About dry cleaning: In California, there are hundreds of discount dry cleaning shops. Some shops do shirts and blouses for less than $ 1. They have lines of people outside waiting with piles of clothes in their arms. In Oregon, there is no discount dry cleaning. They never heard about doing shirts for less than a dollar. Moreover, pants, dresses and suit cost a small fortune to dry clean. Every dry cleaner seems to lose clothes by the ton every month as well. They must sell half of what they do out the back door at Spanish language discount stores. Unless you speak Korean or Spanish, don't even bother complaining.
Your story on dry cleaning illustrates a good point.
So much of the economy is regional, and this story uses a broad brush to paint the picture. Where one state prospers another sinks -- Michigan is a good example. There are so many houses on the market right now it's not funny and nobody is buying. Areas that have been depressed for years are starting to recover, but it's only because they're willing to work outside the Big Three. Jackson (MI) is starting to do better since a lot of its local manufacturing base is turning OUTSIDE the US for business. They're actually EXPORTING products to China and Asia.
Things in Detroit are going to need to be much, MUCH worse for a long time before things get better. If DeVos is elected, cutting the city off from massive state subsidies and pandering will bring about the decline quicker and *maybe* let small business do a few things. I don't have much hope for Detroit, but I'd like to be proven wrong.