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Dry cleaners lost $160 pants, what should I do?
You are looking to be made whole, so the requests need to be reasonable.  You need to be clear that you want: You aren't going to 'punish' the dry cleaner or anything else.  You don't want coupons or free service for future work, you want your pants or cash. If you send a letter, send it certified with a return receipt.  You want to be able to show a judge you made efforts outside of the court that you attempted to reconcile the issue.  Sending it certified is also a good way to indicate to the dry cleaner that you aren't going to just go away.  Be clear, firm and very polite.  You cannot blame or criticize the cleaner, simply state "On YY/YY/YYYY date I didn't get my pants back; I want my pants or I want money by XX/XX/XXXX date." If you want to picket, contact local law enforcement and find out the rules before picketing.  You can probably picket from a sidewalk, but that doesn't mean the dry cleaner won't approach you and get in your personal space.   If you hand out flyers, stick strictly to provable facts lest you be sued for defamation.  It is smarter to hand out a fact sheet or speak from a rehearsed script so that you don't say something that would be actionable.  Make sure you pick the busiest day of the week for a dry cleaner. (Weekends?) I don't think this is criminal, but you can sue.  Like others said, if you have the cleaning ticket (and the ticket doesn't absolve the dry cleaner of responsibility) you will probably get a judgement.  Be careful what you ask for, make sure you cover all of your costs (the pants, filing fees, time off of work, and collection efforts.)  Itemize all your requested costs and make sure they are reasonable.  You only want to be made whole, and that only means $160 or pants (plus fees) Just because you won in small claims doesn't mean you can collect easily.  Figure in your cost for collecting when you sue.  You might have to hire somebody to collect on your judgement.  If you hire somebody they will want a cut, so you might want to figure that out for your small claims.  I am guessing this is a local business, so it should be pretty easy to collect.  (Unless they go out of business, in which case you will get nothing.)