Last Monday I dropped off four shirts at Eco Friendly Cleaners (127 West Canon Perdido Street, Santa Barbara) with plans to retrieve them a couple of days later. I didn’t get around to it until yesterday, but when I got there at 4:50 pm I discovered they had shuttered 20 minutes earlier. What dry cleaning establishment closes on a Saturday at 4:30 pm? I realized in a flash that I was probably shit out of luck. It’s now 10:50 am, I’m driving back to WeHo at noon or 1 pm, and so far they haven’t responded to my calls and emails begging them to please cut me a break and let me pick up my shirts before heading home.

I called their business line, I wrote them emails, I asked the business owner next door if he knew the Eco proprietors’ last names so I could call them at home…nothing worked.

It’s obviously my fault that I didn’t pick up the shirts before they closed. The Eco Cleaner guys are in no way to to blame — this is on me. But again, who closes on a Saturday at 4:30 pm? And isn’t Eco Cleaners supposed to be a service business? Isn’t it the duty of the good merchant to turn the other cheek and do what he/she can to help the customer? Thank you, Eco Cleaners, for ignoring my pleas. Now I have to shell out at least $60 or $70 bucks to have UPS or Fed Ex pick up the shirts, etc. If I was the owner of Eco Cleaners, I would’ve done the right thing and driven down to the store this morning to help a customer out. But that’s me.