Taking Stock of 2024 and Getting Ready for 2025

CHICAGO — After months of uncertainty and a tumultuous presidential election, dry cleaners are beginning to get a clearer picture of what is to come in 2025. For this American Drycleaner Your Views survey, we asked our readership how 2024 treated their business and explored their expectations — and concerns — for the coming year.

The Year that Was

First, we wanted to get a report of how 2024 treated dry cleaners responding to our survey.

For the bulk of our respondents, 2024 treated them pretty well, with 24% reporting that their business revenues showed a year-over-year gain of more than 5% and 40% saw a gain of between 1% and 5%. Those showing a loss of between 1% and 5% and those with a loss of more than 5% were tied at 16% each, and 4% reported that they held steady from 2023.

When asked if their 2024 met the expectations they held at the beginning of the year, 60% reported that it had, while 40% were disappointed with how the year turned out.

The Year to Be

We then turned our attention to 2025, asking, “What are your major concerns for your drycleaning business in the coming year?”

Answers included:

Labor shortage and decrease in consumer confidence index.
Need economy to improve so that the customer base has more disposable income to spend on entertainment and vacation and wearing the clothing to do so.
Stock market crash.
Declining sales seems irreversible.
Need more people back in the office.
Declining piece counts and finding/retaining staff.
It’s just a dying breed of animal, I think. We have never fully kicked back from pre- COVID. Unless something drastically happens, I’ll be shutting down after the first quarter of 2025.

We also asked what the biggest challenges for the drycleaning industry in the coming year would be. More than half (56%) believed “changing consumer habits” were the top concerned, followed by “rising costs of supplies and energy” at 28%, “labor shortages” at 12% and “domestic and international instability” at 4%.

Much was made of the impact the 2024 presidential election would have on the coming year. We asked our respondents how they saw the political climate affecting the drycleaning industry as a whole.

Responses to this question included:

It certainly can’t get worse. It should do a whole lot better with Trump in there.
The new administration will improve things.
I believe the current administration will be very business friendly in their tax policy and their overall approach will be helpful to all Americans.
Consumer sentiment in the economy should improve. I think we’ve hit the bottom on office attendance and possibly looking at slight improvement in that regard moving forward.
OMG!!!!! I have no idea!!!!!!!

When it came to potential policy changes that could come about in the new administration, 28% believed that “minimum wage laws” would have the greatest impact on their business, with “tax policy” coming in second at 20%. “Tariffs” followed at 16%, then “environmental regulations” at 12%. Other concerns were “immigration policy,” “return to office,” “EIDL loan payments” and “inflation,” coming in at 4% each.

While there are many factors outside of individual business owners’ control, we asked our respondents to list the things they were planning to do to adapt to meeting the challenges of 2025. Focusing on marketing and customer service was on the radar for 60%, as well as reducing costs (32%). Other factors within our owner’s control were expanding services (28%) and investing in new technology (20%).

Finally, we asked for additional comments and thoughts about the coming year. Responses included:

I plan to continue to focus on customer service and quality and feel that those efforts will yield results.
People dress so poorly and look so sloppy and don’t have to go to the office. No concern about personal appearance.
I think the drycleaning business is pricing itself out of business. Cost are out of control and the customer base continues to get smaller. Hope we can make it 10 more years.
Need to get rid of Zoom.
I believe America has been given a reprieve and a chance to rebuild trust between our government and the people they supposedly serve. Trust in all institutions has been shattered and I hope the federal government can begin to work towards regaining the trust of the people by truly serving them.

The Your Views survey offers a current snapshot of the trade audience’s views. The publication invites qualified subscribers to American Drycleaner emails to participate anonymously in the unscientific poll each quarter.