Professional Laundry

Only on rare occasions do I wear dress clothing.  Mostly to synagogue.  Suit for some yom tovim, jacket often, dress shirt usually, all requiring professional maintenance.  I once ironed my own shirts, but as I got more prosperous, the convenience of letting somebody else do it better than me became my norm.  Suits always seemed just a bit more than I wanted to pay, though when I wore them frequently, they needed professional attention about once or twice a year.  I almost never laundered my sports coats, items I would wear to work but remove as soon as I got there or leave it on when rounding in the hospital.  Shirts comprised the vast bulk of what I took around the corner, once a choice of two, now a choice of one.  But in retirement, dress shirts have become a rarity.  Most of my trips to the cleaners have not been for cleaning but to get slacks purchased off the rack hemmed to the right length.

Some sticker shock recently came my way.  I tried to recapture weekly use of a midweight all season green velour jacket.  I knew my cleaner would charge more than I wanted to pay, so I took it someplace else but declined service when told the $14 price.  I can replace it at Goodwill for less than that.  Moreover, parts of the lining already had minor tears.  Just wear as is.  When a major spill occurs, replace it.  Shirts are not so easily discarded.  I accumulated a dozen over the course of a few years.  Casual ones I set aside to do myself, but the synagogue ones went to the laundry.  $41 and change for twelve shirts.  Too much.  At my last submission they were less than $2 each to wash and press.  That I can learn to do myself, or maybe not wear shirts that cannot just be popped in the washing machine and worn.  I have ample knits.  I also have a steamer, bought on sale years ago and still in the box.  Maybe try that out.  

Interestingly, pants have not been an expense, once properly altered.  While I have wool dress pants, they have largely given way to synthetic navy or dark gray slacks that go with anything and look fine after a run in Delicate Cycle.  

Dry cleaners have always had among the highest profit margins of all small retailers.  Big Box investors have never captured that market.  Most that I have used were run and owned by Asian immigrants, all pleasant hardworking people who had to give up quite a lot to relocate themselves halfway around the world.  I admire them, particularly the fellow around the corner, and want to help him succeed.  My guess is that Covid devastated him economically.  People who no longer went to the office each day left their suits in the closet and wore knit shirts.  Most do not have employees, or maybe a clerk, but those that do saw the minimum wage rise.  I do not know about their rents, chemicals, and other overhead.  But with less business and more overhead, price per garment will have to rise.  It did, though more severely than I would have predicted.  For the Wall Street Journal's analysis:  https://www.wsj.com/articles/pandemic-doomed-neighborhood-dry-cleaners-now-survivors-are-raising-prices-11656996034

So pick one or two, perhaps a basic white and a basic blue, that go with anything else I could wear, designate those as synagogue wear, and never accumulate twelve of them to launder professionally.