In 1977 I entered the fabricare business, buying a two-year old package plant in Federal Way, Washington. It was the right time and place, a new building with parking lot, a drive-up window, on a main road in an upscale and growing country-club neighborhood. I joined the Washington Fabricare Association, got active with the Tacoma Chapter and wrote a few articles for the state trade paper. I had never studied journalism, but was always interested in it.
So, I was surprised when Joan Reid, the Wakefield Publishing Co. owner, which published the “Western Cleaner & Launderer” monthly trade paper, called and asked if I would write articles for her, since an earlier local writer had retired then (1985). I said I’d write for her until she found a “regular” writer. (Now it’s 27 years later).
In 1985, I was President of the Washington Fabircare Association (now expired).
I had many contacts so I jumped into interviewing and went way beyond my “commission” as Pacific Northwest Writer. Randy and Albane, the paper’s owners acquired the paper a few years later and advised and could write on the industry anywhere I went.
I sold the plant in 1986 and had taken up freelance tour directing, traveling widely, and so I was able to cover shops and trade shows and conventions often. In reviewing my items that Randy and Albane published, I find that I did 377 shops, 26 allied trades companies, 8 personal profiles, 4 obituaries, a book review, 4 cruise ships, 25 conventions and seminars and several items on legislation. Association conventions were in Washington, British Columbia, Alberta, Montana, Oregon and one International Drycleaners Congress in Montreal. Retail level dry cleaning and laundry plants—which is where the rubber meets the road—shows a distribution as follows: Washington 218, Oregon 75, California 6, New Mexico 2, Idaho 6, Wyoming 1, Montana 11, Alaska 5, Nevada 1, Colorado 4, Hawaii, 1, Arizona 4 and Florida 1. In Canada, British Columbia 34 and Alberta 8. Association conventions were in Washington, Oregon, Montana, British Columbia and Alberta. Associations always accorded me “media status,” because I would write an article on their convention, as well as a few local shops in that region.
And yes, cruise ships have their own laundry and dry cleaning facilities, mostly for their own linen needs, but also for crew uniforms as well as valet service for passengers. The ships were the Grand Princess, Costa Daphne, and Holland-America Noordam and Rotterdam VI.
My “pet project” was doing a story on “Unclaimed Garments.” I wrote every state, some twice, got a pile of data, boiling down to 50 states, 50 different laws! Trying to figure out how to present all this was a challenge. Thanks for printing this “project.” It generated some good comments.
By and large, everyone I interviewed over these years was helpful and they enjoyed seeing a story on him or her in the paper—-it was a nice bit of free “P.R.” I took all the pictures, always of machinery at work, plus owners or managers at the counter in their lobby or out front at their doorway. I usually positioned my car to be near the front door, and it appeared in many photos as a result. (It finally dawned on Randy that the same Chrysler—later a Caddie—that appeared so often, was mine!).
It was enjoyable to be able to contribute a bit to the industry in this way. I saw a lot of different machinery, met a lot of interesting people, owners and worker bees, and discovered different styles of management and sales and service from talking to so many people. It was enlightening. A lot of these stories came about because of taking some time from personal or tour company travel, to cover not only the Pacific Northwest, but also a variety of locations, as you can see from an earlier paragraph. And a special thanks to some people I met along the way, who offered tips or arranged interviews, such as Paul Miner, Leroy Hart, Chuck Hilton, Doris Easley, Roger Horne, Joe Bays, Bud Bakker, Jay Snow, Bob Heilman and Steve Ritt.
I’m not as energetic as I used to be, but I hope to have a few more articles in “Cleaner & Launderer.” Thank you for the time you took to read this—maybe you were one of the people I wrote about!