Burlingame Welcomes New Dry Cleaner, New Version of the American Dream

Here on Burlingame Patch, we're exploring how a difficult economy is affecting the financial well-being of all of us in articles called Dispatches: The Changing American Dream.

When Hassan Behzadi moved from Iran to the Bay Area in 1984, his future employment was far from his mind. War between Iran and Iraq clouded his daily life and his thoughts revolved around getting his family out of Iran.

“We just wanted to get out of the country,” Behzadi said. “My son was seven years old; we just wanted to get him out.”

So, Behzadi packed up his family and left--their safe arrival in American his top priority—and decided he would worry about earning a living once there. He had previously studied in the U.S. and initially moved in with his brother-in-law and current business partner, Shahab Tehrani.

Behzadi and Tehrani decided their best option for making a living was opening a business. The pair soon learned that a Japanese woman was selling her dry cleaning company, an operation called Blu-White Cleaners passed down from her grandfather and located on B Street in San Mateo.

“We were just looking for different businesses,” Behzadi said. “She only had one location; we thought we could expand it and that’s what got us interested…we saw potential.”

And expand they did. This fall, Behzadi and Tehrani will open their eighth Blu-White Cleaners in the new Safeway shopping center in Burlingame, replacing their Park Road location and attaining what could be defined as one version of the American Dream.

Although Behzadi came to America with little direction, he was able to build a viable business through hard work and determination.

Although in the past two decades the company opened a new store every couple of years, the business hit some roadblocks along the way.

Initially, Behzadi said they planned on servicing hotels. When that failed, they tried contracting out to other cleaning operations. However, once those establishments became successful, they would sell, leaving Blu-White Cleaners with depleted business.  Eventually, the pair realized starting their own dry cleaning agency might be their best option. 

However, there were still times that Behzadi and Tehrani thought the company might fail.

“It was right around the [1989] earthquake,” he said. “That time, really we though this is not successful, but then we stuck with it and we just continued to work at it and gradually, it just picked up more and more.”

By the time the lease ended on the San Mateo location in 1992, the pair had opened an additional space. However, with the B Street lease gone, the duo was forced to sell one location in order to buy new space in San Carlos, a space that would become the first of an expanding chain of dry cleaners.

Behzadi called buying property in San Carlos the turning point for the company. He and Tehrani no longer worried about rent or leases and had a better grasp on the business.

Although over the years a new outpost would occasionally close at the end of its lease, Blu-White Cleaners now has seven locations spanning from San Francisco to Palo Alto.

Blu-White Cleaners carried along with its operation as usual until 2010. By law, the cleaning machines must be replaced every 15 years, Behzadi said, and Blu-White needed a change. Instead of purchasing a new machine with another chemical process, Behzadi and Tehrani decided on a water-based, biodegradable cleaning agent machine and refocused their business on green cleaning.

“A lot of cleaners call themselves green now, but they’re still using chemicals,” Behzadi said.

Since then, the pair has halted expansion while they perfect the new green cleaning process, keeping their American Dream going through innovation and adaptability. Although it has been a bit more costly for the company to, prices remain the same.

Behzadi noted a downturn in business due to the poor economy, but said Blu White remains profitable.

“The business is alright because we adapt ourselves,” he said. “Even at this time, we think in this economy that we’re ok with this process, that our best bet would be to expand again.”

Now, about 27 years after coming to America, Behzadi has a successful and growing business, loyal customers and a new Blu-White Cleaners location here in Burlingame.