycleaning plants.
The successful people have the income to afford a large wardrobe and the cost of maintenance that goes along with it.
For that reason, we find that one Heavy Hitter, High Roller, Big Tuna, or whatever you wish to call them, can and does spend 50 times as much as a small customer. I'm not downplaying those who don't qualify for Big Tuna status. But the facts are that a small group of these Big Tunas represent 50 percent of all your business.
To show you what this means in numbers, let's use an example of a drycleaning plant doing $6,000 a week in sales. This plant is typical and their average customer will spend $100 a year. They have some 3,000 customers on their active list, times $100 each, equals $300,000 in yearly sales.
Out of the 3,000 customers, only 150 will qualify for Big Tuna status, and they will account for half the total sales, or $150,000 annually. The remaining 2,850 customers will provide the other $150,000, to bring the total sales to $300,000.
Now we can go one step further and call on the infallible 80/20 formula meaning simply that 80 percent of all sales are provided by 20 percent of the customers.
Knowing this, we can concentrate on going for the Big Tunas and sorting out the top 20 percent of all customers. We can treat them differently so they know that you know who they are and appreciate the fact that they are special.
Now that we have this demographic breakthrough, we can easily identify those who have the ability to support a business at a higher level.
Don't worry about the 80 percent of your customers who have been giving you 20 percent of your sales. They will use your services when they need them and there is no reason to reward them for their patronage, other than to provide them with your usual good quality and service and treat them with respect and dignity. They will continue to use your services but it is imperative that you look after the 20 percent who support your business.
Once again, I'll repeat that all customers are born equal but the difference that takes place over the years is of great importance if you run a business in a fixed market where your ability to generate and keep big customers is the basis of your success.
At the Golomb Group, we look at all drycleaning businesses in a fixed market as having a total market potential and success is based on percentage of market share. This is a fascinating study, because some cleaners have a small market share while others dominate their market with the lion's share.
Now, with our computer breakthrough and ability to map out an area and define the total market potential, and then establish the cleaner's share of that market, we have passed the first hurdle in knowing how to increase market share.
This may sound complicated but it is really basic and simple and is the reason our members have enjoyed growth and prosperity over the years.
Meet the directorHe was born in West Africa. His parents were missionaries and he lived in the Republic of Niger on a deserted French Foreign Legion post right at the edge of the Sahara Desert.
Bill speaks several West African dialects and from time to time gets into a taxi driven by a Nigerian. He quickly identifies their accent... then blows them away by talking to them in their native tongue.
As a youngster, Bill lived the dream life of an adventurer. He hunted every kind of animal and, as he got older, he motorcycled all over the country, even through the desert. At one time or another, he had just about every kind of animal for a pet.
He lived and played with the natives and grew up with them as his friends. His early training took him to a boarding school for American children, which was 1,000 miles from home. He saw his parents only three months each year... at Christmas and summer vacations.
He attended two high schools in Canada and then graduated from high school in Nigeria. He worked his way through six years of college and graduated "summa cum laude" from Trinity College in Deerfield, Illinois.
Among his many special abilities, Bill is an exceptional basketball player, a talent which earned him a position on a United States overseas basketball team. For an entire year, he played in countries around the world... Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Thailand, the Philippines and Viet Nam, just to name a few.
At times, the schedule called for as many as three games a day. It was a grueling routine but there was always enough free time to visit the host countries. As a result, Bill had the opportunity to experience and learn about a variety of different customs and cultures.
And then drycleaningBill was managing a chain of restaurants and met an enterprising drycleaner by the name of William Reichardt. Reichardt was building a chain of drycleaning package plants and convinced Bill to help him create this empire. This quickly grew to 18 plants. Bill's job was to build the plants, hire and train the help and manage the operation. He did an outstanding job and was earning a very substantial income, but at the same time, Bill's two sons were growing up without a dad. He was putting in about 80 hours a week and he opted for a more sensible lifestyle.
For several years, he sold drycleaning machinery and, with his creative mind, saw a need for a special product. He invented a plastic material that could be extruded into forms for covering speed rails. This product is called SuperGlide and you may even have it in your plant.
Unfortunately, the company Bill was with was undercapitalized and it was at this point that Bill and the Golomb Group got together.
I had known Bill for years and did business with him when he managed the Reichardt chain. We also had adjoining booths at the Clean Show in Las Vegas in 1991 and that was when we started negotiating with Bill to join the Golomb Group.
He has now been part of our company for four years and is doing an outstanding job. He handles all our demographic studies, places our advertising and manages all our direct mail promotional material. If you'd like, you can obtain a sample of a newly designed wear strip for flat bar speedrail. Just call and ask for a free sample of "Zip-Strip."
In addition, he consults with many Golomb Group members on a day to day basis on the phone.
He now will assume some of my duties, but because we have such an efficient staff, we won't take him away from his family for more than 50 or so hours a week.
Bill is someone you should know so don't hesitate to call and get acquainted.
Because of Bill's computer expertise, he was able to dig out the sources and the software needed to do these new demographic studies. This required a major investment on our part for color printers and software that is updated every month for accuracy and postal route changes. Even though it's a major investment on our part, we feel it provides important data that will help any cleaner easily understand his or her market and act accordingly.
For more information, you can contact Bill at the Golomb Group address below.
Conditions of use are those things that occur to the garment as it is worn.
Conditions of use include things like rips and tears, missing buttons, worn areas, faded spots and stains, oxidation, sun fade, water spotting, perspiration, cigarette burns or holes, torn or worn button holes, broken or bent buttons, torn seams, hard or brittle hide, heavily soiled, holes in pockets, and faded areas.
As you can see from the preceding list, many of the conditions that occur in the use of a suede or leather garment by its owner are the same or similar to those conditions that develop on many of the cloth garments that are worn.
Therefore, as a drycleaner, you are intimately familiar with most of the conditions of use that you will encounter on suede, leather and fur garments when they are brought in to you for cleaning.
Even if you never clean a suede, leather or fur garment yourself, you should become consciously familiar with the conditions of use that you may encounter when a customer presents you with one of these garments.
It is important that you examine the garment to determine if any of these conditions of use exist at the time the garment is presented. Failure to do so carries the same consequences that you face on a cloth garment that you accept at the counter.
Specifically, responsibility for the garment is yours once you accept it. Regardless of whether or not you will be cleaning it yourself or send it out to a wholesale professional leather cleaner.
Just as in cloth garments, once the customer leaves the store any damage that may be noted will become your responsibility if you haven't pointed it out to the customer at the time it was left with you.
Just as in cloth garments, if you don't catch the damage at the counter, you will get the same reaction from the customer on suede, leather and fur.
You may hear complaints such as "You burned a hole in my coat!" or "You lost my buttons!" or "You tore my jacket!" or "You faded my garment!" And just as in cloth garments, you will be held responsible in a monetary way for those conditions of use that you should have noticed when the garment was brought in.
So it is important that you make a determined effort to examine every suede, leather and fur garment that comes across your counter and point out conditions of use that exist to the customer before he or she leaves the premises.
Then, instead of having to make restitution for damage, you will be able to charge extra for the repair, replacement or correction of such damage that was, in fact, caused by the customer during the course of use of the article.
The next training session at the Royaltone Suedemate Leather Cleaner Center in Tulsa, OK, will be Sept. 12-13.
Change has become an ever increasing factor in today's high speed world. It is more and more difficult to maintain our focus as caretakers of the world's vestments.
The greatest change-related problem is that our market, itself, is changing beneath us. Our survival will depend on our finding a new idea or, at least, a repositioning to carry us forward -- be it wetcleaning, a return to the central plant concept, or whatever. Repositioning is the only solution to our problems.
Although the physical repositioning of our business will be gradual and ultimately accomplished over a number of years, it is important that we advance, immediately, to a repositioning in the minds of the consumer.
This is the only place where service businesses actually live or die -- the mind of the consumer. If we do not maintain a position of importance in the mind of the consumer, then we cannot exist.
As the master marketer, Jack Trout, says in his new book, The New Positioning: "When the market makes up its mind about a product (our services), there's no changing that mind."
Western Union has tried for years to change its perception in the twentieth century. The consumer's perception of Western Union as the old-fashioned telegraph company is as strong as ever.
Xerox lost millions trying to convince the market that Xerox machines that didn't make copies were worth the money.
No one would buy their computers.
Volkswagen dropped 60 share points, trying to convince the market that VW wasn't just a small, reliable, economical car like the Beetle.
No one bought their big, fast cars.
Coca-Cola blew both prestige and money in an effort to convenience the market they had a better thing than The Real Thing.
No one bought their New Coke.
Most people think Japanese electronics are superior. So when researchers put a Sanyo label on an RCA home electronics device, they asked 900 people to compare its performance to the same product with the RCA label. Seventy-six percent said the Sanyo product was better.
So, now, the question is: Has the marketplace made up its mind about perchloroethylene or about drycleaners as we are known today?
I think it's safe to say they have made up their minds about perc.
I think it's safe to say that because Bill Seitz of the Neighborhood Cleaners Association and Bill Fisher of the International Fabricare Institute, along with other leaders of our industry, have entered into a signed agreement with Greenpeace to that effect. And doesn't Greenpeace claim to be conscious of the "everyday man" and the protectors of the earth?
Obviously the leaders of our largest associations would not have made such a concession except for the fact that they realized the futility of expending thousands of additional man-hours and hundreds of thousands of additional dollars combating public opinion.
As to the second part of the question. Has the public made up their minds (negatively) about drycleaners,?
Fortunately, the jury is still out on this question. Fortunately, we still have the chance to reposition our profession as a viable entity in the new world of casual wear.
Fortunately, the new generation of casual-wear professionals do not take a casual attitude to their health. And our place in the new world order will be what we abbreviated our names to many years ago:
Cleaners.
This past April I had the privilege of participating in NEFA's Fabricare Image '96 trade show which was held in Marlboro, MA. The NEFA staff did an excellent job with the entire show, especially the seminars.
Christa Hagearty, the human resources director of Dependable Cleaners who presented a seminar entitled "Personnel Policies for Interviewing and Hiring," has given me permission to use her material for this column. Her presentation was outstanding and is one example of why everyone who is interested in growing their business should attend these shows and take advantage of the wealth of information that is available.
For most of us, the task of interviewing prospective employees is about as much fun as a getting a root canal. The reason is that we don't really know the right way to do it -- and we are never quite sure if we have picked the right person for the job. These interviewing guidelines won't eliminate all the pitfalls in hiring, but they will definitely improve your interviewing skills. Hiring the wrong person is always extremely costly.
In the job interview, you are trying to determine the suitability of a candidate for a particular position. To do this you need to gain more and better information from the applicant and you need to give the applicant better information about the job.
When you accomplish this you will improve the retention rate of new employees because you will be making better selection decisions. To do this properly you need to be prepared.
Preparing for the interviewInterviewing
Interviewing do's and don't's
Interviewing questions
Here is a list of some open-ended interview questions that will help you to avoid some common interviewing pitfalls and at the same time give the applicant an opportunity to express his or her ideas and feelings.
Work experience
Personal factors
Attitude toward the job
The most important thing is to hire someone who has a good attitude and a positive work ethic. These qualities can be determined during the interview if you are willing to listen. It is easier to hire someone who likes to deal with people and teach them how to use a counter computer than it is to teach someone with technical skills how to smile and get along with your customers.
Remember, in the game of business, the more you know the better you can play the game.
After five years of writing this type of column, I thought I would let you know a little about who I am and do some reminiscing about our industry with an eye toward where we are going. It has been said that if you want to see into the future you may need only to look into your rear-view mirror.
I am simply an old-time drycleaner, like many of you, who just loves to talk shop. This media is a wonderful place for me to do just that with thousands of wonderful people who have similar interests to mine. I hope to sometimes stimulate you and I appreciate the feedback that comes my way.
This week I was talking to a clothing retailer about the nature of our respective industries and how change has affected our businesses.
I told him how distressed I was of the many store closings in our area. Many old-line fashion clothing stores have disappeared, the type that sell items that come across our counter. In the malls, for the first time ever, we have between 10 and 20 percent vacancies.
In contrast to this, drycleaners and other service businesses continue to open and make it increasingly more difficult to make the type of money we were able to in the past. His response took me back when he stated, "Maybe we just had it too good and got spoiled."
As they say, the only thing that stays the same is that things will always change. I speak to many people in the general workforce who have been affected by change and are having a hard time dealing with it.
In contrast, small business owners like us are accustomed to dealing with adversity, ever changing problems and a broad variety of challenges. I believe this tends to strengthen us and allow us to deal with the challenges better than most.
Yes, things are changing. But let's look at some changes we have handled in the past.
Delivery delayed indefinitelyHere are some for the old-timers to remember and the newcomers to wonder about.
...Remember when polyester was introduced to the consumer as the new miracle fabric that would keep them from having to go to the cleaner?
It just did not deliver
...Remember when buzz words were tried to sell more garments like wash and wear and easy care, like the striped seersucker suit?
It just did not deliver
...Remember when the Nehru and leisure suit was the rage (check your closet -- did you save any of those electric blue, pink or lime green beauties) which promised to change our dress code, just like they are trying today with casual wear?
It just did not deliver
...Remember when tailors, like my grandfather, opened a small shop where drycleaning was sent to a big wholesaler and returned rough then he did the pressing but had no control of the cleaning quality?
It just did not deliver
...Remember when perc was touted as the new miracle where drycleaners could give one hour service on site with a safe solvent unlike it's predecessors (petroleum and carbon tetrochloride) that improved the service and quality to the customer like never before. The customers knew the butcher, the baker and the drycleaner personally. This spurred big chains to think they could do poor quality drycleaning for give-away prices and make it up in volume?
It just did not deliver
...Remember when everything really did dryclean better, back then garment labels did not have to say items could be drycleaned and it was assumed. Our associations supplied terrific promotions that said "no matter what the label says everything drycleans better."
Sadly an influx of newcomers to our industry did not back up these claims that were well intended. Quality was terrible and the label law was changed so customer could have freedom from the drycleaner.
It just did not deliver
...Remember when you knew you were in a drycleaner when the place reeked from perc fumes, spills were common and filter powder, muck and Darco were everywhere?
It just did not deliver
...Remember when we delivered, then with the need for the two-income households everyone said that delivery service was a thing of the past?
We stopped delivering
...Remember when employees finished their work on their own, quickly, in a productive manner, knew that the company survived only when it made a profit, and then asked is there anything else the could do to help?
...Remember when you worked to reach that break-even point, made a 10 percent profit and reached the gravy volume where you could make 50 percent on the next level of work? Our figures were something like this: $200 earnings on $2,000 volume, then another $250 profit on the next $500, and we lived comfortably on it.
Today many small retailers are being threatened by big, mass merchandisers and are fearful of their existence. Then you hear of a local hardware store or other retailer that perseveres with personal service and know-how that the big guys can not deliver.
We have many competitors in plants, drop stores and, worst, bobtailers who come and go regularly. They think that they can take away business from established professionals by offering low prices, since this is all they have to offer.
Remember that customers may come for price but they stay for service.
If you think you can work cheap and make it up in volume think of where this thinking is misplaced in our industry. Mass production manufacturers make items in our price range like beer, cigarettes and a variety of consumer products. The big difference that most cleaners do not realize is the production capabilities of those mass producers that allow them to sell items at such low prices.
A new micro brewery opened in my area that will be bottling 70 bottles of beer a second on a production line. Cigarettes and bottled household products are produced on a line in the rate of thousands per minute. Many cleaners shirts are massed produced and that we can sell them for a similarly low price of under one dollar, I say impossible.
I believe a big downfall in our industry is that people forget we are really a hands-on service. We should be crafting a product to a higher quality level than the customer can do at home. We should never hear what I heard to my dismay last week from a customer that "a blouse you drycleaned just did not look good so I washed it at home and it looked great."
We have to stop depending on those "sorry" tags to tell our story and explain to customers there is always more we can try although there may be risks. They will never know if we do not tell them. Make a phone call to discuss your service with a customer if necessary.
Underused resourcesI believe our industry is now in turmoil, but will rebound as it has in the past.
Like in the 1970s, the strong are surviving and prospering, while the marginal cleaners are making last-ditch efforts to hold customers with shirts laundered at 99 cents or less. The cleaners I have spoken to who are giving superior quality and service are holding their customers, although per-customer spending is down. Many are having record growth in their pick-up and delivery business.
Many quality cleaners offer restoration of items damaged by other cleaners. Some cleaners are establishing relationships with clothing retailers and other cleaners for this type of service.
Imagine building a reputation as the "cleaner's cleaner," one who can fix problems, not cause them. We have found building this type of relationship to be a slow and hard project. For the cleaner who is in this business for the long run, it is a rewarding service.
The clothing stores are desperate to find good cleaners. Our industry has developed a love/hate relationship with clothing stores, but we need each other.
If you have been working on building a relationship with retailers, be persistent. If you have a chance, catch a seminar by Joel Swetlow about building relationships with customers and retailers. You will not regret it.
Solve problems. Be a hero.It took many calls to the manufacturer, talking to several people, until finally reaching the owner of the company. We had a productive talk and he promises to make good on the problem. We discussed the issues of vanishing pinstripes and reactive dyes and tearing oxford shirts.
We will look like a hero, we hope, to the customer and create a problem-solving relationship between us, our trade associations and the manufacturer. I will keep you posted on how this plays out.
I just read a story about the original survey that uncovered employees are more comfortable and productive in casual wear. It was done by Dockers brand who used it tremendously to their advantage.
In contrast the NCAI has a story that the air of professionalism has deteriorated in these work places.
Unfortunately this has not yet reached the general public, since it does not have the clout of Levi Strauss. But I believe it might after a conversation I had with a new customer of mine. Her family runs a minority-owned business and found that they have to try harder and look better to get the customers' respect, and they are, thanks to the hard work of the cleaners they have used.
It is up to us to improve the image of drycleaners. Let's work together with our associations to raise the impression the public has of us as the vital service that we are
W. H. "Bud" Emerson, a past president of the California Fabricare Institute, and his wife, Christina, were killed in an automobile accident May 3.
At the time of his death, he was president of Emerson-Lamay Cleaners in Pacific Palisades, CA, and was Division 7 director for the CFI board. He had served the industry in California for many years and in many roles and was an active member of the Greater Los Angeles Dry Cleaners Association.
A native of Texas, Emerson first came to California to see his alma mater, Southern Methodist University, play in the Rose Bowl on New Years Day, 1936. He was a Californian from then on. After working for a while as an accountant, he slipped into the drycleaning business when he pitched in to help out an in-law for a time.
Deciding that it was a good business to be in, Emerson started with a pick-up drycleaning store and a route, eventually building Emerson-Lamay Cleaners into a top-of-the line operation with a celebrity clientele that over the years included such names as Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Dick Van Dyke and Kris Kristofferson.
Emerson built his reputation by always trying to "the best" cleaner in the area. He recalled in an interview in 1988 that when recession hit the industry in the 1970s, more than half of the cleaners in his market area went out of business. He attributed his survival to a commitment to quality work and attention to details..
In an era when many cleaners abandoned route service, Emerson expanded his. "I just went out knocking on doors," he recalled in that interview. "You get friendly with one customer and that leads to another."
Involvement in the Chamber of Commerce led to some of his celebrity contacts. It was through the Chamber that me met Jerry Lewis who was serving as honorary mayor. Lewis introduced new customers from the "movie people" community to Emerson's business.
Emerson was active member in the International Drycleaners Congress, serving as that organization's USA Southwest director.
Emerson was also an avid horseman, making time nearly every day to ride, and he was a member of the Santa Monica Mounted Police.
The Emersons had been married 56 years. Christina was retired from Warner Borthers where she was an executive secretary and she was a member for the Artists' Auxiliary.
The accident that took the couple's lives occured on a winding, two-lane road. Their motor home, approaching a sharp curve, careened into an embankment, flipped on it side and burst into flames. A passing motorist attempted to rescue the Emersons but was forced to turn away when his pants caught on fire. He was not injured.
The California Highway Patrol said the vehicle was completely engulfed when an officer arrived on the scene within two minutes of the accident. It took firefighters 20 minutes to douse the flames.
The Emersons had no children but there are many surviving family members in addition to many friends within the industry.
A memorial service was held May 13 at Trinity Baptist Church in Santa Monica. CFI vice president Barry Gershenson spoke on behalf of drycleaners.
A memorial fund will be set up in Emerson's name and will be handled by GLADCA with an IFI scholarship to be awarded from the fund. For information, contact Jackie Smith, (714) 897-5858.
Obituary: Ernest O. Fahlfelder Jr.
Ernest O. Fahlfelder Jr., a drycleaning and equipment repairman for over 30 years in the Washington, DC, area, died recently.
Born in Washington in 1943, he was described as one of the best mechanics in the business by Bill Bogus of Textile Restoration Services. His "shop on wheels" displayed a sign that said simply, "Ernie's Repair" and it was by that name that he was known to most people. He was a private person and many of his customers did not even know his last name, Bogus said.
He always responded to his callers who left messages on his answering machine. "He loved his tools and he loved his work," Bogus said.
WASHINGTON, DC -- Two textile care associations in the Washington, DC, area offered cleaners separate programs last month.
Neighborhood Cleaners Association International garment analysis expert Dan Eisen was the featured speaker at the Dry Cleaners Association of Maryland meeting in Baltimore last month.
The Mid-Atlantic Cleaners & Launderers Association sponsored a program which introduced area drycleaners to training facilities available in Silver Spring.
DCAM executive director Mark Klitenic said Eisen's talk was well received by attendees.
"We had 33 people attend the meeting," Klitenic said. With the schedule adjusted to four or five meetings a year, he has found that anywhere from 30 to 70 people now show up for the programs.
DCAM can be reached at (410) 581-1400.
MACLA co-sponsored an open house in early May with the International Fabricare Institute at IFI's Silver Spring headquarters.
"Guests were given tours of IFI's building, including the educational lecture and practicum areas, the garment analysis laboratory and the research department," the hosts said. During the afternoon mini-seminars on wetcleaning and the Clean Air Act were conducted in both English and Korean."
IFI reported that three dozen guests attended.
MACLA and IFI noted that seven allied trade companies helped sponsor the event.
MACLA executive vice president Dave Norford participated in the program along with IFI vice president for membership Richard Ehrenreich. Also attending from MACLA were association president Don Coleman, Ed Boorstein and Richard Selleh.
IFI's Jane Rising presented the wetcleaning program while Ehrenreich did the clean air presentation. Sam Choi provided translation into Korean for the two.
MACLA can be reached at (703) 222-9828.
WILLOW GROVE, PA -- The Pennsylvania Drycleaners Launderers Association reports that booths for its Oct. 12-13 trade show are almost sold out.
Laundry and Drycleaning Expo '96 is the biennial equipment exhibit for the group. Its return to Atlantic City for a second consecutive exhibit seeks to duplicate the 1994 effort which saw more than 250 booth spaces leased.
Seminars are planned for Saturday and Sunday mornings. The Saturday session focuses on the nuts and bolts of drycleaning while Sunday's agenda looks at emerging technology.
The Sunday session includes a panel discussion on wetcleaning. Panelists include Ann Hargrove of the Greener Cleaner in Chicago and Tom Medlin, national sales manager for Multimatic.
For details, call PDLA, (215) 830-8495.
WILLOW GROVE, PA -- The Central Pennsylvania Drycleaners Association has announced its meeting dates and locations through the fall. The association is a local trade group.
The June 20 meeting will be held in York, PA, hosted by Jack Smith.
The featured speaker for the June meeting will Wayne DiBartola, vice president of EG&G Environmental, a Pitsburgh-based technology and systems integration company. He will discuss in-well remediation of perc in ground water.
On July 20 members will attend a Harrisburg Senators baseball game followed by a family picnic.
The summer golf outing will take place Aug. 22 at the Briarwood Country Club in York. It will include a pig roast, steamed crabs and chicken dinner at the awards banquet.
Rick Weber will host the Sept. 19 meeting in Harrisburg.
On Oct. 17 members will gather in Lancaster with Al Nabring serving as host.
The November meeting is set for the 20th with Nancy Delp hosting the meeting.
CPDA had a special guest speaker at its April meeting when Jane Zellers filled in for the scheduled speaker. Zellers brought along her bag of "garment disasters" which she used as examples of what can go wrong in the textile care process.
Alan Hohman is president of CPDA. He can be reached at Chelsea Cleaners, (717) 560-9985.
SPRINGFIELD, IL -- A gender pricing bill in Illinois which would ban drycleaners, tailors and hair stylists from charging different prices for services to men and women failed to make it out of a state senate committee. The measure, which passed in the house of representatives, would have made price discrimination a violation of the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act.
State representative Coy Pugh of Chicago authored the bill and received support from both Democrat and Republican lawmakers, some of whom cited their experiences with pricing policies on men's and women's garments.
State rep. Charles A. Hartke said his wife told him of her problems.
"I couldn't believe it," he said. "I don't think it's fair that they do that. That's just inherently unfair."
Another state representative said he hopes the measure cause drycleaners to change their business practices.
A third opposed the measure because he feels the marketplace is where the issue can be settled. He said people who feel unfairly treated should take their business elsewhere.
The Illinois State Fabricare Association board of directors examined the problem as a fair pricing issue. ISFA executive director Jinelle Walker said the association "is on top of the situation" and is working on developing a program to deal with fair pricing.
Illinois drycleaners have also responded to the issue.
In a letter from Evans Cleaners to state senator Larry Bomke, drycleaner Jim Rusciolelli said "our industry is trying to deal with environmental issues and now we have to deal with gender issues. The bottom line is this: women's blouses made from cotton that can be pressed along with men's shirts will be. Other blouses that have to be hand finished... will still be hand finished."
The Fabricare Legislative and Regulatory Education program has issued guidelines for pricing work. FLARE advised cleaners "to show that extra large and small garments can be more difficult to clean and press and certain fabrics require more work."
Walker said the association would continue to watch legislative developments and work on educating consumers regarding the process of textile care and cleaning processes.
LANSING, MI -- The Michigan Institute of Laundering & Drycleaning has announced its summer program agenda.
In addition, MILD said the 1996 Great Lakes Drycleaning and Laundry Expo is planned for Oct. 2527 in Novi, MI. It will be held in the Novi Expo Center. The program includes the institute's 83rd anniversary celebration at the president's banquet at the Sheraton Oaks Hotel.
The MILD board of directors will meet on June 8 to discuss institute programs and developments.
This year MILD has targeted three areas of growth for itself: membership, education and public relations.
"Everything else we deal with will fall somewhere within these committees or combination of committees," MILD executive vice president Merry Bering said. "We have spent the winter rethinking, reorganizing (and) regrouping MILD to meet the needs of our membership and meet the 21st century head on."
Bering said there is room for anyone who wants to participate in the organization's activities.
Also on June 8 the first annual MILD golf outing will be held at the Marion Oaks Golf Club in Howell, MI. The tournament is an 18-hole scramble. Call MILD, (517) 337-2909, for details.
Five mid-west textile care trade associations have joined forces in the development of the 1996 Upper Midwest Fabricare Convention plnned for Sept. 2729 in Rochester, MN.
The Wisconsin Fabricare Institute, the Minnesota Fabricare Institute and the Iowa Fabricare Institute are presenting the show with the support and endorsement of the Dakota Fabricare Association and the Nebraska Fabricare Association.
"National and regional experts will present seminars on fabric cleaning and business management topics," promoters said. "The conference features a trade show, with exhibitors from all parts of the United States, representing the best ideas in the business."
The Radisson Hotel Centerplace in Rochester is the headquarters hotel with the exhibition scheduled for the Rochester Civic Center.
Room blocks for attendees have been set aside. For details on the show, call the sponsors, (612) 290-6279.
OMAHA, NE -- Neighborhood Cleaners Association International executive director Bill Seitz was the featured speaker at the Nebraska Fabricare Association annual spring meeting.
Seitz headed two sessions at the gathering. The first was an examination of wetcleaning and its "comeback" in the textile care industry. The second was an overview of recent developments in the industry.
The NFA board of directors also met during the annual meeting. It heard a report from Fabricare Legislative and Regulatory Education group representative Barney Deden of Omaha.
NFA will hold its fall meeting in Omaha Sept. 21-22 at the Ramada Inn Central. A live finishing seminar is planned it to coincide with the meeting. The seminar will be held at Camelot cleaners.
For details on NFA, call executive secretary Jerry Freeman, (402) 556-2217.
NEW YORK, NY -- The Neighborhood Cleaners Association International is soliciting the drycleaning community for someone seriously interested in opening a petroleum solvent plant in New York City.
"It has always been taken for granted that there are very few highly populated places where you could open a new petroleum solvent drycleaning plant," NCAI said. From what it could tell, the petroleum sites in such areas were the results of a "grandfather" clause.
But the increased interest in petroleum as a solvent option runs into a roadblock with cleaners trying to comply with today's laws. With the introduction of Exxon 2000 petroleum solvent with a higher flash point and improvements in petroleum drycleaning machines, cleaners can now go into new territory.
In the interest of testing the petroleum climate, NCAI is looking for a volunteer with a serious interest in opening a petroleum solvent which would use the Exxon solvent. The plant could be in any of the five boroughs and in a commercial mixed-use building or strip shopping center.
"You should be serious about buying and installing a modern petroleum machine and using Exxon 2000 solvent," NCAI added.
The association warned that "there will need to be approvals from the building department and the fire department, at the least."
It did say that "NCAI and Exxon will be working with you to get it done."
NCAI associate director Jerry Levine is coordinating the program for NCAI. Any cleaner interested in installing a petroleum unit as a test site should contact him at (212) 967-3002, ext. 228.
On a side note, NCAI observed that petroleum cleaners may be gaining advantages from the negative publicity perc use has endured in the past few months. It cited "low-key" advertising one petroleum-using cleaner used which does not incite against perc but asks customers to "call our professionals with any questions or concerns."
Whether the ad was "a self-defense or for gaining volume... we think the ad did not add any fuel to the fire," NCAI observed. The association has been monitoring media for anti-perc messages and advertising.
WAKEFIELD, MA -- The North East Fabricare Association has a new meeting format called Talking Shop which it hopes to implement throughout its membership area.
The meetings include an educational program, dinner and a social hour. Twenty locations would be scheduled throughout the northeast, with each site having two meetings a year.
"The topics will vary depending on timely issues, locations and speakers," NEFA said. A NEFA representative will attend every meeting and deliver an update on association and industry activities.
The first three sessions will be held in New York state. NEFA Executive vice president Peter Blake will discuss the status of proposed air regulations.
NEW YORK, NY -- Plans for the Green '96 trade show in Ellenville, NY, on July 18-19, are proceeding well, a spokesman for the show said in late May.
The Korean Drycleaners Association of New York is the host, with assistance from KDA chapters in the northeast including the New England, Connecticut, New Jersey, Philadelphia, District of Columbia, and Maryland association chapters.
The Nevele Conference Center in Ellenville, NY, is the site of the convention and exhibit.
"This is an upscale production," sponsors said. "We hope to make this a huge festival."
Congressman Jay Kim is the show guest of honor.
For booth and show information, call J. C. Choe at (212) 545-1815.
WAKEFIELD, MA -- The North East Fabricare Association board of directors has reconfirmed its support of a national drycleaners remediation fund. It also restated its of "IFI's support of the national coalition's fall back position of a 'moratorium' in the House of Representatives."
NEFA expressed its opinion that "a national remediation fund proposal is still alive in the Senate with perhaps a 50 percent success factor."
In addition, the association complained that "protest against the fund from a vocal but small segment of the industry tested NEFA's resolve to continue its endorsement."
At present, the only drycleaning site-related bill in Congress is the one offered by Rep. Joe Barton of Texas.
SAN ANTONIO, TX -- A General Fabricare Course will be offered by the Southwest Drycleaners Association at its school in Denton, TX., June 17-28.
This two-week course covers a wide range of essential fabric care topics, including counter operations spot removal, drycleaning finishing, drycleaning technology, wetcleaning procedures and equipment, boilers, compressors, vacuums, and proper padding of drycleaning and laundry presses.
Also covered by instructor Stan Caplan will be bleaching and dye stripping and setting, digesting, dye and fabric testing, laundry washing and finishing and purchasing and installing equipment.
Tuition is $475 for SDA members, $530 for other IFI members and $605 for all others.
All courses at the Texas Research Center for Laundry and Drycleaning combine classroom lecture, class discussion, demonstration and hands-on experience using the equipment.
Jane Zellers will be at the school to teach the Wetcleaning Fancies and Fragiles course July 17-21.
The course will review spotting agents and techniques and discuss the difference between washing and wetcleaning, how certain fibers react to water versus drycleaning, finishes and fabrics, construction of a garment and how it relates to serviceability, fibers sensitive to alkalies and acids, bleaches for restoration, understanding stain removal agents, digesters, finishing, wetcleaning and restoring wedding gowns and the role of mechanical action in working with fragile garments.
Students should bring three garments to work on in the class.
Tuition is $295 for SDA members, $380 for other IFI members and $430 for all others.
The school schedule resumes in the fall when Caplan returns for the Sept. 27-29 course in Finishing Drycleaned and Wetcleaned garments. This course covers finishing basics and characteristics, units and accessories, maintenance and proper padding of presses and training techniques. Students with no experience will be taught both by the instructor and experienced students so the experienced students can learn concepts of training.
Tuition is $295 for SDA members, $380 for other IFI members and $430 for all others.
A Spotting and Drycleaning Procedures course will be offered Oct. 2-6. Topics covered include spotting basics, spot removal, fibers to fabrics, finishes, wetcleaning procures and equipment bleaching and dye stripping, dye settings and digesting.
Tuition is $295 for SWDA members, $380 for other IFI members and $430 for all others.
A Fibers and Fabrics Workshops will be taught by Zellers Oct. 15-18. The two 1 1/2-day sessions are designed for customer service counter personnel as a review of all the steps in processing.
Tuition is $117 for SDA members, $144 for other IFI members and $174 for all others.
For registration and other information, call the SDA office, (210) 826-4684 or fax (210) 826-6423.
ATLANTA, GA -- Members of the South Eastern Fabricare Association have elected T. Ronald Garrett Jr. of Lexington, South Carolina, as its new president. Garrett assumed office at the Southern Drycleaners Show in Atlanta April 26-28.
Garrett is a second-generation president of SEFA. His father, T.R. (Tom) Garrett Sr., served in that post in 1986 as part of a 10-year stint on the association's board of directors.
Ron Garrett started his industry career working for the Johnson Group which had purchased his father's business in Beaufort and Hilton Head, SC.. Ron helped develop a 10-store operation into a 25-store business in Savannah, Charleston and Myrtle Beach.
Four years later in 1988 he purchased Lexington Dry Cleaning Inc. in Lexington. In the next five years the business grew to four package stores, 10 dry stores and one coin laundry.
Father and son became business partners in 1993 when they purchased a three-store operation called Village Cleaners. With the addition of the Sunshine Cleaners group, the company now has 22 locations in the Columbia area.
Ron Garrett is a graduate of Clemson University with a B.S. in financial management and the International Fabricare Institute. He is active in Rotary, the Lexington Baptist Church and SEFA.
Clean Team clinics
SEFA also announced that its Clean Team begins this month with stops in South Carolina and Georgia.
The Clean Team Clinics will feature the Mystery Shopper program with Sue Armstrong, an independent industry consultant with 25 years experience in the business. She operates a five-store drycleaning business in Omaha, Nebraska.
The shopper segment "is designed to teach the fine points of customer courtesy and sales techniques on the phone and over the front counter," SEFA said.
As part of the seminar, telephone calls will be placed to selected drycleaners during which she will ask about services and pricing. All calls will remain anonymous and some will be recorded for later discussion.
The Clean Team clinics in South Carolina will be held June 11 in Charleston, June 12 in Columbia and June 13 in Greenville.
The Georgia sessions will be June 18 in Savannah, June 19 in Columbus and June 20 in Atlanta. Florida and Alabama programs will be held in September.
The programs are free for SEFA members and their employees.
SEFA will have a special meeting in Charleston at the Francis Marion Hotel on July 1114 to discuss legislation..
Participants will include the SEFA board and the South Carolina Dry Cleaning Council, of which Ron Garrett is president. Call SEFA, (770) 998-9900, for more information.
RALEIGH, NC -- The North Carolina Association of Launderers & Cleaners has developed a wet cleaning course which will have its debut in June.
"We have not set specific times," NCALC executive director Steve Winzeler said. NCALC member Lindley Smith of Snow White Cleaners will teach the course. He is an IFI certified speaker.
"The class is a half-day course designed to update owners, managers and workers on the latest fabrics and the wetcleaning possibilities and technologies," Winzeler added. In preparation for the program, the association wrote a book specifically for North Carolina cleaners.
"We put a great deal of effort into getting wetcleaning off the ground," Winzeler said
NCALC also has a respite in its legislative efforts. The legislature is holding its short off-year session but no one can initiate legislation during this session. NCALC will have to wait until 1997 to work on any new bills in which it has an interest. The association will publish a legislative overview this month.
For information on NCALC programs, call (919) 850-0707.
ST. PETERSBURG, FL -- The annual Gulfcoast Fabricare Association drycleaning survey has been completed and released, GFA's Mark Krekorian announced recently.
The survey looks at 46 trends within the industry and compares them over a five year span. The data includes prices, income movement, route services, employee salary and benefit packages and projected equipment purchases. Other information includes association affiliation, sales programs, supplier use and major concerns of industry members.
Krekorian reported that some of the "most interesting or notable responses and changes" the survey reported included no returns from new owners of plants, an increase in the number of drop stores, a decrease in gross receipts and increased computer use. This will ease off in the future, he observed.
He also noted that more cleaners are offering health insurance, pay scales continue to increase and transfer units "are just about a thing of the past." Krekorian also said that dry-to-dry vented machines are also on the way to extinction.
The report has been an on-going five year project of Krekorian. He has included data from the previous years for comparison. GFA executive director Lou Lawrence has copies of the report. For a copy, call GFA at (813) 527-3151.
LONG BEACH, CA -- Kelleher Equipment Co. has announced that it will offer state-required training classes at its headquarters in Long Beach.
The eight-hour courses will be led by John Kelleher who has been certified by the California Air Resources Board to teach the environmental training classes.
Dates are June 23, July 6, July 21, Aug. 10, Aug. 25, Sept.. 7, and Sept. 22. Hours for the classes will be 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Kelleher Equipment Co. is located at 2121 Curry St. in Long Beach. A driver's license or legal identification is required to receive the certificate of completion.
For more information, call Kelleher Equipment, (310) 422-1257. California is requiring that all drycleaning facilities have at least one "trained operator" on the premises by Oct. 1. The training courses are also offered around the state by various trade associations and allied trades companies. A schedule of other dates and locations can be found on page 66 of this issue of National Clothesline.
Classes to help cleaners meet California's new requirement that all plants must have at least one operator certified as having completed a course on safe environmental procedures are continuing.
Plants have until Oct. 1 to comply with the requirement in order to obtain or renew drycleaning permits with local air districts. A shorter refresher course will be required every three years after completion of the initial class.
The training, part of the California Air Resources Board's Airborne Toxic Control Measure, includes a review of drycleaning machine operation and maintenance during the six-hour course. Instructors certified by CARB will be used in all classes.
The California Fabricare Institute, local trade associations, allied trades firms and the state itself are moving quickly to offer as many opportunities as possible for cleaners to take the training course. Classes will be offered in Korean to serve the many Korean-American drycleaners in the state.
The following schedule of courses has been announced by CFI:
Fresno: June 22, July 27, Aug. 17, Sept. 14. Contact Bob Blackburn, (209) 781-4731.
San Mateo: June 22, July 27, Aug. 10, Sept. 28. Contact Marti Ketzler Russell, (415) 593-3646.
Oakland: June 8, July 13. Contact Marti Ketzler Russell, (415) 593-3646.
Sunnyvale: June 15; Aug 3. Contact Marti Ketzler Russell, (415) 593-3646.
Greater Los Angeles: June 27, 28, 29, 30. (Held at Wyatt Bennett Equipment Co.) For information, call Bobby Smerling, (310) 394-6102.
The training will be offered in Korean by the Korean Drycleaners Association of San Diego on June 9 at the association's office in Oceeanside. For information, call Mr. Pyoung Min, (619) 721-6833.
Additional course dates have been announced by Kenney Slatten, a cleaning and laundry consultant based in Oceanside, CA. Those include the following:
San Diego: June 8 and 22; July 13 and 25; Aug 8.
San Francisco: June 22.
Slatten also said that the training course will be offered on Monday, Aug. 12 in Long Beach, the day after CFI's exhibit convention concludes at the Long Beach Convention Center. The training program will also be discussed and explained during the convention itself.
The courses will be offered at other locations and dates as the process of getting cleaners in compliance with the new regulations continues. Prices vary depending upon who is sponsoring the course. Regardless of the sponsorship, all instructors must be qualified by the state to give the course.
More information on the courses and updates on the schedule are available from the CFI office, (916) 443-0986, or local trade association offices.
The training requirement is part of drycleaning regulations enacted by the state in 1994. The requirement stipulates that drycleaning machine operators be certified as having completed a course on safe environmental procedures.
California's air rules are more strict than federal rules in several areas. The state is requiring that all perc transfer machines be replaced by October, 1998. Dry-to-dry ventilated machines that were not converted to closed-loop units by April, 1996, will have to be replaced by new, closed-loop machines by October, 1998, too. All new plants in California must use closed-loop machines.
Cleaning plant operators are also supposed to conduct a weekly leak detection program using leak-detection equipment, not merely by visual inspection as required by the federal air rules.
A series of seminars on stain removal will be sponsored by the International Fabricare Institute in three western states in July.
The seminars will cover fibers and fabrics, stain removal tools, agents and procedures. Techniques for the removal of watermarks and sizing rings and special handling of unusual fabrics will also be covered.
The cost is $99 for IFI members and $129 for non-members. The fee includes instructional materials, a take-home workbook, lunch, breaks and a certificate of completion.
Participants who register 30 days in advance will receive a copy of IFI's "The ABC's of Stain Removal,"
In California, classes will be held July 13 at Kelleher Equipment in Los Angeles and L.C.I. Machines in San Francisco; classes on July 14 will be at the Quality Reports in San Diego and the Best Western Ponderosa in Sacramento.
The California seminars are co-sponsored by Kelleher Equipment Co., L.C.I. Machines, John Taylor Systems and Workroom Supply.
In Oregon and Washington, classes are being planned for Portland, Eugene, Seattle and Spokane.
For information on seminar locations and to register, call IFI's Education Department, (800) 638-2627, ext. 144.
GIG HARBOR, WA -- A peculiarly regional spotting problem came up in a recent course conducted by Jane Zellers for the Northwest Drycleaners Association.
More coffee drinks are consumed in Washington State per capita than any other, so the question came up and spotters learned how to remove this increasingly common stain from latté drinkers' garments. Slug slime, less appealing but still another regional stain problem, was also addressed.
The spot removal seminars, along with a series of finishing seminars, were held in Boise, Idaho, Anchorage, Alaska, and Seattle Washington in May. The technical seminars were the first ever organized by the Northwest Drycleaners Association to service its expanded region. Zellers reviewed basic techniques, some tricks of the trade and advanced information for spotters and finishers.
Future seminars are being planned based on membership demand. For more information, call NWDCA, (206) 851-6327 or fax (206) 858-2013.
SACRAMENTO, CA -- The California Fabricare Institute reports that exhibit space for its Aug. 9-11 trade show in Long Beach has been selling at a record pace with only a few prime spaces remaining.
The Fabricare '96 show at the Long Beach convention Center will feature operating equipment demonstrating equipment using petroleum solvent and other new solvents, CFI said, along with the newer wetcleaning technology.
The show will also debut a new electronic lead tracking program that will be available to all exhibitors. The system lets exhibitors quickly capture important information about booth visitors and makes post-show follow up much simpler, according to show manager Cheryl Demetriff.
The trade show is taking place as part of the association's 75th annual convention. Educational and social programs will be presented as part of the three-day program with special attention going to helping cleaners fulfill the new state-mandated training requirements.
Registration materials will be sent to prospective attendees soon. For more information, call Demetriff at the CFI office, (916) 443-0986.
Sam Choi is the new Korean Liaison at the International Fabricare Institute, taking over after the departure of Dan Chu in April. Choi, who owns a drycleaning plant in Beltsville, MD, will help IFI's membership department in communication, program development and public relations with Korean-American members. In addition to experience in drycleaning and business, Choi has worked in international relations, public relations, publications and financial administration. He is a member of the Korean-American Businessmen's Association of Greater Washington, the League of Korean Americans, the local Rotary Club and Chamber of Commerce and the Better Business Bureau. He will be able to use his language skills to communicate in Japanese or Korean on technical questions when members prefer to use one of those languages. He will continue running his business while working part time at IFI.
David Adelman has joined the Southern California staff of Wyatt-Bennett Equipment Co. Inc. in Los Angeles. A business graduate of CSU-Northridge, he has 11 years of experience in technical sales and service management. Jack Bennett, president of the company, said he expects Adelman to be a valuable addition to the staff as the company finds itself in a position to expand in California's economic revival.
The Matrix Business Group Inc. announced that is has purchased "substantially all the assets" of Dynaclean Distillation Systems Inc. and Dynaclean Holding Co. on behalf of a group of investors led by William Morrison. The company said that the investors concluded, after researching the drycleaning market, the industrial maintenance market and other markets that use distillation process, that the Dynaclean Distillation process satisfied requirements of both EPA and OSHA for most municipalities. The process produces less than one part per million in emissions and eliminates the need for filtration and hazardous waste disposal while attaining perc mileage of 1,200 to 1,800 miles per gallon, the company said Chemical, mechanical and electrical engineers along with a marketing team familiar with the textile maintenance industry are working to improve the design and output of the still, the company added. Corporate offices are located in Marion, IN, phone (888) 438-3962; a regional sales office will be located in Charlotte, NC, phone (800) 766-6717. The company noted that the azeotropic still concept is protected by various patents registered in the United states and other countries.
HANOVER, MD -- IPSO's Micro-20 electronic control lets laundry operators meet requirements for many fabric and soil conditions. After loading the machine, the operator selects the desired program and pushes the start button. The entire operation is automatic through the wash, rinse and spin cycles as determined by the program. A digital display shows the selected program and the time remaining. Programs can be modified to specific needs in any configuration of cycles -- a special soak cycle for heavily soiled garments, for example. IPSO washer/extractors are compatible with most commonly used automatic supply injection systems that can be connect to the machine without opening it. A coupling at the rear of the washer connects liquid supplies to the soap box. An electrical terminal, also at the rear of the washer, allows quick connections for electrical impulse to the supply injectors. IPSO washers are available with capacities from 12 to 125 pounds in standard and high-speed solid mount models and ultra-high-speed soft mount models with extract speeds up 1,000 rpm. Stainless steel is used for the cabinet front, top and sides and the entire tub and cylinder on all models. The three-compartment air gap soap box with a stainless steel lid allows use of liquid or powder fabric softeners along with detergents. All models come with a 24/60 warranty. The WE234/4, a solid-mount machine with 640 rpm extraction, is a popular model for washing shirts. Its 8.25-cu.-ft. basket provides a true 50-lb. capacity and its 1.060-lb. weight makes it among the largest machines in its class. In addition to the Micro-20 electronic control, IPSO washers are available with a 10-button manual control or a PC30 fully programmable microprocessor control.
----------MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- Omega Cleaning Systems is introducing two new high-production petroleum drycleaning machines. The PS series, a new petro-saver reclaimer, is a totally closed, refrigerated, fully automatic machine. It needs no water so a chiller is not needed, either, the company said. The PF series is a high-speed, soft-mount washer/extractor. The machine develops 190 Gs in the extraction phase so garments are nearly dry when removed. Omega said the machine can process two loads per hour. The company said both machines are certified 100 percent explosion proof class I division II by "a nationally recognized laboratory."
Circle 106 Information Central
COLD SPRING, KY -- Fabritec International's Stamford Divisions has received a patent for its Unibrite Premeasured Concentrated Detergent Tubs. The tubs contain only concentrated detergent and moisture, no solvent. The tubs are composed of the same material as sizing. The sealed tub is placed on top of the dry garments at the rate of 1 tub for up to 40 pounds of garments. The cleaning cycle is then run in the usual manner. When perchloroethylene solvent contacts the tub, it is partially dissolved in second and the detergent is released. The tub then is totally dissolved in five minutes. The tubs are shipped 60 in a carton along with complete instructions. Fabritec said Unibrite tubs produce uniform quality and eliminate the needs for test kits.
----------COLD SPRING, KY -- Fabritec International has announced two new wetcleaning products available exclusively to its licensees. Elegant Care by Sanitone is for delicates and fine washables and Casual Care by Sanitone is for khakis, chinos and polo shirts. Casual Care and Elegant Care laundry services solve consumers' problems of what to do with clothing labeled "Do Not Dryclean" while eliminating the task of daily washing. Sanitone said this opens a new niche market for the drycleaner. Free advertising materials are also offered to licensees who use the detergents.
----------DORALVILLE, GA -- Super OK Signs offers signage with interchangeable messages and colors that use less electricity than neon and are easy to install and maintain. Signs are available in sizes ranging from 27 inches long, 6.65 inches high to 33 inches long and 24 inches high.
----------OMAHA, NE -- ThermoTie headbands and neckbands can be used by employees in shirt departments and finishing departments or others who need to stay cool while working in hot-temperature areas. The cloth bands are filled with a special material that is put to use by soaking in cold water for 30 minutes. The band stays cool for six to eight hours and no moisture is felt on the skin.
----------FRESNO, CA -- JMS Enterprises Inc. has developed the Super Shirt Collar Shaper which can be used after pressing to shape a shirt's collar into a like-new position, just as it looks when it comes new from the store. Both the collar shaper and the companion cuff and sleeve holder can be imprinted with the cleaning store's name. They were developed by a drycleaner who processes 250 shirts a day and who found that by presenting customers with a more professionally looking finished shirt he could get a higher price for his work.
----------ELGIN, IL -- A brochure to help cleaners determine if they are receiving proper value for their investment in waste handling services in relationship to the environment is available from Safety-Kleen Corp. "What Happens to Your Hazardous Wastes: A Buyer's Guide to Pollution Control" uses a reverse pyramid approach to present the best techniques and practices for protecting the environment. Readers can compare their current program to what experts believe are the most effective means of managing wastes. The brochure discusses 'reasonable price" in terms of environmental solutions to waste handling and explains how Safety-Kleen's "full disclosure" policy can benefit customers. Examples of affordable techniques in solvent recycling, oil refining and waste reclamation are presented in the brochure. Also discussed are liability issues and the volumes of local, state and federal regulations that control waste disposal. Safety-Kleen serves more than 400,000 customers in North America and Europe through a network of 236 branch facilities.
----------DALLAS, TX -- Clean Concepts is providing professional wetcleaning and drycleaning products from Europe to the U.S. market. Wetcleaning products include Veit finishing equipment, Seitz detergents from Germany and Schulthess professional wetcleaning systems from Switzerland. Full training is supplied with each system. Schulthess wetcleaning systems provide matched washers and dryers from a single manufacturer, a 150-year-old company located near Zurich. Seitz products include a complete line of detergents, spotters, sizing and waterproofing. All systems are sold with Seitz products but they are not required for use. Veit equipment is especially suited to wetcleaning operations because of its tensioning capability and can reduce labor costs while producing professional-looking garments. Clean Concepts was started by John Tipps who has been a plant owner, distributor and most recently vice president of Boewe Passat Corp. Distributors are being appointed around the United States to provide service and parts for the company's products.
----------IRVINGTON, NJ -- Des-L bridal chests contain acid-free inner constructed of acid-free board to surround the bridal gowns in an acid-free environment. Shipping and storage cartons enclose the entire unit. Each bridal gown chest has gold-seal labels, a Bust-A-Form, a poly bag for bridal accessories and a customer identification label. Heavy storage bags over master cartons provide extra protection. The fully assembled bridal chests are shrink-wrapped to protect outer cartons.
----------HAYDEN LAKE, ID -- On-Site Drapery Cleaning & More offers a system for drycleaning any type of fabric, vertical blinds or draperies. The system lets drycleaners clean window coverings in any configuration where they hang while being able to guarantee no shrinkage, damage or loss of sizing of flame retardant. Customers will not need to sign a waiver or go without their window coverings as is the case with in-pant cleaning, the company said. The patented equipment is portable, and easy to learn and use, On-site said. It can also be used to clean upholstery or other types of fabrics in residential or commercial locations. The package includes cleaning equipment, tools and cleaning solutions along with training videos and manuals, marketing information and toll-free telephone support.
Date created: 96.08.01 Last modified: 96.08.01 Copyright © 1996, BPS Communications National Clothesline ncled@aol.com