CC’s
AMERICAN DREAM
"With gas hitting just below $6.50 here in California I was thinking twice about getting on Interstate 5 Headed towards the bustling beach town of Pacific Beach just outside of San Diego CA."
The Up’s and Downs of a
Hybrid Dry Cleaner and
Laundromat in San Diego CA
By Ryan West
With gas hitting just below $6.50 here in California I was thinking twice about getting on Interstate 5 Headed towards the bustling beach town of Pacific Beach just outside of San Diego CA. If you have never been there it is a must see. Late Spring or Summer is the time to visit. It is packed with fit folks walking dogs, jogging or riding to the beach on their bikes with surfboards strapped on. It’s the kind of place Collage Co-eds and Beach bums alike shake off a night of margaritas and tacos under the perfectly temperate California sun.
I am on my way to visit an unlikely laundry owner that is know simply as CC. I asked her once “you mean like the letters CC. Yep that’s it!”
Although she is as San Diego as it gets, her story began many universes away in Taiwan.
Born Chunwen C. Meng to working class parents with a close family she said of her upbringing “I was a naive girl that new very little about the world outside of Taiwan before arriving in the United Staes”
A few decades ago Meng’s first steps on US soil took place under the sunshine of the Florida sky. Brought here by love, a soon to be husband, and the idea that the American dream is alive and well, she made the journey. Young, impressionable, and full of drive, she was excited. Thinking to her self, where will this leap of faith take me? In turn it took her to a place she was not expecting. The marriage got rocky, job prospects were slim, and with limited English she ended up alone and homeless. There she was single and scared in the place that promised riches to anyone that played the game right.
While CC was telling me her story I was captivated by the calamity. I was sitting across from a very well put together business owner so I new there was light at the end of this tunnel. “There I was, all alone, so the only place I could go was to a shelter. I left my country and the only way of life I knew to end up in this place” Said CC. She was in hiding from her soon to be ex-husband and with no way to earn a living she was hand to fist for the time being. CC pointed out to me how the kindness of strangers in this new land started to open up a glimmer of hope. “There were people at the shelter that helped me get a visa” Meng said.
After a few months of getting on her feet she met a lady form Taiwan that owned a beachside restaurant along the busy South Florida shore. She went to work, hard and focused! One day while working at the restaurant the owners son from San Diego came for a visit. In short order a romance began that brought the woman know as CC to the Golden State within months. As soon as Meng touched down in California she got to work. She started selling real estate, after becoming an investor, she spent the next 20 years as one of the top Real Estate Professionals in all of San Diego county.
Around 2019 it was time to take a break. A world wide pandemic, remember that, slowed things down and that was just what CC wanted. Time to her self and some much needed relaxation was just what the doctor ordered. She had gone too hard for too long.
But as the story goes for the word “driven” she started looking for her next project. One day CC was browsing the “business for sale” section of the world wide web. Hmm she thought “these laundromats look like they have a pretty good return on investment”. After looking at a few, she found something a little more involved. A Dry Cleaners and Laundromat hybrid in the same location about 20 minutes drive for her house.
She was ready to make an offer, but hold on, we have a problem “the landlord would not approve any of the previously proposed buyers”. It only look CC one meeting, with her amazing smile and likable disposition the laundry was hers.
“I had no idea what I was doing on day one” Said CC. The previous owners where a Korean couple in their golden years heading towards retirement and they taught her as much as they could. CC had no idea the difference between a wet cleaning machine and a press.
With headwinds in her view CC pressed on. Everyday was spent in the laundry learning the craft, meeting customers and brainstorming how to grow the business. Not only did she need to learn the dry cleaning business she also needed to learn the Coin Laundry business. The particular laundry she bought is unique. 1/2 Dry cleaner and 1/2 Laundromat. Its hard enough to learn one new business let alone 2. Well, learning is was she did and she had to be a fast learner. She got information from anyone she could pry it out of. She worked with Equipment Distributors in the area, getting some questionable advise from time to time but that’s all part of the leaning process.
Customers can walk into one side of here store and put their wash into a 60 lbs washer and then walk next door and drop off a dress for alteration or a suit to be dry cleaned. It wasn’t long before CC added pick up and delivery in the area. On the day I visited, in between helping customers at the counter, she was going back and forth in her delivery vehicle dropping off and picking up wash and fold orders. She has a very capable staff, one attendant in the laundromat helping customers and doing wash and fold while 2 or 3 others are in the Cleaners pressing shirts and putting them on hangers. When asked about expansion she said “We have finally got things working really well here, and when you have a store doing this well there might not be a need for another one”
What I observed on this sunny May Day was a real neighborhood laundry. Meng has the kind of personality that makes you smile when you see her light up upon your arrival. On my visit I observed first time customers as well as regulars stopping in to drop off an order or just to say hello to the lady wearing the big smile known as CC. Through the many ups and downs its her grit and drive that has lead to her success. Chunwen C. Meng has come along way from her first foot steps on American soil to owning this thriving laundry in a great little slice of California. This naive little girl from Taiwan, through determination and risk has truly made her American Dream come true.
Please visit CC at Garnet Laundry and Cleaning https://www.garnetlaundryandcleaning.co/
Key Takeaways
- AMERICAN DREAM matters for readers making practical decisions.
- CC’s
- With gas hitting just below $6.50 here in California I was thinking twice about getting on Interstate 5 Headed towards the bustling beach town of Pacific Bea...
- The Up’s and Downs of a
