Longtime dry cleaners sell business
Longtime dry cleaners sell business
Cedar Street Cleaners owners anticipating vacation
MOSES LAKE — The first thing Cindy White wants to do is work around in her garden. Her husband Glen plans to head across the country to help a friend in Florida with an airplane motor.
It will be the first time in 25 years the Whites will have been able to take a long vacation since opening their dry-cleaning business, save for one week each year for the last 12 years.
"The first eight years, we never took a vacation," Glen said.
The Whites will turn Cedar Street Cleaners over to new owners Friday. They are accepting cleaning through Wednesday.
Cindy was raised in Warden, and Glen arrived in the Moses Lake area in 1972. They have two children, a daughter who is just about to graduate and a son, whom Glen said was a "laundry basket baby," at 6 months old while the Whites had their first cleaner business in town, for about five years before losing their lease on that operation.
In starting a dry cleaning business, the Whites were looking for something that would keep Glen close to his family, as he had been a well driller, and he wanted his own business. The couple responded to an advertisement in the newspaper for a family business for sale, which had no detail of the nature of the business.
"So we looked around and couldn't find anything else that we would rather do," Cindy recalled of opening the store at its second
location, "That we could work the hours and with the first five years, we knew what we were doing, so we decided to continue."
Cedar Street Cleaners opened in August 1986.
The location at 319 S. Cedar St., was, as required, a free-standing building so the Whites could continue to use a petroleum solvent, which they still use today.
"We just felt like that was a good way for us to make a living and raise our family," she said. "It has been really good to us."
In the first year of being open in the new location, John and Julie Melin came in and asked if the Whites were interested in the Coats 4 Kids program, something the business has continued to do each year. The new owners will continue the program as well, Cindy said.
Over time, the types of clothing the Whites dry clean has changed. When they first started out, they hardly got any silk or rayon materials that were dry-clean only.
"There was a lot of wool and the summers were not very busy because people wore only wash and wear in the summer," Cindy recalled. "They're busier than they were when we first started."
Glen said the couple is selling the business because they are getting tired.
"It's up to 25 years now, and our health is still good," he said.
"It was kind of time to remodel and spiffy up, and these people are ready to do that," Cindy said. "They want to come in and bring in some new equipment and different things, and we just decided it was easier to let them do it."
The name of the business will not change, and the four to five employees at the store, with a range of 15 to five years at the cleaner, have the option to remain after the change, Cindy said.
"What they're telling us is they want to continue along the same lines we've been doing," Cindy said. "They're not going to interrupt the service, they're going to continue to be part of the community, be active in the community."
Cindy said the Whites have made a lot of friends out of customers that have come in over the years. While they're leaving the business, she hastened to point out that she and Glen will remain in town.
"After get a little bit of a break, we'll probably be out there looking for jobs," she said. "Something to do, just not quite as stressful."
In the meantime, the Whites are hoping everyone comes to pick up their dry cleaning before they leave the business.
"We have got a lot to get rid of," she said of the inventory lined up in the store waiting to be claimed. "There's a lot of clothes down here and more coming."
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