HOPKINS, Minn. — To expedite customer service, as well as combat the ongoing challenges of labor shortages and rising costs, CD One Price Cleaners has opened a locker-first store in Hopkins, Minnesota.
The store — the first of its kind for the franchise, which operates 40 locations across Illinois, Missouri, Indiana and Minnesota — is designed to meet the changing needs of its customers while testing the locker-first concept.
“This new process helps reduce wait time for customers while allowing us to expand our pickup and delivery services to a larger portion of the Minneapolis market,” says Tom Ryan, CD One’s vice president of franchise development.
To use the store, customers create an account on CD One’s in-store kiosk or mobile app, drop off their garments in a bin, and receive a text message when the garments are ready for pickup. That text message contains a locker number and a four-digit code to find and pick up their clean items.
The company believes that this process will expedite the process for customers, it said in a statement, and comes at a time when dry cleaners — and other retail-based businesses across the country — are experiencing labor shortages and rising costs.
The new store provides customers flexibility, the company says, and allows the Hopkins store to be accessed 24 hours a day for pickup and drop-off. Customers receive a code to unlock the front door via CD One’s mobile app to access the building during early morning and nighttime hours.
“The drycleaning and laundry landscape is changing at an incredible pace, and we want to make sure we’re continuing to be ahead of the curve while providing exceptional service for our customers,” Ryan says.
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