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Stay-at-home orders affect Central Coast dry cleaners

Posted at 11:13 PM, Jan 07, 2021
and last updated 2021-01-08 02:26:46-05

Dry cleaners are considered an essential business during the pandemic, but Central Coast dry cleaners say amid stay at home orders, they have seen a decrease in business.

“We shut down in March, (and) in April, our volume was off almost 80%," Village Center Dry Cleaners owner David Owens said.

He says residents don't need their services when they are staying at home.

"If people aren’t going to work, people aren’t going to church, they are not going out to eat, then they are not wearing the type of clothes that would come into a dry cleaners,” Owens said.

It has been the same for Laguna Cleaners owner, Mark Goforth.

“The amount of people that are staying at home and working where you can work with your pajamas on, maybe you might have a tie on but you don’t have to worry about how you have to look as much," Goforth said.

Mark says the conveyor rack is typically full at his business, but they have seen a decrease by about 50% or more since this time last year.

For those who are working, like Curtis Floyd, he needs the doors to stay open.

"I wouldn't be able to press and have (my clothes) cleaned each day for me to get to work, so it is nice to just be able to have the convenience of going down and helping local businesses," Floyd said.

David Owens says his family has been in business for almost 60 years.

"I am the third generation of my family, (my son is) the fourth generation, so we are just doing whatever we can do to survive to better times," Owens said.

Paul's Dry Cleaners in San Luis Obispo has also seen a decrease of about 50% of their typical business volume.