Turnaround
Our normal turnaround time is one week on regular drycleaning,
shirt laundry and household textiles.
Here's an example: if you drop off your cleaning at our
fabricare facility on a Monday, your order will be ready for pickup
on the following Monday.
If you're a pickup and delivery client with a once a week
pickup/delivery schedule, say every Monday, we'll pick up on a
Monday and deliver the following Monday.
If you're a pickup and delivery client with a twice a week
pickup/delivery schedule, say Monday/Thursday, we'll pickup and
deliver twice a week. Monday's pickup will be delivered on the
following Monday; Thursday's pickup on the following Thursday.
Generally, one week.
"At ordinary cleaners, clothes are loaded into a cleaning
machine). 'Cleaned' clothes are glanced at, and the stains that are
left in the clothes are minimally attempted to be removed ...
Finishing is done at the rate of 25 pieces per hour (per
presser)...
The CLASSIC level of drycleaning is the
high-end, top quality level. Not many plants (in the USA and
Canada) fit into this category ... Charging $15 for a pair of pants
is common ... Drycleaning will incorporate blowing steam across the
clothes and all stains that pop up are removed. Soaking in
digesters and whitening agents are performed and the
garment may go through several days of work before
it is sent to the finishing (hand pressing) department ...
(Drycleaning at the classic level) ... is done right."
Kenney Slatten
Dryclean Industry Consultant and Columnist
Western Cleaner & Launderer
May 2002, page 10
Why One Week?
Why, you may ask, don't we operate like ordinary cleaners? Why
can't you drop off your cleaning on a Monday by 9:00 and pick it up
that same day at 5:00? Or at the latest by 5:00 on the following
day? Why can't we pick up your cleaning on day 1 (say a Monday) and
deliver it on day 3 (say a Thursday)? And pick up your cleaning on
day 1 (say a Thursday) and deliver on day 3 (say a Monday)?
Because we don't -- and won't -- produce what drycleaning
industry experts call "bang and hang cleaning" or "ordinary
cleaning."
Bang and hang cleaning or ordinary cleaning essentially involves
tossing your cleaning into a machine, banging it out on a press,
hanging it on a hanger, stuffing it in a bag, and cramming it on
holding racks or shuttling it out the door. Believe it or not, this
is standard operating procedure at the vast
majority of ordinary cleaners, including those offering pickup and
delivery service.
To illustrate this, go back to our Monday/Thursday pickup and
delivery example, and examine what happens to your cleaning that's
picked up on a Thursday and delivered on a Monday by ordinary
cleaners.
In all probability, those articles are tagged on Thursday
evening or Friday morning. "Cleaned", "pressed" and "bagged" on
Friday. This way they're "right and ready" to be delivered on
Monday. (The same principle applies to cleaning picked up on a
Friday and delivered on a Tuesday.)
Just think about that for a second. That's nothing less than
same day, or at the very best, next day
service!
Given this scenario, would you knowingly subject your
fine garments -- especially your designer, high fashion, specialty
and couture garments -- to same day or next day service
cleaning?
"When it comes to caring for your fine garments and
household textiles, faster isn't better. Never has been. Never will
be."
Of course not!
So here's our dilemma: we can either focus all our resources on
consistently producing the finest cleaning in Arizona, or we can
deliver the same "bang and hang" cleaning offered by over four
hundred ordinary cleaners in the Valley.
In a hectic world of same day and next day service cleaning,
you can take comfort in the fact that we take the time to
do it right. Because when it comes to caring for your fine
garments and household textiles, faster isn't better. Never
has been. Never will be.