Now that I'm moving on from my career of the past six years working in dry cleaning and tailoring shops, I wanted to write a bit about my experiences. Considering that this forum is chock-full of dudes that like to dress well, and probably make the occasional trip to the dry cleaners, you fellas might appreciate this.
This isn't meant to be comprehensive, just anecdotes of my experience.
BEFORE YOU DROP OFF YOUR CLOTHES, CHECK THE POCKETS!
Seriously. If it fits in a pocket, I've probably found it in the last six years. Handfuls of condoms. Hip flasks, sample sized liquor bottles, cigars, legal and illegal drugs, cell phones, cameras, MP3 players, bank statements, receipts, wallets, keys, designer sunglasses... You get the idea. Most dry cleaners are somewhat honest and will put your stuff in a lost-and-found box, but why take that risk? Check your pockets.
The last place I worked at had a policy of "If you find less than $20 cash, stick it in your pocket and keep your mouth shut. Anything more, turn it in, and if unclaimed within 30 days, it's yours." Another place had a policy of "any loose cash in the pockets is yours to keep, but if it's in a wallet, turn it in."
I probably found hundreds, if not thousands of dollars over the years. My biggest haul was probably $80 at once, but $1-$20 denominations abounded.
Other random shit...
... A lot of people attending weddings tend to leave their rehearsal dinner and best man's speeches in their pockets. We would usually read these aloud during smoke breaks, some were amusing, others were quite sentimental.
... The occasional pair of panties. One of the best dry-cleaning stories I ever heard came from a counter attendant I know well. A boy takes a girl on a date to their high school homecoming. The girl's mom for some reason or another is the one to drop his suit off for dry-cleaning afterward. Counter attendant checks the pockets infront of the mother, and pulls out a pair of her daughter's panties. The mother cries hysterically.
CHECK YOUR GARMENTS FOR STAINS, RIPS, AND TEARS
Before you turn your stuff over to the cleaners, point out any rips, tears, or stains you notice to the attendant on duty. They'll mark the stains with a kind of masking tape, then try to remove them with special (and awful-smelling) chemicals before running the dry cleaning.
All stains are not created equal, however, so nothing is guaranteed to be removed. It also helps if you can identify the cause of the stain, so whoever 'spots' stained garments knows what chemical to use.
Tie-in to checking your pockets ... If a tube of lipstick makes it into the dry cleaning machine, it has a tendency to get all over EVERYONE'S clothing, since dry-cleaners wash lots of people's clothes in one machine. When this happens whoever is running the spotting board is eternally pissed at the counter attendant for creating a lot of extra work.
MAKE SURE YOUR SHIT IS SUPPOSED TO BE DRY CLEANED
Obviously not all materials used for clothing are created equal. Some are supposed to be hand washed, others machine washed, some specify "dry cleaning." Most dry cleaners will take anything and dry clean it, and if it gets fucked up because it wasn't supposed to be dry cleaned, they're not liable.
A QUICK WORD ABOUT THE DRY CLEANING PROCESS
A dry cleaning machine is not the same as a washing machine. Instead of water, it uses 15-25 gallons of perchloroethylene, a petroleum derivative, instead of water.
After tagging customer clothing and sorting it, it's all tossed into machines which dry clean 25-100 lbs of clothes at a time. The machine's rotating drum is partially filled with "perc" and agitated for a while, removing all kinds of gunk from the fibers. After a while, the "perc" is drained, and the drum heated to about 160 - 180 degrees, the temperature at which any perc remaining in the clothes begins to evaporate. All this perc is captured and transferred to a storage tank, then distilled to separate the actual chemical from all the gunk and grime it dissolved.
Fun fact ... One of the first dry cleaning chemicals was gasoline.
PEOPLE ARE DISGUSTING
It's amazing how unclean lots of adults of both genders and every age group are. Pants with shit stains are common, as well as the noxious smell of a guy's shirt that never uses deodorant nor hardly knows what a bar of soap is for. People working in dry cleaners don't expect your stuff to smell like roses exactly, hence why you're bringing it to the cleaners, but if you can't be bothered to wipe your ass and take the occasional shower, do your own fucking laundry.
ONE MORE THING
If you're a young cat and looking for a job above minimum wage with minimal requisites, look into dry cleaning. $10-$12 is standard entry level wage, $12-$14 if you're decent, $16-$20 per hour for the best. I know a guy that takes home $500 weekly and works less than 20 hours.
...
I'm sure I'll add to this as I remember shit, but your comments/questions/opinions are welcome.
This isn't meant to be comprehensive, just anecdotes of my experience.
BEFORE YOU DROP OFF YOUR CLOTHES, CHECK THE POCKETS!
Seriously. If it fits in a pocket, I've probably found it in the last six years. Handfuls of condoms. Hip flasks, sample sized liquor bottles, cigars, legal and illegal drugs, cell phones, cameras, MP3 players, bank statements, receipts, wallets, keys, designer sunglasses... You get the idea. Most dry cleaners are somewhat honest and will put your stuff in a lost-and-found box, but why take that risk? Check your pockets.
The last place I worked at had a policy of "If you find less than $20 cash, stick it in your pocket and keep your mouth shut. Anything more, turn it in, and if unclaimed within 30 days, it's yours." Another place had a policy of "any loose cash in the pockets is yours to keep, but if it's in a wallet, turn it in."
I probably found hundreds, if not thousands of dollars over the years. My biggest haul was probably $80 at once, but $1-$20 denominations abounded.
Other random shit...
... A lot of people attending weddings tend to leave their rehearsal dinner and best man's speeches in their pockets. We would usually read these aloud during smoke breaks, some were amusing, others were quite sentimental.
... The occasional pair of panties. One of the best dry-cleaning stories I ever heard came from a counter attendant I know well. A boy takes a girl on a date to their high school homecoming. The girl's mom for some reason or another is the one to drop his suit off for dry-cleaning afterward. Counter attendant checks the pockets infront of the mother, and pulls out a pair of her daughter's panties. The mother cries hysterically.
CHECK YOUR GARMENTS FOR STAINS, RIPS, AND TEARS
Before you turn your stuff over to the cleaners, point out any rips, tears, or stains you notice to the attendant on duty. They'll mark the stains with a kind of masking tape, then try to remove them with special (and awful-smelling) chemicals before running the dry cleaning.
All stains are not created equal, however, so nothing is guaranteed to be removed. It also helps if you can identify the cause of the stain, so whoever 'spots' stained garments knows what chemical to use.
Tie-in to checking your pockets ... If a tube of lipstick makes it into the dry cleaning machine, it has a tendency to get all over EVERYONE'S clothing, since dry-cleaners wash lots of people's clothes in one machine. When this happens whoever is running the spotting board is eternally pissed at the counter attendant for creating a lot of extra work.
MAKE SURE YOUR SHIT IS SUPPOSED TO BE DRY CLEANED
Obviously not all materials used for clothing are created equal. Some are supposed to be hand washed, others machine washed, some specify "dry cleaning." Most dry cleaners will take anything and dry clean it, and if it gets fucked up because it wasn't supposed to be dry cleaned, they're not liable.
A QUICK WORD ABOUT THE DRY CLEANING PROCESS
A dry cleaning machine is not the same as a washing machine. Instead of water, it uses 15-25 gallons of perchloroethylene, a petroleum derivative, instead of water.
After tagging customer clothing and sorting it, it's all tossed into machines which dry clean 25-100 lbs of clothes at a time. The machine's rotating drum is partially filled with "perc" and agitated for a while, removing all kinds of gunk from the fibers. After a while, the "perc" is drained, and the drum heated to about 160 - 180 degrees, the temperature at which any perc remaining in the clothes begins to evaporate. All this perc is captured and transferred to a storage tank, then distilled to separate the actual chemical from all the gunk and grime it dissolved.
Fun fact ... One of the first dry cleaning chemicals was gasoline.
PEOPLE ARE DISGUSTING
It's amazing how unclean lots of adults of both genders and every age group are. Pants with shit stains are common, as well as the noxious smell of a guy's shirt that never uses deodorant nor hardly knows what a bar of soap is for. People working in dry cleaners don't expect your stuff to smell like roses exactly, hence why you're bringing it to the cleaners, but if you can't be bothered to wipe your ass and take the occasional shower, do your own fucking laundry.
ONE MORE THING
If you're a young cat and looking for a job above minimum wage with minimal requisites, look into dry cleaning. $10-$12 is standard entry level wage, $12-$14 if you're decent, $16-$20 per hour for the best. I know a guy that takes home $500 weekly and works less than 20 hours.
...
I'm sure I'll add to this as I remember shit, but your comments/questions/opinions are welcome.