Updated 4:04 pm
Lapels Dry Cleaning in Vineyard Haven announced it will not be accepting items for drop-off after Saturday, April 23, and will stop taking orders from customers starting on Monday, April 25. The current store hours will be used for customer pickup times. These times are Monday to Friday from 8 am to 5 pm and Saturday from 9 am to 4 pm. An update is planned for customers in the near future.
Greg Carroll, who owns the Vineyard Haven Lapels franchise with his sister, Megan Carroll, told the Times that the reason they have temporarily stopped taking new orders is to make time to do “spring cleaning” alongside staff training in preparation for the summer season.
“We never had to do this in the past,” Carroll said.
Carroll said he is working with Lapels for the reopening of the Vineyard Haven location.
A major issue Carroll mentioned was the lack of workers. Under normal circumstances, “four or five” J1 visa workers work during the summer for Carroll alongside the usual staff. The lack of foreign workers caused staffing shortages for businesses Island-wide during the previous summer. As one of a few dry cleaners on the Island, the staff of usually three people had to do the work of five or seven during the summer. More than a financial problem, Carroll viewed the lack of summer help as “a quality of life issue” for everyone working at the shop.
“We’re just tired,” Carroll said. “We muscled through it.”
Carroll said one of the students has been accepted to work, but even that is not a guarantee of enough summer help.
The headline and information have been updated to reflect Lapels is not going to be closed.
Another example of how serious many interconnected issues (housing, staffing, rents, etc.) are for our Island…many are fighting hard to tackle them on an Island wide basis…many are paying a huge price for how long it’s taken us to address, collectively, the big ones…thank you Lapels for all you do for Islanders…
Thank you for clarifying this!
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