Letter: Saddened to close Excel Cleaners but not willing to sacrifice quality

After 63 years of providing fabric care services to southwestern North Dakota, Excel Cleaners of Dickinson is closing its doors. Incoming orders will no longer be accepted.

For the last several years, it has become increasingly difficult to find people who are willing to stay at a job for any length of time.

It takes three to six months to train a new employee in. We have been very fortunate to have many wonderful long-term employees with dedication and commitment to quality workmanship — we just don’t have enough and we are not willing to sacrifice quality and good service.

While the building is not for sale, so as not to inconvenience customers, we have offered the three Bismarck cleaners the option to use Excel’s existing space as a drop-off and pick-up point. There didn’t seem to be much interest.

We feel terrible about leaving the community with such a void but we’ve exhausted all other avenues. More importantly we feel for our employees and wish them the best. We will also miss them and all of our good loyal customers.

Jay Wilhelm, Dickinson

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