In 1976, a young Jenny Merrick went to work for Castle Cleaners in Elmira to help support her family.
Fifty years later, Jenny’s son Scott now owns the drycleaning business, and Jenny is still there, putting in almost full-time hours every week.
But if you show up at the business and ask for the boss, it’s a tossup who you might end up speaking with.
“Mom is still the boss. I literally just work here,” Scott Merrick said. “She tells people I own it but she’s the boss. She’s been here for so long and knows so much. If there’s a change I want to make, I do run it past her. She’s an amazing person.”
Coming full circle at Castle Cleaners
Scott Merrick was just a small child when Jenny went to work for Castle Cleaners at 221 Hoffman St. in Elmira, which was already a well-established drycleaning business at the time.
When he was in high school, Merrick worked part-time for the business himself, having no notion that decades later he would own Castle Cleaners.
Instead, Merrick, a graduate of Elmira Free Academy, joined the corporate world, working for Disney for a time and pursuing a career as a corporate trainer that took him all over the world.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit and Merrick decided it was time to stop traveling and return home. That’s also when the opportunity to purchase Castle Cleaners came up.
“The previous owner said ‘I think I’m done.’ I said ‘If you are willing to sell, what would you want for it?'” Merrick said. “I made an offer and he jumped on it. My concern was that it would be torn down and be a parking lot that was empty of people. I didn’t want to see it not be here.”
Modernizing and building a loyal Elmira customer base
Merrick completed the purchase of Castle Cleaners in 2023 and since then has been working to beef up business.
The Elmira drycleaning business has been in existence at least since the 1960s, Merrick said, adding the facility needed a lot of work.
“Business has been good but it could be better. People forgot we were here,” he said. “We needed to put back into it. We did work on the front facade to make it nicer, and we had to purchase a lot of equipment. We’re keeping up with the times.”
That investment paid off as many of Castle Cleaners’ former regulars have come back and the business is picking up new customers all the time, Merrick said. He and his employees continue to strive to build a strong relationship with those patrons.
“Ninety percent of our customers we know by their first name,” Merrick said. “That’s very important to us.”
The most loyal employee
Regular customers aren’t the only loyal ones, Merrick said. He has six employees, and several of them have worked for Castle Cleaners for years.
The employee with the longest tenure by far is his mother, and Merrick wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I love that she likes to come here. She’s so happy here,” he said. “She can work here as long as she wants. When the time comes she wants to slow down — absolutely. I just don’t want that to be any time soon.”
That shouldn’t be a concern. After 50 years at Castle Cleaners, Jenny Merrick, said she isn’t tired of it.
“I like the interaction with people. I enjoy what I am doing here,” she said. “Scott has done a lot to promote it. A lot of people don’t realize we’re still here. I do drycleaning and sewing mostly, 32 hours a week.”
Jenny, who turns 75 this year, hasn’t given much thought to retirement, and said she can’t see herself doing anything else.
“I’ll do it as long as I can. I’m happy. I enjoy the work,” she said. “I can’t imagine not doing it. I’ll do it as long as I’m healthy.”
This article originally appeared on Elmira Star-Gazette: Castle Cleaners owner still answers to his mother, a 50-year employee
Reporting by Jeff Murray, Elmira Star-Gazette / Elmira Star-Gazette
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
