Arrow Cleaners:
Where You Bring Your Ink-Stained Cashmere Coat

by: Debbie Coleman-Topi
Published 07/09/2009 - 11:28 p.m. CDT
Email: content@kctribune.com

Gayle Alexander, a seamstress with 28 years experience in the leather department, works on a colorful jacket sent from a client in California. Arrow frequently receives garments from around the world as well as flashy show business costumes from stars of stage and screen.

Credit: Michael McClure

Arrow Cleaners proudly boasts they're the only dry cleaners in the area to work with designer Ralph Lauren, creator of the popular Polo line. Like many local dry cleaners, the Gershon business is family-owned and operated. But similarities to the typical mom-and-pop corner dry cleaners seem to stop there.

The differences especially are pronounced when considering Arrow's relationship with the popular Lauren designer label, which boasts product sales worldwide. Arrow once participated in a year-long project in which they helped the Ralph Lauren enterprise launch a new clothing line, featuring vintage-looking clothing including denim and leathers. Arrow processed 475,000 units of stone-washed denim and treated 20,000 pieces of leather from boots to belts and jackets, Bruce Gershon said.

"It literally turned my business upside down for over a year," Gershon said. During the project, Arrow transformed to a 24-hour operation, devoting much of its staff and space to the art of creating clothes with a yellowish, dingy tinge. The cleaners was credited with devising a chemical formula that not only looked old, but also wouldn't wash out during cleaning.

Arrow occupies 26,000 square feet in a melding of both old and new buildings and a parking lot that spans most of the block at 39th and Troost in Midtown. The plant features sections specializing in different types of cleaning. Hundreds of long clothing racks are intertwined in the areas. One area is devoted to dry cleaning normal clothing such as men's dress shirts and suits and women's blouses and slacks. Some pressing is done using a hand-held iron that shoots steam onto the garments. The dress shirts are pressed while hanging on a life-size bust.

Another area is devoted to wedding dresses, one of the business's specialties. In that area, operators are busy wrapping dresses in special air-tight boxes when the cleaning process is complete. Seamstresses perform mending and alterations, including re-knitting and re-weaving, while seated at sewing machines in another area. Yet another room is temperature-controlled and stores furs for customers out-of-season. The room is kept dark and at a constant 55 degrees, with 45 percent humidity for maximum preservation.

Industrial-sized machines that resemble large washing machines are scattered throughout the facility. One such machine uses an environmentally safe process called GreenEarth, which was developed in Kansas City and uses silicone technology to clean leathers and textiles.Other machines include large tanks resembling home water heaters, which are used to capture the waste heat generated from the dry-cleaning process and heat the water used in the washing process.

The family-owned business differs from most area dry cleaners in yet another respect. The Gershons, which include owner/operator Bruce, his wife, Stephanie, his sister, Susie Shatz, and their father Bob, are joined by 70 employees, not members of the family.

Bruce Gershon knows his business is unique among dry cleaners.

This industry is the type of industry that if you have the right piece of equipment, you can hang out a sign," he said. "There are no industry-wide accreditation programs in our business", said Gershon. "Any basically-untrained person can begin a dry cleaners. And unfortunately some do."

"We're not a do-it-quick, do-it-cheap dry cleaner," he said. "We're a do-it-right dry cleaner."

Framed awards and other recognition hang in a neat row along one wall of Arrow's lobby, as if a testament to the company's high standards and longevity. Awards range from one for community service, which honors the company's volunteer cleaning of donated coats during an annual coat drive for area school children. Others are awards recognizing professionalism in several different cleaning techniques.

Arrow differs from most other Kansas City dry cleaners in that most of the cleaner's customers aren't just from the neighborhood. Instead, many hail from Johnson County and throughout greater Kansas City. But the business offers free pick-up and delivery, so customers aren't required to make the drive to the midtown office. Arrow does a huge mail-order and computer-order business, in which they ship out 40 to 60 boxes of orders per day. Orders hanging on a rack, earlier this week, came from as far away as Hawaii and Switzerland.

Bruce said one of the family's main goals has been to work to grow the business throughout the years, especially after he took over for his father, Bob Gershon, during the mid-1970s. Part of the growth came in the form of acquisitions and more employees, stemming from increased individual and commercial business. Another aspect of growth involved keeping current with changes in technology,in part by investing in modern equipment and several computer systems that keep the machines running properly and track their work. The business began relying on computers during the late 1980s and has installed several upgrades and new components throughout the years, Bruce said.

One such computer scans a small, permanent bar code that's placed within the inseam of all items that Arrow dry cleans. The code is so small that most customers are unaware of its existence, Bruce said. Once scanned, the bar code, instantly recalls the history of the piece being dry cleaned, providing its age, number of times cleaned there, repairs and other such information.

Arrow uses a mix of chemical solutions, each specifically designed to remove certain stains, including, blood, inkand coffee. The cleaners has stain removal specialists who are professionally trained in the procedures, Bob Gershon said.

"You really have to know your chemistry when treating stains," he said, adding that treatments partly depend on whether a stain is solvent-soluble or water-soluble.

Most Kansas Citians probably don't realize that when they send a leather coat, jacket, purse or other garment to any cleaners in the area, it probably ends up at Arrow, he said. His business is the area expert in cleaning such fabrics and even has the technology to re-dye faded or discolored leather. Arrow can clean large pieces of leather, as well. For instance, a rack of leather goods to be cleaned even included a set of leather couch covers.

Bob Gershon, Bruce's father, came into the business with his father, Joseph Gershon, about 1945, soon after Bob returned from World War II. Joseph, a Polish immigrant, learned the trade of tailor in the old country before moving to the states and opening a shop at 43rd and Troost, near the present location.

Bob, who works only a couple of hours most days, jokes that the business is very successful despite his absence. "It makes me sick...they're doing so good without me."

When asked what his grandfather would think of the business today, especially the growth and technology, Bruce could only reply: "My grandfather wouldn't have any clue."

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