By Jane Han
Korea Times correspondent
NEW YORK ― Forget the hard numbers and data, Korean dry cleaners say they're the barometer to trust when it comes to reading the U.S. economy.
Take Kim Jung-sik's Quik Cleaners, for example. At his family-owned Manhattan shop, piles of unclaimed clothes ― some dating back to two years ago ― were once stacked up in all corners. With customers delaying pickups to avoid bills, the stacks only got higher. But things started changing in early March.
"We began to see our regulars drop off and pick up clothes more frequently and on schedule," said the owner, who is now going into his sixth year of business.
Last week's upbeat U.S. housing and manufacturing data stoked hopes that the world's largest economy is on a path to recovery. Experts and analysts started putting out mixed reports on the pace of the recovery, but Korean laundry experts ― who own about 40 percent of dry cleaners in New York ― say enough of the complex forecast.
"We don't know all the detailed economic stuff," says Yoon, owner of a dry cleaner in New Jersey, "but what we do know is that we're finally spotting a noticeable change in our business."
She said during the darkest times of the recession, even her most committed patrons cut back the number of trips they made.
"Weekly customers visited every other week and monthly customers came once every two months," said Yoon. "We're nowhere near pre-recession levels yet, but it's not as horrific as last year."
With pants, sweaters and blazers costing anywhere from $4 to $8 to dry clean per piece, even business owners don't blame customers for going frugal.
Figures, however, show that customers really are coming back slowly.
According to the American Drycleaner, an industry web portal, April sales of dry cleaners in the Northeast and West regions jumped by 7.5 and 2.6 percent. Operators averaged a 0.9-percent increase in sales nationwide.
Industry observers say that the increase in customers isn't the only reason behind the business growth, as cash-crunched owners aggressively slashed payrolls and cut costs to fight the downturn.
"Operators did all they can to prevent themselves from going under," said Kang Sung-kyu, head of the Korean Drycleaner Association of New York. "There is no doubt that those efforts are paying off now, but along with that, we are seeing a general recovery in business."