Ode to a Dry Cleaner

Over the past year, I have spent a small fortune on dry cleaning. See that’s the thing about interviewing: you have to wear a suit. Even as a frequent customer, I remain baffled by the entire dry cleaning process; I understand neither the pricing structure nor garment turnaround times. One week I will drop off a bundle of clothing that consists of a suit and a couple of dresses, and the bill will be $28. A few weeks later, I will leave a similar (but not identical) bundle and my total will be $42. Huh? Despite my frustration, I accepted the black box nature of dry cleaning as a necessary evil. That was before I discovered CD One Price Cleaners.

This company is not only saving me from dry cleaning hell, but upon further inspection, CD One Price Cleaners has a really effective business model. What, you want me to tell you more? Happy to oblige…

Marketing:
Simplicity is the key marketing message. Signage throughout the store informs customers that it costs $2.49 to dry clean a single garment. The pricing structure is uniform; it is not complicated by factors such as type of garment, material, or whether the item is an article of men’s or women’s clothing. CD One Price Cleaners successfully eliminates a major point of consumer pain: confusion surrounding the price of dry cleaning. No more unpleasant surprises when it comes time to pay the bill.

Finance:
CD One Price Cleaners requires payment up front and accepts only cash and checks. You could make the argument that they may be losing business by not accepting credit or debit cards, but it is also true that they are minimizing their exposure as a merchant to consumer fraud. More importantly, by requiring customers to pay at drop-off rather than at pick-up, they are fully realizing the time value of money.

Operations:
CD One Price Cleaners dry cleans and launders all garments on site, thereby decreasing costs and turnaround times. Most dry cleaners are small businesses that outsource the actual cleaning to another vendor; as a result, they must pay the vendor to clean the clothing and wait for the garments to be delivered, cleaned, and returned. CD One Price Cleaners literally takes out the middleman. The obvious implication is that start-up costs will be higher for CD One Price Cleaners since they have to build a plant on site; however, over time they should be able to capture market share from the competition by charging lower prices and providing superior service.

CD One Price Cleaners even gets the small operational details right. On my first visit, I filled out the new customer form and returned it to the clerk who then had to process it. Instead of just letting me stand around, the clerk pointed out the coffee bar and encouraged me to grab a cup of joe. The clerk had already processed my information and sorted my items by the time that I finished pouring myself a cup of coffee and adding an unhealthy amount of cream and Splenda. Way to keep me busy and transform my wait time into a positive experience.

CD One Price Cleaners, I would be long you if only you were public.