Laundering Money

When you’re in the shirt laundering business, margins are tight enough to give you ring around the collar. “Few people understand the shirt’s transformation from dirty to clean, which at Kingbridge Cleaners & Tailors will run you $6. Kingbridge, with stores in Brooklyn and Manhattan, makes a profit of about 13 cents from a single laundered shirt, after the cost of labor, utilities, rent, insurance, supplies and administration.” So yeah, taking the shirt off your back and cleaning it is volume business. It’s also one where any rise in prices, even when it comes to something as simple as a lowly hanger, can leave your business hung out to dry. “An imported container of hangers, shipped to Kingbridge’s cleaning facility in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, cost about $3,500 in 2019. During the peak of the pandemic, the same container shot up to $22,000. It’s now settled at about $14,000.” A look at the economics of having a clean shirt from the NYT (Gift Article): They Charge $6 to Clean Your Shirt. They Make 13 Cents On It. (Now I have another excuse for never wearing a collared shirt like an adult. Too much financial risk.)