There’s a serious street brawl taking place in Westwood these days.
The combatants stand across the corner from one another, at the intersection of Westwood Boulevard and Holman Avenue: Sterling Cleaners, a 36-year veteran of the trade with another location on Overland Avenue, and its challenger, Faultline Cleaners, a gleaming upstart that hopes to grab a piece of the pie for itself.
Why would Faultline dare invade enemy territory?
“I feel there’s enough business here that I can succeed. Everybody can benefit from the competition,” said Jay Shah, Faultline’s owner and founder, who has bought and sold dry cleaners in Orange County for the past nine years. “Nobody scares me. I’ve signed a 20-year lease. I’m here to stay and provide reasonable prices.”
While questioning the logic of side-by-side dry cleaners, Sterling co-owner and President Barry Gershenson said he is confident he won’t be hurt by his new neighbor.
“Competition makes the business world thrive and I welcome it. But would I have rather had a great deli go in and offer corned beef sandwiches? You bet,” said Gershenson, 55, whose Westwood store brought in $2 million in sales last year.
Gershenson attributes Sterling’s longevity to high-end customer service. The 3,300-square-foot store offers same-day dry cleaning seven days a week. Customers have the option of home pick-up and delivery from Beverly Hills to Pacific Palisades; just last month, Gershenson introduced drive-through service. The store also provides complimentary coffee, doughnuts and soft drinks.
There is, however, a price to be paid for such amenities. Getting a pair of slacks dry cleaned will run about $6 and women’s skirts cost $5.50 to $8.50 generally higher than many dry cleaning outlets around town. “We’re not the most inexpensive and we’re not the least expensive,” Gershenson said.
The 31-year-old Shah has a pricing strategy of his own: just charge less. As an introductory special, all dry cleaning is $2.95 per piece and $3.00 more for one-hour service although he says his base price will go up in the next six months to $4.95.
“Anyone who tells you that prices differ for different products is wrong,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense. You don’t have separate machines for the two products.”
Shah’s store also boasts longer hours than his rival. He will remain open until midnight Monday through Friday. Sterling, by contrast, closes promptly at 11 p.m.
Shah also is sprucing up his 5,000-square-foot location, with a sense of style not often seen at the dry cleaners. Sliding glass doors lead patrons to a lobby that houses three wall-mounted television screens, including a 70-inch Mitsubishi model. Most unusual is an actual 30-foot fault line running through the middle of the store, covered with fiberglass and glowing with fiber-optic lighting that color coordinates with shooting stars above on the ceiling.
“People are first scared to cross it. But, you can step on it, dance and run. It won’t break. It’s covered with tempered glass,” said Shah, whose girlfriend gave him the idea which cost $250,000 to create.
“If you do it, you do it all the way. I want to do something different and I don’t think there’s anything like it anywhere,” he said.
Gershenson is not convinced that the flash is going to work. “West L.A. is not glitz. We’re a subdued, professional area,” he said. “What he’s doing is a bit of an overstatement.”
While the two operations might be too close for comfort, neck-and-neck competition is part and parcel of being in business, say local analysts.
“It represents recognition of a good retail location. Most people presume that there’s market share to be taken,” said Brian Ring, a partner in the retail group of Ernst & Young LLP in Century City.
Shah says he has been cleaning up in sales since his soft opening on Nov. 1. In fact, he is concerned he will be overwhelmed with business once 200,000 residents in the area receive his flyer offering $10 worth of free dry cleaning.
“In one week, our walk-in business has brought in 200 shirts a day. It’s making me nervous. By not doing anything, business is coming in,” he said.
Danny Haik, 58, is one new customer who welcomes the low prices.
“Sterling is a rip-off and there’s no reason for that. At $6 to $8 a cleaning, I might as well buy a new garment,” said the Westwood resident who had just picked up 11 pieces of dry cleaning. “I’ll continue to come here. The product was ready and there were no lines.”
For investment broker Ron Wanglin, though, time is a precious commodity and saving a few dollars is not a top priority.
“I don’t plan on trying them out. My attitude is, if it’s not broke, you don’t need to fix it,” said the 45-year-old Westwood resident. “I don’t have time to taste test between two dry cleaners.”
