Dry Cleaner Connection opens

In June, the Guenthers will open a Dry Cleaner Connection location in The Dalles at 208 E. Fourth Street.

“We pretty much saw a need,” Joe Guenther said, after the closure of the only dry cleaning stores in Hood River and The Dalles.

The one vestige of 12th Street cleaners in Hood River is the motorized rack system the Guenthers purchased from the store down the street.

“We needed it personally, and heard from a lot of people when both the Hood River and The Dalles locations closed,” Guenther said. “We had a Portland connection, and this is what we came up with.”

“It was nothing more than finding an easy connection for a dry cleaner. It’s pretty simple, as simple as finding that connection,” he said.

“It’s been a really good response, people are glad we’re here, and it’s filling a need people definitely want,” MariBeth Guenther said.

“It’s funny, when we were building out the location, people stopped by and asked, what are you putting in?’” Joe Guenther said. “We’d tell them it would be a dry cleaner, and it was like, ‘Yeah, whooo!’ I never thought of that with dry cleaning. It’s pretty funny, but without stores in the two cities, people were figuring out what that would look like, and ultimately there was a need we were able to fill.”

Store hours in Hood River are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. (closed for lunch) weekdays and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday.

Greeting customers is employee Madison Butcher, who registers the garments on computer and bags them up

The word “Connection” is important, because no dry cleaning is done at the Hood River storefront.

Garments are bagged up and driven to a dry cleaner in Portland on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

The driver leaves Hood River at 4:15 p.m. and is typically back in Hood River by 7:30 p.m.

Turnaround is usually one week, Butcher said.

In time, the Guenthers expect to expand to four or more employees, as The Dalles location opens along with the other arm of their service: wash and fold. In coming weeks, clients can bring in laundry for washing and folding on location, for $12 a bag.

Dry cleaning by garment ranges from $4-$8.

Guenther said they are aware there is a perception that the company’s prices will be higher because they are paying for the dry cleaning and for shuttling it back and forth from Portland, but they have an advantageous pricing structure compared to Portland.

“For those who don’t want to do laundry, we make laundry day a little better,” Guenther said.

Guenther owns an Edward Jones brokerage on the Heights, and MariBeth Guenther also works for Waquis Mortgage in White Salmon. The two settled in Hood River 12 years ago. MariBeth (then Ortega) graduated from Hood River Valley High School class of 2002.