It’s another hectic day— you need to drop your dry cleaning off, but do you put much thought it to where it goes, and who cleans it?
One family has been making it their business to impress customers with their ability to clean the most delicate of garments.
New City Cleaners has been around for more than 100 years,
Were going to meet Jerrell Epp’s family has been involved in the business for decades, and wanted to give 23AC News the secret behind their success.
The business goes back to 1910.
Epp’s grandfather got into dry cleaning in 1929; had another operation sold it, and bought New City Cleaners in 1944.
His grandfather, Henry Brandt became an innovator in the field of dry cleaning, with one of first operations in the state, some of the earliest dry cleaning drop off and pick up’s were made by horse and buggy.
Brandt said, “There are a lot of hands and a lot of detail that goes into every piece we process.”
A motto his grandson, Epp continues today.
Epp said, “We’re really proud of our process thus far. We are able to remove most stains and are are known for that.”
In fact, New City Cleaners uses a process and cleaning chemical exclusive to Kern County, called Stoddard Solvent.
The gentlest and most effective cleaning agent used in the industry today.
It enables the company to process wedding gowns, and winter formal that other processes are more aggressive and problematic.
The start of a cleaning process that is complex—and aimed at getting the best results.
Epp says that most people don’t think a dry cleaner can *wash* your clothes.
“A lot of garments these days say hand washed and yes we do wet cleaning, and not just what you do at home so our machines are set up more for specialty work, and attention to details, where we do a lot of wet cleaning, and not just dry cleaning.
New City Cleaners now has two brick and mortar locations in Bakersfield.
In 1996, opening their Coffee Road and Truxtun Avenue location, 10 years later, 24th and l streets.
With each location featuring a full time seamstress to make any alterations to suits to formal wear.
Ken Stockton who’s been with the company for decades takes pride in his job.
Stockton said, “The timing that goes into driving, being at that house at a certain time, because those customers are leaving in 20 minutes. They got to be on that airplane, we got to have the stuff there for them, that’s really important.”
