Lost Sweater – Found Thanks to Dry Cleaning!

A sweater found in a Minneapolis parking ramp was returned to it’s owner last week – all because of dry cleaning Technology!

That’s right, thanks to significant increases in technology over the past several years, dry cleaning has become an extremely high-tech industry.

Every time your shirt, sweater, pants – you name it – is dropped off with us, it receives a small barcode.  This barcode is usually placed in an out-of-sight location so it is of no inconvenience to you and your garments, but the information it holds is extremely valuable.  Within that tiny barcode holds all kinds of information about that garment, including things like:

• the type of garment it is (shirt, pants, dress, etc)
• the fabric, color and brand of the garment
• who the garment belongs to
• when the garment was checked in at our stores, where it is within the cleaning process and whether it is ready to be picked up
• even the amount of times that garment has been to us!

This information allows us to use the utmost care and quality standards in handling and cleaning your garments. And, for one lucky customer, it helped her get her sweater back!  Another customer found a sweater on the ground in a St Paul Community Ed parking lot after a theater performance once night.  She knew we barcoded our items, so looked at the care label – and sure enough – a barcode!  She emailed us with the barcode number, and we were able to locate the customer it belonged to, and to get her sweater back to her!  She had just “written off” the sweater – which was one of her favorites and most expensive and never thought it could be located..!

It’s a great feel-good story for a nice Thursday afternoon, eh?!