As an eBay Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
Anyone Remember Going Here?
- Thread starter launderess
- Start date
Help Support :
Self-service dry cleaning
Although not a Philco center, I did find a self-service dry cleaner on the other side of my county years ago. Used it to help my sister out. (We were <20 y.o. @ the time).
Someone had a few too many cocktails and got her jacket dirty when worshipping the porcelain goddess (a.k.a the throne!)
It cleaned up nicely. LOL
Couldn't hold back. LOL just HAD to share.
Although not a Philco center, I did find a self-service dry cleaner on the other side of my county years ago. Used it to help my sister out. (We were <20 y.o. @ the time).
Someone had a few too many cocktails and got her jacket dirty when worshipping the porcelain goddess (a.k.a the throne!)
It cleaned up nicely. LOL
Couldn't hold back. LOL just HAD to share.
pulsator-power
Well-known member
self service dry cleaning
Whirlpool also had them in the form of Polyclean Centers in the mid-late 60's. Laundromat & dry cleaning. Cool place to hang out! I bet you'd get that sunshine feeling in a Philco dry cleaner. The smell alone would do it!
Jerry
Whirlpool also had them in the form of Polyclean Centers in the mid-late 60's. Laundromat & dry cleaning. Cool place to hang out! I bet you'd get that sunshine feeling in a Philco dry cleaner. The smell alone would do it!
Jerry
Our local GE appliance store was also a Philco sunshine center. The owners wife died a few years ago and he leased the business to some guys but would not give them the freedom to do what they wanted so they closed the sales store and I think the laundry is still open. They had very strick rules that no children were allowed in the laundry. It was spotless and I never saw a machine out of order. We only went there a few times. They had GE filter-flo toploaders, Bendix dual-loader FL and the Philco dry cleaning machines. My parents and I bought a lot of our appliances there until they closed the store. The one repairman went to work for Hobart afterwards. He was the guy that came to fix my mom's GE's and He came to our house to fix our KA dishwasher.
Quote: "They had very strict rules that no children were allowed in......"
Ok is this enforcable? LOL
I have seen signs that say "Unattended children will be auctioned off as slaves" which humorously gets the point across, but the above....
LOL
Ok is this enforcable? LOL
I have seen signs that say "Unattended children will be auctioned off as slaves" which humorously gets the point across, but the above....
LOL
Toggle,
Yes they did enforce it. One time when my mom's Kenmore model 60 washer died, my sister and I went with her to the Sunshine center. I was about 14 and my sister was 7 or 8, my mom put the laundry in the washers and then went into the store to pick out a new washer. The owner told her that my sister was not allowed in the laundromat. The rule was no kids under 12 I believe. The owner said something about kids running around and the saftey issue. SO I sat outside with my sister while the washers finished up. My mom did buy a new washer, She bought the middle of the line Filterflo with the Dispensal and mini basket. I loved watching that work.
Yes they did enforce it. One time when my mom's Kenmore model 60 washer died, my sister and I went with her to the Sunshine center. I was about 14 and my sister was 7 or 8, my mom put the laundry in the washers and then went into the store to pick out a new washer. The owner told her that my sister was not allowed in the laundromat. The rule was no kids under 12 I believe. The owner said something about kids running around and the saftey issue. SO I sat outside with my sister while the washers finished up. My mom did buy a new washer, She bought the middle of the line Filterflo with the Dispensal and mini basket. I loved watching that work.
Quick n Clean!
There was a laundromat with a special dry cleaning machine right down the stripcenter from Zayre (where I worked). I needed to dryclean a pair of pants quickly for a special event, so I trekked on over there with my one pair of pants.
The laundromat lady asked me if that was all I had for this huge machine. I think she would have liked to have thrown in some of her own stuff with my lonely pair of pants. It cost me $3.50, and I got my pants in record time. Ah, yes...the mind of a 16 year old.
There was a laundromat with a special dry cleaning machine right down the stripcenter from Zayre (where I worked). I needed to dryclean a pair of pants quickly for a special event, so I trekked on over there with my one pair of pants.
The laundromat lady asked me if that was all I had for this huge machine. I think she would have liked to have thrown in some of her own stuff with my lonely pair of pants. It cost me $3.50, and I got my pants in record time. Ah, yes...the mind of a 16 year old.
golittlesport
Well-known member
Those self service dry cleaners were the rage for a while. Besides Philco and Whirlpool....Norge, Frigidaire, and Westinhouse also had them.
Brent-Aucoin
Well-known member
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2004
- Messages
- 887
Speed Queen was the ticket
Where I lived in Louisiana, the laundry mats had the Speed Queen versions of the Dry Cleaning center.
I never saw one work. Seems like they were always out of order.
They looked like normal front load machines.
Seems like Peter770 and I saw one or two of the Speed Queen's at a laundry mat in DC during the last convention.
Does anyone know if any of these machines are still in operation?
Brent
Where I lived in Louisiana, the laundry mats had the Speed Queen versions of the Dry Cleaning center.
I never saw one work. Seems like they were always out of order.
They looked like normal front load machines.
Seems like Peter770 and I saw one or two of the Speed Queen's at a laundry mat in DC during the last convention.
Does anyone know if any of these machines are still in operation?
Brent
Norge Cleaning Villages and Self Service Dry Cleaners
Hi everyone! It's been a while since I last posted anything, but I have been following the different threads and conversations.
I remember in the LA area that the Norge Cleaning Village stores were something that really stood out when you drove along the street, because they had such a distinctive sign and logo over the building. This was also what appeared in the newspaper ads. There were two that I especially remember, one in Gardena near my parent's house, and one in West Los Angeles. These stores here were in operation from around the mid 1960s to the late 1980s. Most were stand-alone stores, as I recall, although the one in Gardena was in the middle of a row of buildings on Gardena Boulevard, just down the street from my junior high school.
One day I was able to talk to the owner of the store in West LA, and asked why these stores seemed to be fading from the scene. As a cash-poor college student, the idea of self-service dry cleaning seemed like a really good idea to me. The owner said that he felt the same way, but maintainance on the equipment (both the top-loading washers and front-loading dry cleaning units) was getting extremely hard to keep up with at that time (about 1987). According to him, Norge was beginning to cut back on technical and parts support, so much to the point that store owners were being caught in a bind when the machines broke down, or simply needed regular servicing.
This was also at a time when the Norge brand began to disappear from many appliance stores and dealers. It was not fully clear just what was going on, as the connection with Maytag was not something that was communicated widely at that time, as much and as quickly as it would be today. Some were able to do the repair work themselves, but a lot of owners did not, and simply let machines sit out of action. The regular washers were often replaced by other brands, often Maytag. This is what happened in the two stores that I first mentioned.
As for the dry-cleaning machines, this owner told me that there were problems that he was having with the handling and disposing of the solvent. He did not like having to personally deal with the draining, cleaning, and refilling of the storage and recirculation system. At that time in Los Angeles, the issue of air quality and hazardous wastes, with regard to dry cleaners, was already in progress. This is still an issue at present in LA, to a degree. The EPA had already issued some guidelines about this, but to purchase and install the recommended equipment, as well as adopt the related changes in practices, this was beyond the normal reach and costs that many small business owners could justify or afford. In order to keep their businesses, most self service stores removed their dry cleaning equipment and replaced them with regular commercial washers and dryers. A few went so far as to open up a regular dry cleaning operation to replace the former equipment. There is at least one place in Santa Monica that did this, and still is in operation.
What happened in other towns and cities? I'm curious about this!
Hi everyone! It's been a while since I last posted anything, but I have been following the different threads and conversations.
I remember in the LA area that the Norge Cleaning Village stores were something that really stood out when you drove along the street, because they had such a distinctive sign and logo over the building. This was also what appeared in the newspaper ads. There were two that I especially remember, one in Gardena near my parent's house, and one in West Los Angeles. These stores here were in operation from around the mid 1960s to the late 1980s. Most were stand-alone stores, as I recall, although the one in Gardena was in the middle of a row of buildings on Gardena Boulevard, just down the street from my junior high school.
One day I was able to talk to the owner of the store in West LA, and asked why these stores seemed to be fading from the scene. As a cash-poor college student, the idea of self-service dry cleaning seemed like a really good idea to me. The owner said that he felt the same way, but maintainance on the equipment (both the top-loading washers and front-loading dry cleaning units) was getting extremely hard to keep up with at that time (about 1987). According to him, Norge was beginning to cut back on technical and parts support, so much to the point that store owners were being caught in a bind when the machines broke down, or simply needed regular servicing.
This was also at a time when the Norge brand began to disappear from many appliance stores and dealers. It was not fully clear just what was going on, as the connection with Maytag was not something that was communicated widely at that time, as much and as quickly as it would be today. Some were able to do the repair work themselves, but a lot of owners did not, and simply let machines sit out of action. The regular washers were often replaced by other brands, often Maytag. This is what happened in the two stores that I first mentioned.
As for the dry-cleaning machines, this owner told me that there were problems that he was having with the handling and disposing of the solvent. He did not like having to personally deal with the draining, cleaning, and refilling of the storage and recirculation system. At that time in Los Angeles, the issue of air quality and hazardous wastes, with regard to dry cleaners, was already in progress. This is still an issue at present in LA, to a degree. The EPA had already issued some guidelines about this, but to purchase and install the recommended equipment, as well as adopt the related changes in practices, this was beyond the normal reach and costs that many small business owners could justify or afford. In order to keep their businesses, most self service stores removed their dry cleaning equipment and replaced them with regular commercial washers and dryers. A few went so far as to open up a regular dry cleaning operation to replace the former equipment. There is at least one place in Santa Monica that did this, and still is in operation.
What happened in other towns and cities? I'm curious about this!
Oh yeah, there were quite a few "Sunshine" laundry centers around metro Atlanta back in the day. Venus mentioned one next to a "Zayre" department store----I think they were also located in "Zayre" locations around Atlanta.
