By Joyce Kryszak
Buffalo, NY – The future of one of Western New York's oldest dry cleaning chains is in question. According to the owners of several competitors, Cadet Cleaners wants to close up shop for good.
At one time, there were dozens of Cadet Cleaners sprinkled throughout the region. Today there are nine still in Buffalo, and another seven in Rochester. But maybe not for long.
Bernie Wahl, who owns Cadet Cleaners, has been calling other dry cleaners trying to sell his stores. One Rochester dry cleaner, Mesut Vardar, confirmed he's finalizing a deal with Wahl, but wouldn't yet offer details. Dave Brown, who has owned Brownie's Cleaners in Rochester for 49 years, says he also got an offer.
"He just called me up and asked if I was interested in any of the seven stores that he has in Rochester," said Brown. "I guess today he's notifying all of his customers that they have to pick up everything by, I think the date is December 18th, because that's when he's closing."
There was no word late Friday on whether or not those customers, or store employees, had been notified. Stan Jablonski has worked for Wahl for 21 years and is a company manager at Cadet's headquarters on Utica in Buffalo. Jablonski says he knows nothing about any closings.
"I just don't know, I don't know what to say," said Jablonski.
Wahl declined offers for an interview, however, issued a statement that said, "Due to the nature of the dry cleaning business, from time to time we open stores or close existing stores. Currently, there are no plans to close the Buffalo area Cadet stores." However, the Billoni's, who own Colvin Cleaners on Elmwood in Buffalo, say Wahl called asking if they wanted to buy the Buffalo stores. Cyndee Billoni says Wahl told them that he was looking to sell his stores or he was just going to close them. Billoni says she wasn't surprised because its an expensive business to keep running.
"Your electric is skyrocketing, your water is skyrocketing, your soaps are skyrocketing -- I mean everything," said Billoni. "You know, your labor -- labor is really hard...I mean who wants to stand there and press pants all day long, so you have to pay them a lot of money to do this."
Cadet Cleaners has roughly sixty employees working at the Buffalo area locations and about another fifty in Rochester, who would be affected by any closings.