Dry cleaners love gluing bar codes onto all your fine garments,
household textiles and accessories.
You've seen those bar coded labels glued onto the care
labels, brand labels, collars, waistbands, inside
pockets and side seams of your fine garments, household
textiles and accessories.
They tell you that the bar coded labels they glue onto all your
garments, household textiles and accessories is an indicator of
true quality cleaning.
Really?
The real question is why they do it. And the answer to that
question will give you great insight into the cleaner's overall
philosophy to garment care.
One word of caution: when evaluating that answer make sure to
distinguish between the disclosed motivation (the spin) and the
hidden motivation (the reality).
Here's my take on bar codes: a true quality cleaner would never
glue bar coded labels anywhere on your fine garments and household
textiles
And the reasons?
First, they're your garments, household
textiles and accessories. They don't belong to me. You entrusted
them to me for restoration to like new condition. Not to have bar
coded labels glued onto them without your permission.
Second, glued on bar coded labels are typically
used by high volume/low price, highly automated cleaners where the
operational focus is on getting your garments into a machine, onto
a press and into a bag. ASAP. At lowest possible cost. They're in
by 9:00 and out by 5:00; or picked up on day 1 and delivered on day
3.
Third, and most importantly, a true quality
cleaner would never glue bar coded labels onto
your fine garments, household textiles and accessories because
they move and assemble your fine garments, household textiles
and accessories by hand. NOT BY AUTOMATED MACHINE.
To understand
exactly what I mean visualize, for a moment, a Fedex or UPS sorting
facility with a web of conveyor belts and bar code scanners
strategically mounted above those conveyor belts. Further,
visualize letters and boxes of all shapes and sizes, all imprinted
with a bar code, shuttling along a conveyor belt from point to
point.
Now, instead of letters and boxes, visualize your fine
garments, household textiles and accessories suspended on
hangers, being roller-coasted around a dry cleaning plant from
point to point on an automated moving and assembly system.
Bar coded labels are the foundation of such an automated
system.
It's a concept borrowed directly from the uniform rental
industry.
Here's some background ...
We're
all familiar with the uniform rental industry. We see their
products on every Fedex and UPS driver. To ensure that those
uniforms are "cleaned, steamed/pressed, assembled and delivered" at
the lowest possible cost, the cleaner must, among other things, bar
code all garments and utilize a highly automated moving and
assembly system to shuttle their garments from point to point.
Along comes the ordinary cleaners. They figured that if the
system works for the uniform rental industry, it'll work for them
too.
But does it work for you?
Can you picture your fine garments, household textiles and
accessories being shuttled around a dry cleaning plant from
cleaning to steaming/pressing to assembly to bagging? Can you
imagine your easily wrinkled, delicate and/or fragile garments such
as your silk, linen and cotton blouses and shirts being crushed
between heavier coats, sport coats, blazers, trousers, slacks and
sweaters? All in the name of maximizing efficiency and minimizing
costs.
So, next time you see bar coded labels glued onto your fine
garments, household textiles and accessories consider this: Do
you want your fine garments, household textiles and
accessories to be treated like uniform rental garments?
I wouldn't think so.
Careful handling of your fine garments, household textiles and
accessories through the entire garment care process is just
one sign of true quality cleaning. Bar code labels glued onto your
fine garments, household textiles and accessories is prima facia
evidence of ordinary or "bang and hang" cleaning.
So what can you do about those scratchy bar codes?
We'll be happy to remove them for you. Just ask. Here's what I
mean ...
How can I help you