The exorbitant prices aren't what got me. The customer service (or poor showing) did.
I've been coming to Art Cleaners for a while and initially made the choice to continue using their service because of the convenience of the location. Great locale, they did a solid job with my clothes, and the service has always been good. My only issues were the high prices and their new "no Amex" policy. In short, I've been more pleased than not.
Today I came with a large bag and proceeded to organize my items for easy processing. When I was deep in the sorting exercise, the owner, surprised I was ready, came over to input the items. After we'd pulled out a number of pieces a regular (and clearly beloved) customer came in. Beloved customer saw me in the middle of my transaction and said she was going to wait in the car until we were done. Owner greeted her warmly and without a word to me, dropped my items and went to go retrieve Beloved's items.
I was in the middle of my transaction. And Owner was gone before I'd realized what happened. It was both confusing and dismissive. But it's Vegas and I'm used to sketchy service. I waited for her to come back with Beloved's things and finish my transaction. She placed Beloved's items on the rack and then, without a word to me, went to get more of her things. More.
It was entirely dismissive and I decided that the prices were too high to endure this level of poor service. I gathered my items spread out and placed them in the bag and let the owner know that this was not going to work for me.
I want to see small businesses succeed. I know Art Cleaners cares a great deal about some of their customers. Clearly not me. I need a bit more (service) or less (price) from my dry cleaner. I'm going to take my business elsewhere.