Jennie and James Koo, Owners of Great American Dry Cleaners

Name: Jennie and James Koo

Age: “Rather not say, because people will think, ‘Oh, they are old!’”

Occupation: Owners of in El Cerrito Plaza

How long have you owned this shop?

Jennie: Since 1990, May.

James: (Looks at me) How old were you at the time? (laughs) My daughter was 6 months old.

What made you decide to open the shop?

James: She’s very good at sewing …

Jennie: And also friends of ours owned cleaners here and there. We were visiting them and we saw them working and went, “Oh, uh-huh, OK!” (laughs)

And you have a lot of the same customers that have been coming for years?

Jennie: Oh, yeah.

James: About 10 years ago, the old owner tried to kick us out because of the environment — the solvents.

Jennie: The former owner (of the building).

James: It was a huge issue for a couple of months. All of my first customers applied their opinions.

Jennie: We were in the Contra Costa Times. Every week my customers sent a letter to talk about it in columns. Finally, our side asked the city to put in an agenda to let the city have a say. We had a city meeting — full meeting room of my customers. The city mayor said, “I know there are so many people here tonight, we don’t have time for everybody to speak out.” So they asked the people to (say) just a little. And they passed the agenda so the city had us stay.

Why were they asking you to leave? Because of the chemicals in the process?

Jennie: There was an old chemical, PERC (tetrachloroethene) that was messing up the soil. We made a negotiation of a new machine — hydrocarbon is lighter than water, it doesn’t go into the ground. We put in a new machine.

James: And then they (the Plaza) changed ownership, so…

Jennie: About 1,000 customers signed. 

They really like you!

Jennie: Yes. (smiles and laughs)

Have you been sewing for a very long time as a seamstress?

Jennie: I used to make my own clothes.

How did you learn the trade?

Jennie: We came from Korea. We moved here 35 years ago. In our country, the girls in junior high school learned cooking, sewing — all those kinds of things. I was especially very interested in sewing, crocheting and knitting. I know when people ask—I can tell where I have to take in (the clothing). We do a lot.

Is there anything else you want to add? This is a very stable city. It is safe, busy.  Also, about 80 percent of my customers are regular, repeat customers. When they move into this area from other parts, they read about us. We get a lot of new customers when they move into this area. Also, they do shopping at and then they see us and say, “Oh! That's convenient." And also the big parking lot. 

And another thing, my husband and I are always here — either one or both of us. When we see the customer has some kind of a problem, we can solve it right away. 

James: One of my customers told me last week that on customer reports we were number one.

 Jennie: They like to work with the owner. It's more personal and we consult with a problem right away.