Commuter Cleaning

CASE: COMMUTER CLEANING_A NEW VENTURE PROPOSAL7

The service vision of Commuter Cleaning is to provide dry cleaning services for individuals with careers or other responsibilities that make it difficult for them to find the time to go to traditional dry cleaners. The company's goals are to provide a high-quality dry cleaning service that is both reliable and convenient

The targeted market consists of office workers who live in the suburbs of large metropolitan areas. The ser¬vice will be marketed primarily to single men and women as well as dual-career couples, because this segment of the population has the greatest need for a quality dry cleaning service but does not have the time to go to the traditional dry cleaners. The targeted cities are those surrounded by suburbs from which many people commute via mass transit.

The facilities where customers will drop-off and pick-up their dry cleaning will be located at sites where commuters meet their trains or buses into the down¬town area (i.e., park-and-ride locations and commuter train stations). For each city, it will be necessary to de¬termine who owns these transit stations and how land can be rented from the owner. In some locations, facil¬ities where space could be rented already exist. In other locations, there may not be any existing facilities, and the pick-up and drop-off booths will need to be built.

The facilities for laundry pick-up and drop-off need not be large. The building or room at the station need only be large enough to accommodate racks for hang¬ing the finished dry cleaning.

Initially, it may be necessary to restrict the service to laundering business-wear shirts, because these are the easiest of all clothing articles to clean and also will

7Prepared by Mara Segai under the supervision of Professor James A. Fitzsimmons.

allow the operations to be simplified. Typically, a man or woman will need a clean shirt for each workday, so a large demand exists. One drawback would be the di¬minished...