Ocean Dry Cleaning’s Marlon Lee Keeps Ingleside Looking Sharp

Marlon Lee’s Ocean Dry Cleaning keeps Ingleside looking fresh, one pressed shirt at a time. 

Lee and his family, who immigrated from Hong Kong, followed in their relatives' footsteps and opened the laundry service in Ocean Avenue's Lakewood Plaza in 1982. After 18 years of helping out and growing up surrounded by all things clothes, Lee’s parents, Thomas and Lisa, passed the business to him.

“Being new immigrants, there was that language,” Lee said. “It was either trying to get a job where sometimes you won't be hired unless you know the language or just starting your own type of business.”

After all these years, the most rewarding thing for Lee is forming lifelong bonds with his customers, many of whom have become his friends and watching their kids grow up, some whom have used his services once they entered the professional world.

“We just love serving the local area,” Lee said. “A lot of our customers are our immediate neighbors, so it's a pleasure for us to serve them.”

The Ingleside Light caught up with Lee to talk about the dry cleaning business.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What does a typical shift look like for you?

It's long. I start around 5:30 a.m. and maybe leave around 7 p.m. We accept the clothes, then we send them down to our plant to have them cleaned. We serve a lot of the working class in the neighborhood. We offer alterations as well, but we don't do the cleaning here.

Are there any trade secrets — something about the dry cleaning industry that people don’t know?

Not everything has to be dry cleaned. We tell customers, “You could probably easily clean this yourself.” But a lot of customers still prefer us because it saves them time. Even when I give them that advice, they're like, “My time is more valuable. I'd rather do other things than press my own shirts.”

What clothing items would you say shouldn’t be dry cleaned? 

Most things can be, but probably things that are heavily beaded, things with a lot of sequins, things that might fall off.

What advice do you have for people who want to enter the dry cleaning industry?

You'd probably want to shadow that business for a while, see if that's something you want to get into. I did have a friend who was interested in purchasing a dry cleaner once. They shadowed me for a couple of weeks and then they changed their mind. These small dry cleaners are kind of a dying business. I don't want to speak for all kids. Sometimes parents don't want their kids to work this hard and I don't know if some people are willing to put in this much time.