I love having Love Cleaners in our neighborhood of Huntington, in the Village of Kings Contrivance,…read morein our wonderful town of Columbia. We've been having our dry cleaning done there for 21 years, since we moved into our home off White Spring Way back in 2005.
They have a convenient blue bag, and a drop-off chute and the woman who now owns it is very friendly.
However, because they are only from 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. Monday through Friday (and 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday), their hours are terrible for business people who have to drop or pick up clothes before work.
I have been trying to get back to the store and pick up my dry cleaning all week, but I can't pick up at 7:30 a.m. when I leave to drive my daughter to school.
And I can't pick up by 6 p.m. because I get stuck in Beltway traffic during my commute home from work.
Which means I can only pick up dry cleaning on Saturday, even though I can drop off dry cleaning anytime because of the blue bag and the drop off service.
I found out my cousin in Pennsylvania had a heart attack last night. He had the same A-Fib that killed his younger brother in 2010, 16 years ago, but my cousin survived and I need to pick up my dry cleaning and drive to Pennsylvania.
I dropped my daughter off at school and came back home because I took off work to drive 4 hours to see him in Pennsylvania.
I got to Love Cleaning at 8:58 a.m. and waited until 9:10 a.m. I tried knocking on the window. No one answered. I tried calling, no one picks up. I wanted to leave a voicemail, but the line hangs up.
I'm going to have to drive to Pennsylvania and buy new clothes.
Because a small business owner, whom I adore, does not understand how to provide convenient hours, reliable means of communication, show up to work on time or provide consistent customer service at times that are convenient for their customers and not just for themselves as business owners.
I do not want to see this business close. I've seen them survive for 21 years since we moved into this neighborhood.
But after 21 years, I will need to look at other, less convenient dry cleaners, who probably charge more, for less quality, but have more convenient hours.
I do not want to support a big franchise location over a hard-working small business owner (like I am myself) who bought this business from the previous owner within the last few years.
I hope this message is received and taken seriously. Not as a loud threat, but as spoken constructive criticism. As opposed to the silent loss of confidence that erodes customer goodwill over time.
I want Love Cleaners to succeed. I hope you all do as well. I hope they hear this message loud and clear for the purpose it was intended.
Opening 1.5 hours earlier Monday-Friday, taking a longer break in between the morning rush, lunch drop-off (for people who work in the neighborhood), and the evening pick up (for people with a shorter commute -- I'm jealous), would go a long way toward providing the kind of community service that is loved and cherished by all, as it once was.