By Kevin Marois

A landlord called a few weeks ago. His dry cleaner tenant had disappeared overnight, leaving behind unpaid rent and a plant full of equipment. They wanted us to remove and sell whatever was left.

It didn’t take long to realize this wasn’t a sudden exit—it had been coming for a while. And there wasn’t much of value left behind.

Horror show

Let me walk you through what we found.

• Three dead presses.
• A legger press had no padding on it.
• Another press was missing some parts.
• A hot head press that had the pipes disconnected.
• The pant topper also didn’t have a pad or cover.
• The drape pleater did not have an air line connected.

All those machines were taking up space but completely unusable.

What about the dry cleaning machine?

There were no filter cartridges. The spin disc housings were packed with lint so tightly the discs wouldn’t turn. He clearly wasn’t using the filtration system at all.

The still bulb didn’t work, so a trouble light had been rigged at the back. The loading door handle was broken and jammed shut with a piece of copper pipe. Water separators were clogged. A rusted water line was leaking.

From horror to danger

There were multiple problems in the boiler room. The controls on the boiler had been modified and the safeties were bypassed. The vent (chimney) on the boiler was rusted right through and would have been leaking exhaust into the plant. That exhaust could have included carbon monoxide. That is not a safe situation.

There was a large floor drain with a grill on it in the boiler room. That was fine, but the water had been leaking for so long the grate was rusted through and it fell apart when we stepped on it. There was a mixing valve in the boiler room to make hot water. It leaked badly. Rather than fixing it, they had taped a funnel underneath it with a hose running to the drain.

The control on the dryer had failed and there were some manual switches and a household timer mounted on the front. The vent pipe on the dryer vent was over three-quarters full of lint. Against the side and back of the dryer were boxes of old cash register receipts. Picture it: boxes crammed full of paper right next to a source of combustion. Together, those conditions were a serious fire risk.

Flying by the seat of their pants

When we tested the shirt unit, we found the safety bars banged because the chests closed too quickly. Instead of making the proper adjustment, the safety had been bypassed. It would have been less work to do the adjustment than it was to bypass the safety switch.

There were many bottles and jugs of chemicals—some labeled, some not. Some had not been used in a long time. There were pails of sludge. There were some proper waste kegs, but also some 20-liter pails and an assortment of oddball pails without proper lids. It’s a good thing Environment Canada never inspected this plant.

We turned on the vacuum to test it. It was noisy. The bearings in the motor were bad. The tank was rusted through and patched with duct tape.

Not just one man’s problems

If all of that wasn’t bad enough, there was a line full of clothes left in the plant. Those might have been dead stock, or they might have been customers garments. There was also a sign in the window saying that customers could pick up their clothes at a neighboring cleaner. Judging from the condition of the equipment, I’m not sure I would want to be responsible for the work that came out of that plant.

The worst part about this plant is that Chris White (Kreussler Textile Care) and I visited it a couple of years ago. We were making sales calls and telling people about the upcoming training seminar at our office. This gentleman confidently said that he didn’t need the seminar. He had been in business for 30 years and he was the one who should be teaching the course.

Well, now that I have seen the inside of his plant, it certainly raises questions about the quality of work coming out of that plant. We know how good his advice would have been.

So, why am I telling you all of this? Mostly, I’m frustrated that someone has tarnished our industry. This dry cleaner left behind another landlord that will never deal with a dry cleaner again. I realize that telling you this is preaching to the choir. Anyone who takes the time to read one of my articles is probably already taking care of their business.

The question is how can we—the people who hope to be in business for many more years—protect our reputations and the reputation of our industry from people like this. People who don’t care about their customers, don’t pay their rent, don’t pay their suppliers and only care about themselves?

The real question is: how do we protect the reputation of an industry we’ve all worked hard to build? We may not be able to stop someone determined to run a business into the ground—but when it happens, it reflects on all of us.

I’d like to hear your thoughts. How do we raise the standard—and hold the line?

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