BURLINGTON — Local dry cleaners are feeling the effect of the coronavirus outbreak as customers who relied on them to clean and press their work clothes are unemployed or working from home.
Dan DiTucci, owner of Spencer Cleaners, with two locations in Burlington, told Boston 25 News Tuesday, that although his business is considered essential, his regular customers aren’t coming and business is down about 70 percent.
"You can work, but there's no business. That's the problem," DiTucci said. "We depend upon working people. Men and women getting up in the morning, putting on a nice set of attire and going into work."
The pandemic couldn't have come at a worse time for dry cleaners: spring is their biggest season. As school has been cancelled and large gatherings banned, that includes proms and weddings, which means no more tux cleanings.
"April 1 is when our season starts, and it goes all the way until schools close," DiTucci said. "And we're not going to have all of that. We lost the spring season."
DiTucci was forced to lay off his part-time employees and scale back on the days and hours Spencer Cleaners is open. He, his wife and brother are running the business themselves. A smaller payroll and lower utility bills are helping keep them afloat.
"Our operating costs are not as bad as they were," DiTucci said. "But I'd rather have the higher operating costs with the business back to the way it used to be."
DiTucci, who has owned one location for 28 years and another for 35, considers dry cleaning a way of life. His father helped pioneer the dry-cleaning machine Spencer Cleaners is named after. The elder DiTucci had a shop in Burlington Center for 10 years, before a recession and a shift to polyester wash-and-wear clothing left less room for profit.
Since then, the dry cleaning business has continued to shrink, as the workforce - and society, in general - has shifted to a more casual dress code.
"I'm not patting the baby boomers on the back, but we dressed up. You went to church, you dressed up. You went to dinner, you dressed up. Even when you went to the airport you dressed up," DiTucci said. "So when baby boomers started retiring, then we started to notice a little bit of a downturn. When the casual Fridays came in for a lot of the big corporations. And then the casual Fridays became casual every day. And then of course, the work at home."
DiTucci is concerned work-from-home policies the companies were forced to adopt may become the norm, and business will not return in full.
But DiTucci has hope his customers will come back. He and his family are determined to keep both locations open as long as is financially prudent.
"We will survive," DiTucci said. "We're just one of those businesses that's been hit multiple times over the last 10 years. And thats just the way it is."
For those who want to help their local dry cleaner stay afloat, DiTucci suggests prepaying for services the business can provide in later months when the coronavirus outbreak has subsided, or paying the bill for clothes customers haven’t yet needed and picked up, even if they sit on the rack for awhile.
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