Nostalgia: Things ain't what they used to be

As this pandemic has shown, you cannot be certain of the future, the best laid plans of mice and men can be swept aside by a tiny organism and it can change everything we know and thought we knew. It certainly seems that the larger a business, the harder they have found it to survive. Famous names that one might have thought could afford to ride things like this out are getting rid of thousands of staff or even closing altogether. Maybe the smaller a business is there is at least more flexibility it’s not unwieldy.

As for the present, it is in the here and now – and gone in a flash.

The past cannot be changed, but this brings a sense of security. This is why in the retail world, retro is such a big seller, it evokes a feeling of nostalgia even if the customer was not born when the original items were first around.

Steam trains draw huge crowds of all ages, a classic car going down the road will attract many admiring glances. Fast Food chains, even before Covid, would sometime bring out something from their past menus and sell them with much fanfare ‘for a limited period only’.

Nostalgia sells, and I believe following the Annus Horribilis that we have just gone through, that it will be a bigger draw than ever. So, as a textile care business, how do you create a nostalgia trip?

Having a photo display in your shop front of someone cleaning items with open vats of flammable spirits, while smoking a roll up (yes, this did happen) is probably not such a good idea; neither is spraying ‘eau de solvent’ around the shop to recreate the smells of the ‘good old days’.

However, a display of historic artefacts will get people talking and reminiscing about seeing some of these items being used by parents or grandparents. Let the customer see that this is more than just a business to you, make them aware that you are passionate about your chosen profession and that you are as much an artisan in textile care as any craft bakery is in making bread. Word will soon get around that you are not ‘just another’ drycleaner. This might sound a bit simplistic or perhaps you think it might be expensive but you would be surprised at how easy and cheaply this can be done.

A search under ‘vintage laundry’ or ‘vintage drycleanin’” on an on- line auction site is a great place to get everything you could ever need.

I have just done a quick search of my own treasured archive while typing this article and found original packets of Reckitts Colman Blue, pre-war Sunlight laundry soap bars, a drycleaning leaflet from the 1950s, a 1920s drycleaning Mutax brush set including a tiny solvent tin, a 1945 drycleaning spotting manual, and my absolute favourite, a miniature home drycleaning machine.

Apart from the home drycleaning machine, for an outlay of about £100 to £150, you could buy enough vintage items to fill a display cabinet.