RAVE FabriCARE'S True Quality Cleaning Blog

RAVE FabriCARE extends garment care services worldwide

For over 30 years, RAVE FabriCARE, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, has delivered extraordinary care for fine garments, household textiles and accessories to clients located throughout the USA and Canada.

We have now extended our Nationwide Clean By Mail services to serve clients throughout Western Europe (countries from Andorra to United Kingdom), Gulf States (countries from Bahrain to United Arab Emirates), Far East (countries from Hong Kong to Taiwan) and Australasia (Australia and New Zealand).

In this post, we discuss our Worldwide Clean By Mail service, our turnaround time and pricing, and the procedure for sending us your fine garments, household textiles and accessories using the Post Office, Federal Express, United Parcel Service or DHL.

Fine garment care: It’s not solely about the dry cleaning machine or solvent

Dry cleaners are quick to tell you all about their “great” dry cleaning machine and their “great” dry cleaning solvent or fluid.

The implication is that true quality cleaning is all about machines and solvents or fluids.

That’s a false and misleading premise.

Truth is, true quality garment care is the result of the integration of the right dry cleaning machines and right solvents or fluids into a garment care process that involves an entire chain of specific tasks. Independent of the process, the dry cleaning machine and the solvent or fluid are worthless.

In this post, I explain why it’s important to understand your dry cleaner’s process instead of focusing solely on the brand of the dry cleaning machine or the generic type of solvent or fluid used.

“Highly amazing dry cleaning services” and other bullcrap

Many dry cleaners have been led to believe that it’s critical to add blog posts to their websites in order to “engage with a wider audience.” This has led to a proliferation of blog posts on dry cleaner websites that can best be described as bullcrap.

In this post, I identify some of the common threads that run through these blog posts and provide an example of a blog post that’s sure to provide you with a hearty chuckle.

Why “organic dry cleaners” are burying their claims and trade names

I’ve recently noticed a new trend in the dry cleaning industry: Dry cleaners who’ve spent years trumpeting themselves as “Organic Dry Cleaners” are moving away from that claim and/or that trade name.

Whether the term is “organic” or any of it’s substitutes — enviromentally-friendly, eco-friendly, non-toxic, green, natural, etc. — these words mean absolutely nothing. 

Fact is, the use of the term “Organic Cleaners” is nothing more than a con on an uninformed and gullible public.

In this post, I discuss why “Organic Cleaning” is a con and why dry cleaners who’ve spent years trumpeting themselves as “Organic Dry Cleaners” are moving away from that claim and/or that trade name.

1988- 2018: RAVE FabriCARE celebrates it’s 30th Anniversary

RAVE FabriCARE is celebrating it’s 30th anniversary.

It all started in a small 1,800 square foot retail center in 1988.

In this post, I explore the genesis of the idea to start a fabricare business and how the vision of extraordinary care for fine garments, household textiles and accessories has guided our every action for over 30 years.

New players are always promising to revolutionize the dry cleaning industry

Every new entrant into the dry cleaning market place will enthusiastically tell you all about their plans to “revolutionize” the industry. 

They’re always full of “new” ideas that, they believe, will turn the dry cleaning business on it’s proverbial head and generate wealth beyond their wildest dreams.

More specifically, they’ll tell you that they’ve developed a “new concept” — a better mouse trap. And that everything will be “different” and “better”.

Dig a little deeper and you’ll soon recognize that most of these “new” ideas have been around for quite a while and that there’s nothing new to be found.

Fact is, the only thing “new” about their concept is the glitzy marketing package that surrounds the very ordinary product they deliver.

In this post, I use Procter & Gamble’s franchised operation, Tide Dry Cleaners, to illustrate my point.

Dry cleaners don’t care. Really. You might think that they do but they don’t.

Every dry cleaner swears that they really care about your fine garments and household textiles.

But do they really care?

Out of 26,000 dry cleaners in the USA, how many really care about your fine garments, household textiles and accessories? I’d bet fewer than 25.

In this post, I’ll explain why the work delivered by value (discount), ordinary (middle market) and most wannabe (illusion) dry cleaners is incompatible with caring.

Tell your dry cleaner to remove their glued on or heat sealed barcodes

Many dry cleaners glue or heat seal barcodes on your fine garments and household textiles.

When you ask dry cleaners why they glue or heat seal barcodes on your fine garments and household textiles, they’ll tell you that they do so in order to “track your items through their production system”.

That’s the pronounced reason or spin. The real reasons are different.

So the critical question is this: What should you do if you discovered that your dry cleaner glued or heat sealed a barcode onto any of your garments or household textiles?

The overwhelming majority of dry cleaning customers probably couldn’t care less. All they want is a “cleaned and pressed” garment or household textile at the cheapest possible price.

Other customers — particularly those with a large investment in their fine garments and household textiles — may frown upon this practice. For those individuals, what are your options?

In this blog post, I prescribe a course of action and, if that fails, an alternative approach.