Staying up in a down economy
Trying to keep drycleaning dollars up during a down economy can be a depressing
endeavor (no pun intended). When money is tight, most people find a way to
scale back on expenses in an effort to keep from being swallowed up by their
finances. The industry is well aware of this strategy as many consumers have
opted to cut back considerably on the amount of clothes they send in to the
cleaners. Those who consider the service a “luxury” have dropped it altogether, while others wear garments an extra time or two in
between plant visits.
Such a ploy may help many households save some much-needed extra money, but such
an action is a drastic blow for drycleaners who rely on high volume production
numbers to stay in the black. To make things more unfortunate, it is a lot more
difficult for cleaners to trim down their own expenses. After all, cutting back
on quality is the kiss of death for a business where image is everything.
Dispensing with marketing will just make it easier for customers who already
come in less frequently to forget about your business altogether.
One thing many cleaners can do is reduce labor costs. Don Desrosiers certainly
has some good ideas as to how most drycleaning plants have raised their labor
costs without even realizing it (see page 30 for his eye-opening column).
Saving a little money certainly helps, but sometimes spending a little money
helps even more. If you have put off making plans for the Clean Show in New
Orleans this June believing that you cannot afford the extra expense during
these tough times, then you are missing out on an opportunity that only comes
around once every two years (and who knows where your business will be two
years from now?). There is still time to change your mind.
Chances are, there will be something at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center
that can make all the difference in the world for you and your business, be it
a cheaper or superior service or supply or a more efficient piece of equipment
found on the exhibit floor, or an enlightening educational session, or simply a
fellow cleaner who is going through exactly the same thing you are right now
and has found a way to survive, and possibly thrive. The Clean Show is the
ultimate tool that smart cleaners utilize in order to improve and increase
their chances for success. In other words, you simply cannot afford not to go.
What is EPA up to?
Unlike the litigants in the clean-air case, we’re not so sure what EPA has in mind in asking the court to hold off on
proceedings concerning its 2006 amendments to federal rules that govern the use
of perc in drycleaning.
EPA says it is asking for a delay so that the new agency’s leadership under the Obama Administration can review the rules that were
promulgated during the Bush Administration. Both industry and environmental
interests say that this is a good sign for their respective but opposing
positions. Environmentalists believe it means EPA will move for a nationwide
phase-out of perc. Industry leaders say it means EPA realizes the industry’s position is correct and it can not win in court.
While it appears to us that the drycleaning industry would have prevailed in
court, we wonder what EPA contemplates for its review of the rules. It is
likely true, as the industry has argued, that EPA does not have statutory
authority under the Clean Air Act to prohibit perc in co-residential locations.
Does this mean EPA will simply drop the whole idea? Maybe EPA has realized that
the ever-diminishing amount of perc used by drycleaners is not a serious air
pollution hazard and no further rules are needed. Or perhaps the “new leadership” has determined the EPA has statutory authority under some other existing, or
perhaps yet to come, legislation to push perc out of the picture for
drycleaners.
Time will tell, and time is what it will take. It took three years to get from
EPA’s announcement of its new rules to the current point in litigation. Had oral
arguments proceeded, a court ruling would still be some months away. If the
rule-making process starts all over, it could take at least that long again — longer if all of the correct procedures are followed — for another set of new rules to be announced, litigated and put in place. Even
if EPA were to decide to ban perc tomorrow (not likely, but who knows?), that “tomorrow” would be years away.
