AtlSoapGuy
Atlanta, GA
Male, 52
I have worked in the dry cleaning industry for almost 30 years. I worked in my family's dry cleaning operation as a manager and owner. Currently, I write a blog for those in the dry cleaning industry, as well as work for a manufacturer of dry cleaning chemicals. Over the years I have spent in the dry cleaning industry, I estimate that I have been in over 2000 dry cleaners in the US.
Yes Lori, forgotten cleaning is a big issue in the dry cleaning industry. In most cases dry cleaning is paid for after it is finished. This means that the owner of the drycleaner has invested time and labor, as well as other intangibles to produce the clean garment. If it is never picked up this was all done at a loss. Depending on state laws, he can sell the garment to try to re-coup his cost. Other drycleaners will donate these garments to charities.
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A dry cleaning business is often an easy way for Asia immigrants to own a business. The investment required to get into the dry cleaning industry can often be much more affordable than other businesses. The Asian community has become very established in the dry cleaning industry and have much of the training materials and information available to them in their language. And while communication skills are very important at the point of sale, often this can be worked around with minimal English required.
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Depending on how you configure the store between $150k - $250K for new, good quality equipment, computers, counters, build out and start up supplies. If you are only going to be doing dry cleaning (you will be sending your shirts out for someone else to do for you), you will be on the lower end of that range. For dry cleaning and laundry (which is the way that most configure), you will be on the higher end of that range.
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Yes, that has someone on premises should be able to repair the down jacket for you. It is hard to say without actually seing the garment, but I would suspect that patch may be the best way to repair the garment.
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That would be a long shot, but I suppose it could create a problem in the drycleaning machine. It might be able to get into the pump and while not actually causing damage, it could result in having to take the pump apart and cleaning the thread/lint from the impeller. Another possibility would be shortening the life of the filters on the machine. If there were a lot of lint, this could result in having to change them sooner than possible. Without actually seeing this garment, these are about the only things I can think of and neither of them are really a serious issue.
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I can understand that the seller could be concerned that when his employees find out he is selling, they may want to move on and actually this is a very common concern when selling a dry cleaner. However, you need to do your due diligence and thoroughly investigate the sales of the business before closing. If the owner cannot come to some agreeable way of allowing you to verify the daily sales, I would become a little concerned about the actual sales. A few ways that may help is to check the invoice numbers at the beginning of the each day to get an idea how many invoices there were. You could check the daily bank deposit. Setting in the parking lot and actually counting customers the first few hours of the day and the last few hours of the day can give you an inkling as to how busy they are.
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The cleaning of the gown is the simple part of this question. Depending on the care label, that will pretty much explain how the gown will be cleaned. Wedding gowns, very delicate items, items with sequins, prom gowns, beaded items, etc., are all dry cleaned in a very similar manner that is usually dependent of the care label. When there is not a care label, then it is up to the dry cleaner to use his professional opinion as to the method to be used in the cleaning of the garment. The second part of the dry cleaning process is actually tied to your question as to how the charge is arrived at.
When a drycleaner sets his pricing for the various garments, a large percentage of his cost to process the garment is the labor that is involved. This labor is mostly attributed to the amount of time required in the finishing of the garment (pressing). Simple garments such as pants require little finishing time and are usually one of the lowest priced garments processed. Other garments such as fancy ball gowns and wedding gowns are some of the most time consuming and difficult to finish and therefore command a higher price from the consumer.
If you were to bring a fancy gown into a dry cleaner and tell them it was a wedding gown, I suspect that most customer service/counter people would go to their price list and charge you their standard wedding gown price. The better approach for the consumer would be to not classify the gown and just ask how much it would cost to be processed. This way the garment can be assessed as to how much labor would be required and a more accurate price could be arrived at.
Unfortunately, it is often very difficult to just set one price for a garment. There are so many variables in the construction and styles of garments that it is difficult to set just one price. Therefore many dry cleaners will have a "base price" and then add upcharges for different things like type of fabric, trims, degree of difficulty in finishing and so on. The bottom line is that dry cleaning is a very labor intensive job and if a garment looks like it would require more labor to process, then it most likely will cost the consumer more.
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