National
Clothesline
Having been in the drycleaning industry
for 30 years, Mitchell Calvin (M.C.) Rogers III fully
understands that it takes a lot of hard work in order to be
successful. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to have a
recognizable name either.
He and his family have owned and
maintained Rogers Cleaners in St. Petersburg for over 90 years
now. With the family name adorning the sign outside, it makes
everything at the plant a little more difficult.
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In the past nine decades, the business
has had three different generations of family members serve as
plant owners, but they had one thing in common: they were all
named Mitchell Calvin Rogers. Even now, as M.C. ponders
retirement in the near future, his son, Mitchell IV, is already
working as general manager and plans to carry on the cleaning
tradition. He hopes to become the fourth consecutive Mitchell
Rogers (all born in St. Petersburg, by the way) to helm the
business.
“It looks like the business changes
hands about every 30 years,” M.C. noted.
“I’ve probably been here full time since I was 22.
There’s been three of us, so about 30 years a piece. Now,
it’s Mitchell’s turn. When Mitchell gets ready to
sell or retire after his 30 years, it will be 120 years
old.”
M.C. is quite confident that the business
will be in good hands after he is gone, but he admits there is
no big, closely-guarded secret to why the Rogers family has
kept the business successful for so long.
“We try very, very hard to still
keep it personal so customers can talk to the owner,” he
said. “We try to make it very family-oriented. We stand
behind our quality. We’re not perfect. We try to keep up
with the latest technology that comes through, but it’s
hard to be perfect. There aren’t too many drycleaners who
are. We just do our best and stand behind it.”
The company’s slogan — The
Cleaners That Satisfy — has been around since its
inception. Still, M.C. has tried to never make the mistake of
taking the business’s reputation for granted.
“Just because we’ve been here
for a long time and have a good name in St. Petersburg
doesn’t mean we don’t have to try harder and harder
every day,” he said. “Things change and customers
change.”
Rogers Cleaners has seen a lot of changes
over the past nine decades. Originally, it was founded in 1916
by Mitchell, Sr., who recognized its potential.
At the time, it was the only cleaning
plant in town. These days, there are approximately 15 other
plants in the area, but none of them can make the same claim to
fame as Rogers. It is the oldest family-owned business in the
entire county.
Prior to starting the business, Mitchell,
Sr., ran a pressing club in Jacksonville called Rogers &
Jones. In fact, that company name is listed among some of the
owners of IFI’s original stock. Back then, the
association was known as the National Institute of Drycleaning.
Even during its first year of operation,
Rogers Cleaners strived to be innovative and successful. The
company introduced the first Hoffman Steam Press in the state,
and it also offered pickup and delivery service via a horse and
wagon.
After only one year, Mitchell, Sr., and
his wife, Abbie, were debt free with $500 in saved profits in
their bank account.
“I don’t remember them ever
telling me any stories about closing up,” M.C. recalled.
“That’s amazing — to keep the front door open
all that time, except for major holidays. We haven’t had
any destruction or any problems with fires or storms or
anything like that — knock on wood. We have just
continuously chugged along.”
In 1950, Mitchell, Sr., passed along the
business to his son, Mitchell, Jr., a Florida University
graduate, who operated the business for almost 30 years. He had
a lot of help from his wife, Gussie.
In addition to carrying on the tradition
of running Rogers Cleaners, Mitchell, Jr., also followed in his
father’s footsteps in another venture: greyhound racing.
“My grandfather had a farm here in
St. Petersburg and he raised greyhounds,” M.C. said.
“My dad also got involved in racing and did it for
years.”
Because St. Petersburg also hosted winter
training for the New York Yankees, Mitchell, Jr., often kept
some interesting company. Baseball legends Babe Ruth and Yogi
Berra were frequent visitors to the plant.
“My dad got to know a lot of those
players because they used to hang out at the dog track and the
drycleaners,” M.C. said. “He named quite a few dogs
after baseball players. One of his best dogs was ‘Don
Larsen’. Don was a good friend of ours. He pitched the
only no-hitter in a World Series game. He came and picked a dog
out of a litter, pointed at it, and said, ‘I like that
puppy.’ It turned out to be a great dog.”
Years later, M.C. carried on the
tradition of greyhound racing by investing in dogs with an old
Army buddy –-a singer/songwriter with the stage name of
“Lobo.” He became famous for the hit song:
“Me and You and A Dog Named Boo.”
While Mitchell, Jr., had liked to name
his dogs after baseball players, M.C. had his own style of
naming.
“All our greyhounds had the first
name of ‘Windswett’,” he noted. “That
was an address of my partners in New York. We had Windswett
Wind, Windswett Fire, Windswett Snow — everything you can
think of. You could only use 16 letters. It was a diversion
from the main business for a while.”
The second transfer of generational
ownership for the Rogers took place in 1976 when M.C. bought
the plant. He wasted little time in putting his own personal
stamp on the business. In 1980, he bought out Johnny’s
Cleaners and moved all of the operations there.
“What turned out to be a great
location for 60 years or so started dwindling,” he
recalled. “I was young and decided I needed a challenge,
so that’s when I bought this location on 4th Street where
I’m sitting now. It is the business zone of St.
Petersburg.”
Of course, now that another 26 years has
passed since then, it might be time again for another change.
“Downtown has completely turned
around again,” M.C. admitted. “Condos are going up
everywhere. Even though we tore down the original building, we
purchased a very large building next to my property. So, at the
original site, we might reopen another store or two because
things are so much better in that area now.”
Since he has taken over the business,
M.C. has helped it expand from seven employees to almost 30.
Despite such growth, he has worked to keep the plant in one
location, having no ambitions to stretch himself out too thin.
“I tease everybody. I say we expand
about every 60 years,” M.C. laughed. “It’s
not always about how many locations you have. I take a lot of
pride in what I do. I really feel guilty sometimes when
we’ve done a bad job. I take it home with me.”
About six years ago, the company expanded
its scope to include disaster restoration cleaning. Although,
that venture came about by accident.
“We started in it because I had a
flood in my house,” M.C. recalled. “I had a toilet
break and it started when we were gone. The water ran for a
week, so we got to know the restoration company very well at
that time.”
Since then, Mitchell, IV, has joined the
board of the Alliance of Professional Restoration Cleaners.
Both father and son agree that restoration work can be pretty
rough.
“I sure don’t like
hurricanes. You don’t like to see them come,” M.C.
said. “It’s terrible. You do feel like you’re
helping some when you’re dealing with those people, but
it’s very tough on them. Their lives are a
mess.”
Unlike the previous two generations, M.C.
and his wife, Gail, do not run the business together. Gail, who
has been married to M.C. for 38 years, worked instead as an
elementary school teacher teaching ESOL (English Speaking Other
Languages) to children from other countries. In retrospect,
M.C. believes it was a wise choice on the couple’s part.
“I watched my mom and my
dad,” he explained. “It’s tough when you
bring home problems and you both were there and had different
views on it. It’s a lot easier for me to go home with a
problem that Gail wasn’t sitting in on. She’ll give
me a lot better advice than if she had been there.”
Even without Gail, there is still plenty
of family working at Rogers. In addition to Mitchell, IV, the
plant also includes son-in-law, Beau Cunningham, among its
ranks.
“Beau is our production
manager,” M.C. said. “He runs everything in the
back and does an excellent job.”
M.C. believes working alongside family is
great, but sometimes it is harder to break free from the
“plant.”
“Rogers Cleaners is like a thing.
It’s like a person. It’s the plant,” he said.
“Mitchell and I get along fine, but we’ve lost a
little bit of that father-son relationship because I’m
right here. It’s hard for us when we get away from the
plant to not talk about business.”
Having said that, M.C. also emphasized
how much “the plant” has done for the family in
return.
“We’ve got a lot to be
thankful for the plant, too,” he said. “It’s
provided a lot of good things for the family.”
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