For this week's #TinaTuesday I had the pleasure of sitting down with Eugene (Gene) Dela Cruz at GMG Cleaners.  Now, if you didn't think dry cleaning was interesting wait until you read this.  ;-)
GMG cleaners is a family owned and operated business in the Safeway shopping center at 1946 Contra Costa Blvd.  Gina and Gene bought the business back in 2016 and have created a loyalty from their customers and employees ever since.  GMG stands for Gina, Mason (their son), and Gene.  So here's the scoop, Gene used to work at LinkedIn in Accounting and Gina used to own her own business when they decided to leave it all behind to buy this dry cleaning business in Pleasant Hill at the recommendation from Gina's aunt who just happens to own Oak Park Cleaners.  No dirty laundry in this family.  ;-)  Here is something that I learned today...there are "agency's" and "plants."  Agency's are just storefronts that send the laundry out to plants to get cleaned, then they are returned to the agency.  So GMG is a plant, which means they are a full service dry cleaners with all of the equipment on site, which also means that your clothes don't leave the premises.  Apparently, they are 1 of only 4 plants in the whole area.  They currently take in the clothes from 2 other agency's.  Pretty cool, right?  They have 6 employees, one of them being a "Certified Master Spotter" with 50 years of experience.  Did you even know you could be a "Certified Master Spotter?"  Basically, this person knows exactly which chemicals will interact with each type of stain to remove them completely.  I need a Certified Master Spotter in my home.  lol. 

Here are some other GMG fun facts:

• On top of the dry cleaning, they also do laundry like... dress shirts.  Check out the pic's of how they get pressed and steamed after they are laundered.  
• The Dry Cleaning machine is kind of like a washer/dryer, but only uses 1 Tbsp of water, the rest is the dry cleaning chemicals
• They use a Hydro-Carbon machine, required by the City of Pleasant Hill, that doesn't use any toxic chemicals that will harm the environment
• Because they know that some of the chemicals can cause allergies and have an unpleasant odor, they increase the drying process by 1/2 hour which burns off any remaining solution that might still be on the clothes, and still keeps the clothes perfect. (I thought this was amazing).  
• They launder 350-400 dress shirts everyday
• They once had someone bring in a 30 year old christening dress that had been yellowed by the years.  They were able to get it back to almost looking like new.
• The have partnered with a tailor that can do any type of alteration you need.
• They treat their employees like family and they pass that along to their customers with an enjoyable atmosphere each time you walk in there.

Thank you Gene for taking the time to walk me through the "in's and out's" of your dry cleaning business.  I actually learned so much today, thank you!  By the way, if you are a first time customer of GMG cleaners and you mention #TinaTuesday, GMG Cleaners will give you a 20% discount off of your dry cleaning bill.  So, now if you need to air your dirty laundry, just head over to GMG. ;-)