VERMILLION, S.D.—There is a laundry list of tasks yet to complete, and Clarene Meins is hardly dried out.
Meins owns University Cleaners and Formal Wear, the only dry cleaners here after Laundry World and Hawaiian Sun closed its door last June.
“It’s been quite a long time since the other cleaners was in town,” said Meins, who bought University Cleaners about a year ago. “I’ve never known competition.”
Meins, 61, said she has seen an increase in business since the closing of Laundry World but it isn’t anything she cannot handle.
She keeps herself busy during the school year with items including band uniforms for the University of South Dakota, Vermillion High School and Elk Point, the drama department’s costumes, the 60 to 100 pieces a day from the dental hygiene department at USD, ROTC uniforms and other customer drop offs.
“I normally work nine-hour days,” Meins said. “And I am back almost every night at least 2 to 3 hours to finish the work.”
Kim Beene, 40, and Meins are the only full-time workers at University Cleaners.
“We’ve tried to hire others, but none have ever worked out,” Meins said. “What we hire them in for, they are unable to do.”
Beene has worked for the cleaners for about ten years while other workers usually last a few weeks at best, Meins said.
University Cleaners has always been an all-purpose dry cleaning service, tux renter and seller of men’s suits but has started to include alterations and fluff-and-fold laundry, as well as cleaning drapes and large items like comforters.
“Alterations is a big thing,” Meins said. “There is not a day that I don’t get half a dozen pieces.”
Customers said they love the additions to the store.
“She is very reliable and quick, and she can sew,” Susanne Evans of Vermillion said. “That is the best part because I don’t have to.”
Carol Hemmingson, likes that she has the option to do her dry-cleaning locally.
“There are other places I could go, but they are not this close,” Hemmingson said. “She offers a great service, and I have never been dissatisfied.”
With customer satisfaction in mind, Meins says she is glad she has always been able to ensure the customer will get their items.
“I may have misplaced an item here or there,” she said, “but I have never lost an item completely.”
Meins now provides her dry-cleaning, tux rental and alteration services for Vermillion and the surrounding area at a lower cost than the previous owner.
“I lowered the prices because I thought the costs before were too high,” Meins said. “It doesn’t matter to me that I’m the only one in town.”
People in and out of Vermillion use the services Meins provides.
“I live about 28 miles away from here and will drop my stuff off when I come out this way,” said Delmer Stene, 85, of Union County. “She is terrific; No. 1 for me.”
Ben Nesselhuf, 31, who represents Vermillion in the state senate, said he has “bought five suits over the years” at University Cleaners, sight unseen.
Had he not, Nesselhuf said, he would have had to drive an hour to Sioux Falls. “I’m a big believer in shopping locally, and now I can back it up.”