We Have Another Hero

We all have special garments -- a coat from a grandparent, that expensive and timeless LBD, the outfit your baby wore home from the hospital – where if something happened to it, we’d be devastated. I’ve shared stories in the past about our managers being a person’s hero for the day. I even have my own A Cleaner World store manager hero. I’d say that this story falls into that category.

Not too long ago a customer stopped by the A Cleaner World in Boone with an alpaca wool coat from Peru that had belonged to her mom, who recently passed away. The coat sat in her mom’s closet for at least 15 years. It was stained from top to bottom. “Her mom was a smoker,” said Joe (McDaniel, Manager of our Boone location), “and the coat was so discolored from stains and being exposed to years of smoking that the dirt almost had a marbling effect on the fabric.”

The customer had very little hope but asked Joe to give it a shot – and gave him full reign to try anything and everything. Joe opted to wet-clean the coat and got to work on a Saturday. He let it soak – 8 different times in total, and after each soak he would let it line dry a bit, block it out to ensure that it didn’t shrink, and then brush it. He finished up on the following Monday morning. Check out the before and after photos:

Needless to say, the customer was just thrilled. In fact so thrilled that she kissed Joe – which tells me Joe made hero status that very moment. And Joe – just like any hero – was simply happy he could help.