Rosana Smith-Alvarez

On my daily commute to Fordham, I pass by the same stores and buildings. On the block before I reach Columbus Circle, right after the Dunkin Donuts, is the Columbus Circle Dry Cleaners. I needed to get some clothes dry cleaned, so I stopped into this particular cleaners on my way to school. I received the receipt and realized that it said “God loves yout!” in large letters on the top of the ticket. I was slightly confused, considering I grew up in a certain way that made me think: how can I sell more of this or make more people want this? Don’t put religion in your advertising, because you don’t want to push anyone out or exclude anyone from even considering your product. As I left, I realized that among many bullet points on the window stating all of their products, was the sentence, “God Bless You!” At first, I figured that this is probably a family owned business that is simply religious and wants all of their customers to know it. Since then I have lost the laundry ticket, but I passed by the storefront and took a picture of the window (to the utmost surprise of the employees inside, who were staring at me with utter confusion).

Since I noticed the sign on this particular dry cleaners, I began to notice a pattern. I found two other dry cleaners that had “God Loves You!” plastered on their windows. There are various ways one can approach this as a student of American Religious Texts. Most, if not all of the employees I encountered at each store were not white Americans: they seemed to be of either Asian or Hispanic descent. From personal experience, I know that many Hispanic families, and family owned businesses, identify extremely with the Catholic Church. This may have influenced many of  the family owned businesses to spread their beliefs and extend the love onto their customers.

However, once I passed by a dry cleaners directly next to the Church of Saint Paul the Apostle, directly adjacent to fordham, I realized that this dry cleaners had the sign “God Loves You!” in the biggest lettering of all. I realized that this short sentence may not  have to do with the values of the store owners whatsoever, but could be simply a marketing stunt to attract a certain group of people. If I were going to mass every Sunday at St. Paul’s, and constantly passed by the dry cleaners with this specific message, I could be inspired by my religion and be more compelled to use their services.

This sort of “pay me, because God loves you!” idea reminded me of William James’s contemporary, Beecher, who believed that we should spend money because God wants us to be happy. In other words, since God loves us, we should treat ourselves to services that are directed toward a wealthier person, such as the luxury of having someone else do your laundry.

(pictured is the original dry cleaners that I saw)