When Yong Lee opened his dry-cleaning business at 135 Dwight St. in 1982, people still dressed up to go to the office. Now they work from home in their pajamas.
The writing is now literally on the wall at Quality Cleaners: “Sorry. Going out of Business. Closing down Oct. 25.”
“The dry cleaning business is horrible,” Lee said. He traces the start of decline to the 2008 financial crisis and ongoing trends in casual wear. He saw a 40- to 50-percent decline in volume starting around 2008, even as expenses rose. “It went down, went down,” he said.
Lee’s is the most recent of a string of dry-cleaner closures in New Haven in recent years.
Sidney’s Expert Cleaners and Tailors, a neighborhood fixture at 1567 Chapel St. in West River, announced it would close earlier this month; its last day of business is Nov. 15. Owner Libby Glucksman told the New Haven Independent she decided to retire at age 87 after running the business with her late husband since 1969.
Earlier this year, Green’s Cleaners at 233 Grand Ave. closed down after its owner died and the family was unwilling to continue the business. Fab’s Cleaners at 121 Grand Ave. shut down in 2016 after 71 years. Jet Cleaners, a standalone landmark on State Street since the 1980s, downsized in 2016 and moved into a small storefront.
In Connecticut, the number of dry cleaners paying into a mandated remediation fund dropped dropped to 474 in fiscal 2018 from 521 in 2017, according to the Department of Revenue Services. All dry cleaners must pay the tax, intended to fund cleanups of sites polluted by past use of solvents. (This year’s total, however, is still higher than the fiscal 2013 tax roll of 460 businesses.)
The trend toward casual wear is taking an increasing toll on mom-and-pop dry cleaners. “Even as macroeconomic conditions improved for many U.S. households, unfavorable shifts in consumer preferences toward casual clothing have continued to challenge industry operators,” according to market research firm IbisWorld. The company expects the dry-cleaning industry’s decline to accelerate through 2023.
In addition, concerns about dry-cleaning chemicals have sparked criticism of the industry.
The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) has taken an active role in promoting “wet cleaning,” a greener alternative. “Wet cleaning uses water and non-hazardous detergents rather than a chemical solvent therefore you can avoid any health hazards and regulatory requirements associated with solvents,” said Connie Mendolia, an environmental analyst at the DEEP office of Pollution Prevention. A total of 40 percent of state dry cleaners who responded to a recent DEEP survey said they were doing more wet cleaning, which requires specialized machines.
“At this point, very few are willing to phase out the solvents completely,” Mendolia said. However, most of the state’s dry cleaners have stopped using perchloroethylene, a solvent that is a suspected carcinogen.
At present, the state is focusing on making sure dry-cleaning solvents are handled correctly by businesses, Mendolia said. “We’ve moved on to chemical management. We want to prevent pollution by making sure [cleaners] manage chemicals properly.”
State regulations have not been overly burdensome at Quality Cleaners on Dwight Street, Lee said. He cites other factors like the changing neighborhood, home to more Yale-affiliated students and employees in recent years. Students don’t use much dry cleaning, Lee said.
Lee said that his wife was recently injured in a car accident. In addition, he’s 68. “I’m already retirement age,” he said with a laugh. Neither of his children wants to enter the business, he added. “They’ve taken professional jobs and they’re not interested in dry cleaning.”
Customers of Quality Cleaners on Dwight Street can still bring their clothes to his West Haven location, West Shore Cleaners at 293 Elm St. But Lee said he anticipates closing that store soon, as well. It won’t make sense to operate much longer on lower overall volume.
“The business is not good,” he said.
Lee said that he knows of many Korean immigrants like himself who are closing up shop as dry cleaners in the tri-state area. “Volume is down 40 percent, 50 percent. It’s the same situation.”
Contact Liese Klein at lklein@newhavenbiz.com
