Signed, With Love

PHOTOS BY JORDAN RANDALL

The sign that Bob and Stephanie Fischer needed to confirm they were ready to move forward with purchasing a long beloved Lakeland laundromat last year was not the sign everyone talks about. Part of what drew them to Southside Cleaners was seeing the employees—many who have been there for more than a decade—in action.

“We have the best staff here who are incredibly proud of the work they do. They work hard and we are so fortunate we inherited them with this business,” Bob says. 

There is no time for idle hands at a clothing care business that regularly processes 20,000 to 25,000 garments per month, where you will often find deputy uniforms, wedding dresses and graduation gowns on the same rack. The couple, who have known each other since fourth grade and who worked together in the battery industry prior to purchasing Southside Cleaners, also own Myers Cleaners in Plant City, a location they plan on rebranding with the Southside name in the near future.

In a city the size of Lakeland, there is a multitude of drycleaning options, but the Fischer’s bought into something that’s more than just a money making proposition when they took over the established entity that was operated by the Myers family from 1962 until September 2024. 

Recently, while standing atop the roof with the couple as they changed the letters on the sign, something quite typical occurred: a driver rolled down her window and yelled out, ‘I love you guys!’    

Marge Myers, who co-owned the business with her husband, Burt, was the brains behind the witty memorable sayings for nearly five decades, and today, her legacy lives on as drivers and passengers on South Florida Ave. look up to see the latest riddle or proverb and people take to social media to share photos of the sign and comment on the newest phrases.

Before climbing up to the rooftop with the couple to document their Monday morning ritual of assembling a new message, we sat down to chat with them about the business, the process of managing the iconic messaging and what it has been like to take over a well-known Lakeland institution.  

The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

THE LAKELANDER
How did you decide you wanted to purchase this business? And how did you navigate what it would mean to come into a business that was owned by the same family for so long?

BOB Fischer
What we found here was similar to the businesses that we ran, which was a family owned business. This was a generational family owned business with employees who had been here a long time. I think our average employee [has been here] seven years. We have a 30-year employee, 15-year employees, 14-year employees…and we liked what that meant.

The due diligence was quite extensive, more extensive than you would think it would be. We had some forensic accountants, we had CPAs, we had all sorts of stuff.

TL
What have you learned about this industry that you didn’t expect?

BOB
That people spend a lot of money on their clothes. I’d say the cost of some garments is just mind blowing. You set a white Oxford shirt next to [another] white Oxford shirt, and this one is $1,500 and this one a guy got for $6.99—and it’s hard for me to tell the difference. 

TL
Talk about being right here in the heart of Lakeland, in this beautiful spot with tons of natural light coming in.

BOB
We get all sorts of excitement around here. We think the location is pretty cool. It’s so funny because we go places and people ask you, ‘What do you do?’ and once you bring up Southside they know it because of the Southside Cleaners sign. This is a fun intersection. 

STEPHANIE FISCHER
Oh yeah, we’ve seen a few accidents here!

TL
When you had conversations about purchasing this business, you obviously realized this sign would be part of the responsibility and how the world sees you. How did you come up with a plan for the sign?

BOB
You know, during the negotiations, we asked several times for the (original owners’) list (of sayings)...we did see it, it was like a 2-inch thick book. What they would do, they’d go on family vacations and she would hand write things when she would see stuff. This was handwritten and typed on a typewriter… front and back, with over 3,000 different sayings. It was funny because he would say if it’s family or politically motivated, that [the sayings] were just as relevant in 1970 as they are today, which is really kind of neat. So we did not get the list, but we negotiated for it…we tried. 

We have had a lot of fun doing it. Customers, employees, family and friends—they just kind of throw things at you, we catch them and we get them on a list.

STEPHANIE
There was a time period where my mom didn’t text me anything other than sign ideas. I’m like alright,  ‘Thanks, Mom.’ 

TL
How do you guys ultimately decide what goes on the sign? 

BOB
Stephanie carries the baton here a lot more than I do. I go in and rate them—I rate them one to three on what I think is funny—and then I try to do length, which you can go 15 (characters) wide…and six rows…but with only 15 letters across it gets tricky. 

We have an Excel spreadsheet so we kind of pick out what it’s going to be, and then we determine what letters we’re gonna need. We grab the letters and then we go up and change it every Monday morning around 8 or 8:30.

TL
Have you had any phone calls, emails or texts that disagreed with or disliked a phrase you put on the sign?

BOB
We had a Google review about one we did that someone thought was political. Generally we stay away from political stuff—and with religion and family, that stuff definitely will go up—but we had this one that was funny. It was about the daylight savings time change. (The sign read: Hello darkness. You’re not my friend.) and it was just because of the time change, and the guy took it as political. We tried to say, ‘What are you talking about?’

It is funny to see some of [the phrases] will get thousands of likes (on social media) and then you try to chase that. The one about rolling a joint (where the sign said: I don’t always roll a joint but when I do it’s my ankle.) was pretty funny and got a lot of attention.

STEPHANIE

I have to protect my feelings a little bit. Sometimes I’ll see the comments and I’m like, ‘What do they mean by that?’

TL
How do you feel the sign represents the business and its culture as a whole?

BOB
I think it’s our voice. I think it’s our employees’ voice. Every employee gives us some good sayings.

STEPHANIE
We also get some from friends. They think it’s fun to see their sayings on the sign. We put them into a spreadsheet and we note who sent them to us.

TL
A sign of this size and caliber must take some considerable maintenance. How do you keep it in top shape?

BOB
We do have an insurance policy specifically on the sign, as you can imagine. As far as maintenance, we really haven’t done a whole lot of that in the last six or seven months, I’m sure those old lights—they’re not LEDs—maybe tube lighting, I’m afraid to know (will need some attention.)

The letters are incredibly hard to find. They cost like $50 per letter so we try to take really good care of those.

TL
At the Southside Cleaners location in Plant City are you going to have a sign like this?

BOB
I am. This might be controversial, but I think I’m gonna do digital and then we’ll just mirror what’s here. Currently in Plant City, there is a sign outside the door, and I think if I can go digital with that one I might.

TL
How would you describe the overall reception from the local community of you purchasing this business?

BOB
It’s been fantastic. I love how proud Lakelanders are of their city, of where they live. We love the law enforcement here. We think it’s funny coming from Tampa, where we have [the sheriff’s office] and the PD and that’s it. Then we come over here and there are so many different branches of law enforcement, so every opportunity we get to see them we like to give them gift cards and things like that.

TL
How would you describe what this sign has done for the business?

BOB
We partner with Tinsley Creative—great guys—and they [share with us] how they partner with so many businesses and are always talking about something that sets [a business] apart from others, and Tinsley said, ‘You have it.’ It’s wild. I think that sign is our introduction to the community, it’s our introduction to people.