Dirty laundry goes high-tech

Nothing says "stodgy business" like dry cleaning. But Arik Levy, CEO of San-Francisco-based Laundry Locker, is convinced that a revolution is at hand -- and it's all thanks to technology.

Every item of clothing that you drop off at a 24/7 Laundry Locker kiosk is photographed and available to you online so you can indicate if there's a stain or a tear that needs repairing. And each piece of clothing is tagged with a tiny heat-sealed bar code. That bar code allows the company to know when it was pressed, by whom, how long it took to launder and what piece it's next to inside the laundry bag.

The MoneyWatch video team visited Laundry Locker - check out the high-tech journey of these dirty duds.

Drivers making their rounds are able to tell customers via messaging when their order has been picked up and delivered. The idea for dry cleaning 2.0 was borne out of frustration for Levy, who kept finding that dry cleaning establishments closed after 6 p.m.

"I said there's gotta be a better way to do this. What if I was able to put lockers in my apartment building?" he says. "Being that my background is technology and operations, I've always looked at everything and said, 'are there ways we can technology in this industry and really change things?'"