Out Of The Box By: Milt Chortkoff and Robert Shapiro

Hi everyone! My name is Milt Chortkoff and I am the owner of Milt and Edie’s drycleaners in Burbank, California. Along with my general manager, Robert Shapiro, we will be writing a column for the Cleaner & Launderer magazine. We will be sharing our collective wisdom that we’ve developed from years of being in an industry that we both love.

I started working with my father who owned a laundry in Brooklyn, New York when I was just ten years old way back in the 1930s. What I am most noted for is being the owner of Hollyway Cleaners in West Hollywood and Milt and Edie’s Dry Cleaners in Burbank, California. I have consulted with numerous companies and have lectured both nationally and internationally. For those of you who know me, they can attest to the fact that I like to do things that many in our industry consider untraditional. Hence, we decided to name our monthly column, “Out Of The Box.”

Our general manager Robert Shapiro has many years of experience in the dry cleaning industry as well. His father and uncle started Al Phillips the Cleaner in the late 60’s. The first cleaning plant to offer drive thru service. When they sold the company to the Johnson Group in the 80’s, Robert was retained to manage the operation which by then had grown to 14 drive thru’s and many of the big hotel accounts. Prior to that, Robert owned and operated a very successful dry cleaning operation in Aspen, Colorado. Between us, Robert and I have over one hundred years of experience in the dry cleaning industry. We’ve seen many operations across the United States and have adopted many different strategies that have contributed to the success of Milt and Edie’s. Currently, we are averaging over $80,000 a week and sales will exceed $4 million for the year. When we bought this plant, it was doing $5,000 a week. During the peak season, we have done over $100,000 a week. Not bad for a single store operation with one delivery route. Sales are brisk, growing 10% over last year.

One of the keys to our success at Milt and Edie’s has been the wide variety of services that we offer to our customers, which is a significant part of our marketing strategy. We refer to it as “tangibilizing our services.” As a result, we can build revenue without having to discount our prices. Our basic philosophy is very simple – 10 words – on the production side – “QUALITY WORK, DELIVERED ON TIME” and on the sales side – “ALL CUSTOMERS LEAVE HAPPY ALWAYS.”

We are open 24 hours a days, 7 days a week. We offer two-hour dry cleaning and shirt laundry 24/7/365. That means you can drop your cleaning off at either 3 p.m. or 3 a.m. and have it ready in just two hours, at no extra charge. We have nine full-time tailors working from 4 a.m. to 12 midnight weekdays and 9 p.m. or later on the weekends. Milt and Edie’s tailoring accounts for 20% of our gross revenue and is extremely profitable. We offer free pick up and delivery service and provide numerous other services as well. Leather and suede cleaning, purse and Uggs cleaning, shoe repair, and of course, fluff and fold service just to name a few. Out of all these services, one of the most frequent questions we are asked about is being open all night. Is it busy at 2 a.m? Can you justify the additional operating costs compared to how much business you generate? The answer to this question is easy…Yes, we have customers that come in at 2 a.m.…not a lot. However, we do a lot more business during the standard busy times, 7 a.m. – 7 p.m. because we are open 24 hours. When our service manager interviews new customers, the most common positive feedback we get is that we are open all night. When he inquires if they have ever used us during the late hours, the response is typically, no, but they use us because we are open all night and if they are ever in a bind, they know that we are available for them.

Another item we would like to discuss is the appearance of our counter area and the image that we project to our customers. Just shut your eyes for a second and imagine how pleasant it is to walk into a nice restaurant, or a favorite business of yours, that you like to visit. You are acknowledged and greeted when you walk in. It’s clean and friendly and you are treated professionally. Customers have earned your patronage because they know that their business is appreciated.

At Milt and Edie’s, our counter area is designed to enhance four of our five senses. Sight, sound, taste and smell. Never touch! We have a koi pond outside the entrance. There are signs over each one of our parking spots that say “Parking for Milt and Edie’s customers only, violators will be forced to wash their own clothes.” (A little humor on our part) When you walk into our store, you are greeted by an attractive, uniformed Maitre’D who directs you to one of our nine counters. The store smells of fresh popcorn that we offer to all customers. There is a gourmet coffee machine, tea, cookies and candy at each station. If you come in on a Friday or Saturday afternoon, we offer free hot dogs to our customers as well. There aremusic videos playing on three large monitors and a smiling and friendly staff waits you on. Milt and Edie’s is a fun and pleasant experience. One of our customers said that he used another cleaner while on a business trip, and he felt like he was cheating on his wife!

Finally, every day we walk through the plant and say hello to each employee. We firmly believe that our loyal staff is the lifeline of our business. If our staff is happy and well appreciated, we know that they are going to treat our customers well. We celebrate employee’s birthdays with cakes, we have special rewards for employees of the month and we often write about the going on’s in their lives in our bi-weekly newsletter. They are so important to us. After all, we are in a relationship business – relationships with our employees, relationships with our customers and relationships with our community.

In the upcoming issues, we will be discussing in detail, many of the marketing strategies that have worked well for us. We also invite you to visit our website at www.miltandedies.com or write to us for any questions and comments that you might have at miltscleaners@earthlink.net. We would love to hear from you!

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