National
Clothesline
While Maine is well known for its lush
natural plant life, it isn't exactly recognized for having a
dense population of another kind of plant — drycleaning.
In fact, the local cleaning industry seems to be becoming more
endangered every day.
“Diversification here in Maine is
extremely important,” noted Eric Pooler, owner of Gold
Star Cleaners in Brewer. “It’s one of the reasons
why we’ve survived because we’ve lost 45 percent of
our industry in the last 15 years. There were 72 operating
plants in the state. Currently, we have 40.”
Part of the problem stems from
Maine’s declining population.
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Compounding matters is the fact that most
households in the state make much less income than the typical
drycleaning customer.
“The average income in the state of
Maine is $15,000, below what the federal government considers
poverty,” Eric said. “It’s the 49th worst
state for small business. Number one, it’s the highest
taxed per capita. When the rest of the country does well, we
don’t. We’re kind of in a bottle all by
ourselves.”
While most people might view that bottle
as one that is half empty, Eric prefers to think of it as being
half full. Whenever he speaks, he tends to be straight-forward
and unflappably honest, but Eric ultimately believes that
keeping a positive perspective is a key component of success.
“In general, society is very
negative,” he said. “I’ll give you an example:
it’s partly cloudy or partly sunny. It’s the same
freaking thing, but how do you view it? If you want to know the
worst case scenario of everything that could be out there, the
worst case scenario would be death. And, if you put that in
perspective to what is actually happening, you’re pretty
damn lucky and life is pretty good.”
As another example, Eric points out that
while the population in Maine is not growing, at least it
changes a lot.
“I’ve got to hold the market
every year with new people moving into the area,” he
pointed out. “There’s one realtor who sells 700
homes alone in the Bangor region every year. There are several
thousand homes a year being purchased, and probably 30 percent
of them are being purchased by people outside the state.
You’ve got new people coming in, old people moving out.
It’s very important to advertise to that market,
even if you’re the only drycleaner in town.”
Of course, Eric isn’t the only
cleaner in his region. That would be an exaggeration.
Altogether, there are two.
“Back in 1950, there were over 20
drycleaners in the Bangor/Brewer area; now there are only two
of them,” he said. “Back then, drycleaning was a
different animal, but there are only 10,000 people in the city
now. So, how come we survived and everybody else didn’t?
Quality. Our quality is very important.”
In terms of quality, Gold Star Cleaners
is in a very select group of cleaners. Not only is the plant
current with all three IFI certifications — CPD, CPW and
CED — it is also a standing member of the
association’s Award of Excellence program. There are only
15 cleaners in the entire country who can make both of those
claims right now.
“I don’t think anybody can
beat our pressing and our spot removal,” Eric said.
“We do a very good job. We are very conscientious. We
have an inspector who works 40 to 50 hours a week. All she does
is look at every single piece that goes out the
door.”
The company’s certification dates
back to 1995. The fundamentals of cleaning have always mattered
to Eric, who has also learned a lot through trial-and-error
over the years.
“I find that you can be a slave to
the spotting board unless you have the tricks of the trade,
unless you’ve been adventurous a little bit and have
taken the extra step and risked that garment,” he noted.
“Of course, be prepared to pay for it if you screw it
up.”
Gold Star Cleaners has made its share of
mistakes over the years, but that’s unavoidable when
you’ve been in business for over a century.
“I expect mistakes. That’s
how we get better in the industry — by making errors and
learning,” he said. “It’s continuous
learning. If you haven’t failed in life (or at work),
then you haven’t tried. You learn from your mistakes in
order to become an expert in your industry, but you have to
allow yourself to be a human being and grow. There’s no
success without failure.”
The family has certainly come a long way
since Eric’s great-grandfather, Edward Pooler, first
opened its doors in 1904... or was it 1905? There is a bit of
controversy on the subject.
“I went to the library and
researched it for about three weeks,” Eric recalled.
“I believe we opened very late in 1904, past the deadline
to put the company in the 1905 Business Directory book. But I
know it’s at least 1905 because I found a magazine from
1955 that had an advertisement which said: ‘Gold Star
Cleaners, 50 years and growing’.”
Regardless of what year it began, the
business has a long, colorful past. In fact, it still sits in
its original location.
“This location actually had an 11 x
7 foot chicken house in it at one point. That was converted
and, of course, built on,” Eric laughed.
“I’ve heard so many freaking stories about it. I
mean, hunting was very prevalent way, way back and they had a
little shooting range in the plant, just for the owner and a
couple of his friends. They used to shoot their .22s at
targets.”
Eric’s grandfather, Hank, took
control of the business in the mid-1930s. His father, James,
bought it along with his uncle, Ed, in the 1960s. Eric spent
his high school years as a route driver for Gold Star and
enjoyed it very much.
Despite that, he tried to find his own
route during the early part of his twenties. Eric held a
variety of jobs: cook at Pizza Hut; janitor at Sears; route
driver at UniFirst; and a welder at an auto manufacturing
plant.
Then, in the late 1980s, his father asked
him to come aboard and work as plant manager. He learned about
business matters from his father while his uncle Ed taught him
the art of spotting for a couple of years until he was
diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.
“Back in the day, he used to smoke
right at the spotting board. He had his coffee right
there,” Eric recalled. “After he retired, he died
five years later walking on the beach in Florida. When someone
has cancer, they’re generally not walking when they die,
but he was a tough S.O.B.”
With his father and uncle serving as
great drycleaning role models, it didn’t take long for
Eric to rise to the position of president in 1991. Seven years
later, he bought the company from his father.
Eric didn’t waste any time, as he
has always believed in taking the direct approach to things.
“I don’t beat around the
bush,” he noted. “Direct is always the way
I’ve been — brutally honest in some cases. So be
it. I don’t have time to worry about other people’s
feelings. I have a business to run.”
When an employee does something wrong,
Eric won’t hesitate to correct them in a positive manner.
“People don’t get in trouble.
I don’t yell or scream,” he added. “I have
reasonable expectations and they know what those expectations
are. I would never ask anybody to do anything I wouldn’t
do myself. There’s no job beneath me. I know every single
position there is in the plant so nobody could ever really put
anything over my head.”
In fact, Eric prefers to train employees
to be proficient at multiple positions as well to generate a
stronger sense of teamwork.
“Everybody on my floor is
cross-trained,” he said. “Every single position has
a backup of at least two or three people. It gives each person
a profound respect for each other.”
The way Eric sees it, he leads three
different lives: a professional one, a private one, and a
family one. He loves his work life, to be sure. After all, he
is currently serving as president of NEFA, and has been a board
member for the association for over a decade.
However, he believes the meaning of life
all boils down to family, which includes his son, Jacob; his
daughter, Monique; and his wife of 13 years, Carolyn.
“You can’t forget why
you’re doing what you’re doing,” he said.
“It’s important that you have balance.”
To maintain the balance on the work side
of his life, Eric says the key is to be constantly learning.
“After 102 years, you’d think
you’d know it all,” he laughed. “If you think
you know everything in this business, you don’t know
anything. The older you get, the more you realize you have to
learn.”
Eric himself realizes he still has a lot
left to learn, which will likely mean some failures lie ahead
in his future, especially if he wants to remain successful.
“Do you realize that 80 percent of
the multi-millionaires in this country have been bankrupt, by
average, 3.4 times?” he asked. “The difference
between them and the other people is that they got back up,
dusted themselves off and tried all over again... with the
exception of the failure aspect of it. They now know what not
to do.”
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