Model Cleaners decides to close Charleroi location

By TAYLOR BROWN

tbrown@yourmvi.com

Model Cleaners closed its original location in Charleroi on Friday. 

The company, which now serves all of southwestern Pennsylvania and West Virginia, started in 1986 in a single location at Second Street and Lincoln Avenue.

More than three decades later, the company has more than a dozen locations throughout the region and offers a variety of services from dry cleaning, alterations and repairs to leather and suede treatments.

President Dan LaCarte said the move became necessary because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Unfortunately, the pandemic has forced us to make some tough decisions,” LaCarte said.

The store closed for good at 4 p.m. Friday. Customers will be able to pick up or drop off orders at the nearby Rostraver Township location.

Model Cleaners will still call Charleroi home. Its headquarters and cleaning plant still remain at Hussey and Third streets, and delivery services are offered throughout the borough and surrounding areas. 

LaCarte said dry cleaning was the third most impacted industry during the pandemic.

“The store was only doing about $200 a week,” LaCarte said. “Weddings are at 25% capacity; funerals have restrictions; people are working from home. People just aren’t dressing up anymore.

“It just did not make sense to keep that specific location open.”

While LaCarte said the company is sad to close the location “where it all started,” it was necessary for survival.

“That is where it all started with our dad,” he said. “We started out of that building,  — that is our beginning — but this is not the end for us there either.”

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