American Coin-Op - July 2021

Perfecting Equipment Mix

Assessing washer, dryer choices to reap maximum revenue per square foot I N S I D E : J U LI YN S2I 0D 0E 5: J U L Y 2 0 2 1 IN SERVICE TO OTHERS: BE THE CENTER OF THE COMMUNITY

WASH-DRY-FOLD 101: MOVING BEYOND SELF-SERVICE

POINTERS FROM PAULIE B: MAXIMIZING STORE SECURITY

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CONTENTS JULY 2021 VOLUME 62 ISSUE 7

COVER STORY

PERFECTING EQUIPMENT MIX It’s hard to ignore the impact that equipment mix has on a laundry business.

While there may be no universal formula, putting together and maintaining the ideal equipment mix will go a long way in ensuring that your laundromat reaps the maximum revenue per square foot.

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(Cover image: Image licensed by Ingram Image)

INSIDE

COLUMNS

6 BE THE CENTER OF THE COMMUNITY We introduce five laundry owners whose service-minded attitude brings them closer to their local communities.

10 WASH-DRY-FOLD 101:

14 POINTERS FROM PAULIE B: MAXIMIZING YOUR STORE’S SECURITY The best security requires that you make everyone think that your security is sooo good, they’ll choose an easier target, says retired multi-store owner Paul Russo. The veteran of 40-plus years offers some tips for keeping your business safe from everyone—and that includes your customers and even your own employees!

MOVING BEYOND SELF-SERVICE There are things to carefully consider—like staffing, pricing, order tracking and more—before diving into WDF service.

26 NEW LAUNDROMAT OWNER UNDAUNTED

BY COVID-19 BUSINESS CHALLENGES

A failed water heater, national coin shortage and monthslong pandemic weren’t enough to keep Denise Morton from opening California’s The Laundry Room.

DEPARTMENTS 4 VIEWPOINT 24 PRODUCT NEWS 28 NEWSMAKERS

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AMERICAN COIN-OP JULY 2021

30 CLASSIFIEDS 31 AD INDEX

DID YOU KNOW...

American Coin-Op releases a new podcast on a different topic of interest every other month? Give it a listen at AmericanCoinOp.com/podcasts/archive.

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VIEWPOINT

Charles Thompson, Publisher E-mail: cthompson@ATMags.com Phone: 312-361-1680

Donald Feinstein, Associate Publisher/ National Sales Director E-mail: dfeinstein@ATMags.com Phone: 312-361-1682

LET’S CALL IT ‘EQUIPLIBRIUM’

Bruce Beggs

When you’re thinking about opening a self-service laundry for the first time or maybe retooling an obsolete store you just picked up, there are certainly a lot of things to consider. Perhaps the most important is the equipment mix: the numbers and capacities of washers and dryers (and other equipment?) you plan to offer your customers.

Our cover story this month, “Perfecting Equipment Mix,” features vended laundry equipment manufacturer representatives weighing in on where they see this mix ranking in store development, the factors at play, the importance of balancing drying capacity with wash capacity, and how today’s technological advances are influencing the mix.

I think that striking the right balance between your area’s wants/ needs and what the store site can comfortably accommodate is where the foundation of success lies. Let’s call it “equiplibrium.”

Elsewhere in this month’s issue, we have articles about community outreach and service, wash-dry-fold service considerations, maximizing store security, and one new store owner’s persistence in the face of the pandemic. I hope that you enjoy the smorgasbord that awaits.

Speaking of the pandemic, it’s a pleasure to see states that were hardest-hit really beginning to reopen. March 2020 was a long time ago. Don’t we all look forward to being able to freely move about—in this context, “freely” means without a mask—in public as more time passes?

There are certainly a lot of hotels, restaurants and entertainment venues that can use our support this summer vacation season. Stay safe, by all means, but get out there and live a little!

Bruce Beggs Editorial Director

Bruce Beggs, Editorial Director E-mail: bbeggs@ATMags.com Phone: 312-361-1683 Mathew Pawlak, Production Manager Nathan Frerichs, Digital Media Director E-mail: nfrerichs@ATMags.com Phone: 312-361-1681

ADVISORY BOARD Douglas Pratt Sharon Sager Luke Williford

Tony Regan Michael Schantz Andy Wray

OFFICE INFORMATION Main: 312-361-1700

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POSTMASTER, Send changes of address and form 3579 to American Coin-Op, Subscription Dept., 440 Quadrangle Drive, Suite E, Bolingbrook, IL 60440. Volume 62, number 7. Editorial, executive and advertising offices are at 650 West Lake Street, Suite 320, Chicago, IL 60661. Charles Thompson, President and Publisher. American Coin-Op is distributed selectively to owners, operators and managers of chain and individually owned coin-operated laundry establishments in the United States. The publisher reserves the right to reject any advertising for any reason. © Copyright AMERICAN TRADE MAGAZINES LLC, 2021. Printed in U.S.A. No part of this publication July be transmitted or reproduced in any form, electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the publisher or his representative. American Coin-Op does not endorse, recommend or guarantee any article, product, service or information found within. Opinions expressed are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of American Coin-Op or its staff. While precautions have been taken to ensure the accuracy of the magazine’s contents at time of publication, neither the editors, publishers nor its agents can accept responsibility for damages or injury which July arise therefrom.

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CENTER OF THE COMMUNITY

by Bruce Beggs, Editorial Director

Ways to serve customers including and beyond the laundry

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ou can say your self-service laundry is a “community service,” just by virtue of providing the means for your neighbors to clean their clothes. But there are ways it can offer customers greater assistance in areas involving laundry and beyond.

Here’s a brief look at a handful of laundry business owners whose service-minded attitude brings them to the center of their local community.

LAUNDRY LIST OF PROGRAMS Make sure you have some time available when you ask Elizabeth Wilson, owner of SUDS Laundry in downtown Memphis, about her store’s community projects. The full-service business is home to library and reading programs, free laundry times and vouchers, a laundry assistance fund, free pictures during Christmas and Easter, free lunches, and special clothing donations and cleaning.

“When we bought the laundromat three years ago, I had zero idea how community-involved we would become through it,” says Wilson. “I starting working shifts with my staff to learn the business and it was through that I saw the need for something for the kids to do while they were waiting with their parents.”

For the reading program, Wilson partnered with local non-profit Porter-Leach, which donated supplies for a “Kids’ Corner” and continues to supply SUDS with new books. Still more books and bookcases were donated by neighbors.

Almost all of the funding for free laundry times and vouchers have come through generous neighbors or churches, Wilson says.

Those holiday pictures are through the generosity of a local pho6

AMERICAN COIN-OP JULY 2021

tographer and neighborhood Santa. SUDS has also fundraised by using profits from vending machines and social media efforts.

“While all of this requires time and focus from me, I absolutely love getting to use my business this way!” Wilson exclaims.

PURPOSE-DRIVEN Social worker Christy Moore, MSW, is founder and owner of Social Spin, a 3,000-square-foot “purpose-driven” laundromat in Mesa, Ariz. It offers self-service, wash-dry-fold (WDF) and pickup and delivery besides its customer-driven community programming.

She says Social Spin intentionally and strategically connects communities.

“Through our floor-to-ceiling chalkboard installation, customers communicate what conversations they would like to hold in their neighborhood laundromat,” Moore says. “Topics range from job-seeking advice, to affordable child care, to environmentally friendly laundry products. We invite community partners to have these conversations with our customers, and plan specialized events around them.”

Partners have registered customers for COVID vaccines, enrolled children in early education programs, provided healthcare checkups and referrals, taught music classes, referred families to affordable housing, tested for HIV/AIDS and supported immigration applications.

Weekly, Social Spin provides free laundry to any neighbor in need and cultivates a “sharing environment” that includes a community refrigerator, clothing rack and little library.

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“Our team of empathetic laundry lovers is our biggest asset,” says Moore. “They enjoy connecting our customers to care and being a safe and trusted space for neighbors. We receive substantial support from our community, including cash support, clothing and food donations, as well as volunteer manpower.”

NOTARY PUBLIC David Rebolloso owns and operates the North Tryon Laundromat in Charlotte, N.C. His 3,600-square-foot store is attended 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily and offers a robust WDF service and some pickup and delivery in addition to self-service.

He’s retired from the U.S. Air Force and 30 years in healthcare.

He’s been a notary public for 20 years from working in a hospital, so he thought it would be a good service to offer when he opened his laundry business. Many of his customers are Spanish-speaking.

“Being bilingual has served me very well in this business, and I have done a lot of social interventions,” he says. “A large majority of my customers are from Latin America and interestingly, and humorously, a lawyer/attorney are also known as notaries, which I definitely am not. Nonetheless, customers approach me for advice or general questions.”

As a notary, Rebolloso handles car titles, affidavits, employment verification letters and power of attorney letters among other documents.

Additionally, he has worked with attorneys in workers’ compensation for construction worker injuries, mostly as an interpreter and translator: “Right now, I have a laundromat customer that got injured on the job, wound up paraplegic, and (I) have been working with his attorney for the past year to get him workers’ compensation.”

While Rebolloso has worked with some non-profits in the past, he’s currently receiving no assistance from outside organizations.

As far as resources needed to offer and manage these activities, it’s more time from his schedule.

“If you change your perspective from just being a business to a service, and refocus, it can actually be very gratifying and add purpose to your life,” he says.

SPREAD THE WEALTH Mark Vlaskamp is co-founder and managing partner of The Folde, a relatively new delivery-focused laundry business that serves the Austin and Houston, Texas, communities. The operation runs 12 routes per week in Austin and nine routes in Houston from laundromats and distribution centers located in those cities.

When COVID hit in 2020 and The Folde saw some coin-op customers were laid off or without work, it started a fundraising campaign that allowed some of its higher socio-economic pickup and delivery customers to cover the cost of laundry for eligible coin-op customers. The donors donated directly through The Folde’s website and recipients could apply for funds with a simple, confidential application online.

“Almost all of the recipients were afraid to leave their home and were without access to on-site laundry,” Vlaskamp recalls.

In 2020, more than 5,800 pounds of laundry service between the two locations were donated to those in need in the form of unlimited monthly service subscriptions.

Then, in February of this year, Texas was hit with a massive winter storm that caused people’s pipes to burst. The fundraising geared up again and within weeks, The Folde was able to donate 8

AMERICAN COIN-OP JULY 2021

another 2,000 pounds of laundry service to those in need.

Not much was needed to start the program — a simple landing page on the website paired with donation forms and an application to request free laundry.

“The resource that was absolutely essential was the buy-in from everyone on our team,” Vlaskamp says. “In the midst of the uncertainty caused by the pandemic, our team found comfort in showing up to work, leaning on each other, and staying as busy as we could helping others.”

LAUNDRY BY THE BOOK Stacey Runfola owns three laundromats in the Lake Worth and Delray Beach area of Florida, ranging in square footage from 1,500 to 4,600. All offer full service: walk-in, drop-off, and pickup and delivery. At her smallest store, in Delray Beach, she works with the local library in partnership with the Homeless Coalition to offer a literacy and laundry day one Wednesday afternoon a month.

“The library will coordinate different programs,” she says.

“Sometimes they’ll bring in water, sometimes snacks and things, and they bring in books. Sometimes they give away books.

Sometimes they do other programs that bring literacy. And there’s washing clothes for free for people who need it.”

To keep things manageable, several people are invited to participate each month. Runfola covers half the cost and the library covers the remainder. “They do most of the heavy lifting. They do all the sign-ups and everything like that. They make my life very easy but I get to feel really good about it.”

Now in its second year, the program has donated just under 100 loads of laundry and who knows how many books.

“The first week that we did this, I was in the store talking to people, and the gratitude that people had for clean clothes was something … to really hear people thank you for coming in to wash their laundry. Somebody actually said to me as they were taking their stuff out of the washer, ‘That smells like self-respect.’”

FIND A NICHE, FIND A PARTNER If you’re a business owner who’s interested in offering a community service that builds on or even reaches beyond laundry, these store owners have some tips for you: “Find a niche or a need and work on it,” says Rebolloso. “It also helps when you have support, whether from your spouse, your children, an associate, or partnering with a non-profit.”

“Always put people over profit,” comments Moore. “It’s not only the right thing to do, but a good business decision, too.”

“Use your customers as a launch pad!” suggests Vlaskamp.

“Your customers want to help you and see you succeed. If you can put a good plan together, test it out with your current customers first to see if there is any traction. If it is something they are excited to get behind, they will. And if it is something that they aren’t interested in, you’ll know.”

Wilson advises partnering with local churches or schools: “They can tell you what needs they see in the neighborhood and help you reach those who need your help.”

“My best tip is find a good partner in the community,” Runfola says. “You have to work with somebody, because we aren’t in the business of community service, so we don’t have all the resources and all the knowledge. Working with some sort, preferably a notfor-profit who has a hand in that world on a daily basis is really beneficial.”

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MOVING BEYOND SELF-SERVICE Considerations before taking on the additional business

by Bruce Beggs, Editorial Director

T

he coronavirus pandemic has pushed the already popular wash-dry-fold (WDF) service into new territory, leading laundry owners to consider offering it for the first time. But there are things to carefully consider—like staffing, pricing, order tracking and more—before diving in.

For a recent “Wash-Dry-Fold 101” webinar, the Coin Laundry Association invited a trio of experienced operators to discuss what President and CEO Brian Wallace called the “basic building blocks” of the service.

The senior member of the panel was Cary Lipman, president of CL Consulting Co. He entered the laundry business in 1984 and has designed, built, refurbished, owned and operated seven stores over the years. Today, he’s a personal business consultant specializing in working with new investors in all phases of opening and operating vended laundries and assisting established store owners in building WDF profit centers in their stores.

Paul Pettefer owns four Laundry World stores in the St. Charles, La., area. According to Wallace, he has taken on WDF as an area of expertise and raised the bar for quality of service.

Stacey Runfola owns three laundromats in the Lake Worth and Delray Beach area of Florida. She bought her first two in April 2018 and her third in early 2019.

ALL ABOUT OPPORTUNITY Wallace’s first query was about determining the need for WDF. Some store owners start offering WDF from entry into the industry while others open for self-service and then assess the market.

“I really believe the WDF business is going to be driven by your opportunistic needs, and maybe some people with disposable income in your circle,” Pettefer says. “When I say opportunistic needs, that means if you have hotels that have traveling workers who stay there regularly. … In my area, we have some industrial plants where there’ll be people who come in for 2-3 months and then leave. … Then there are folks with disposable income that are in your circle. Those people are gonna do their normal clothes, comforters and all that.

“I think that means most laundromats have some (WDF) opportunity, and some have a big opportunity.”

Lipman’s first store in New Jersey faced a train station. Within two months of opening, he had a bustling WDF business powered by commuters going to/from New York City. He struggled to balance his insurance job with laundry ownership.

“A friend told me, ‘You can’t put your butt on two horses and expect to win the race. Choose one and run like hell.’” He left the insurance industry and within seven months had acquired two more laundries.

Runfola’s first two stores already had WDF service when she purchased them, and she knew from the outset that she wanted to offer pickup and delivery.

“I’d like to think that nearly every market has that potential,” Wallace says. “It’s whether you want to make your relatively simple laundromat more complex by offering the residential, the walk-in WDF trade. Pickup and delivery is a whole other level of complexity but also an opportunity to increase your earning power.”

Wallace asked Pettefer how he would counsel someone on

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WASH-DRY-FOLD 101:

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AMERICAN COIN-OP JULY 2021

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making the shift from self-service to WDF. “The real answer is going to be to know yourself and then decide if you’re willing to do the work to accomplish it,” Pettefer says. “If you’re ‘Captain Detail’ and you love all those little nits, then you’ve got to make sure you’re doing enough marketing. … If you’re a gregarious, make-a-friend guy like me, then you’ve gotta make sure that you get the details right.

“If you build a big business and your first wave in has a bunch of problems, then the second wave gets smaller. Knowing yourself, knowing your capacities, how many hours a day you can commit to it, and then just commit to getting a little bit better.”

DON’T LOSE TRACK Wallace asked Runfola what things delighted her about being engaged with WDF and what things surprised her.

Runfola says her biggest surprise was “how many steps there are in WDF if you don’t run it the right way.”

All three of her stores were run differently when she purchased them and she’s spent a great deal of time trying to reorganize them.

The store she acquired last was using paper tickets to record and track WDF orders.

The seller said the manager would take care of everything WDF, that she’d have nothing to worry about. Once the store was hers, Runfola discovered the manager was taking in WDF orders but pocketing the money.

It was a painful lesson that ended with the manager’s dismissal.

“One thing when getting started, either taking over or doing it yourself, is figuring out your controls,” Runfola says. “How are you going to run the business, and how are you going to check up on the business?”

Paper tickets are a thing of the past for her, replaced by a computerized point-of-sale system.

“Even at times when I’m not absolutely perfect, and I get really busy and maybe not following up, I at least spot-check and then the employees know that I am looking and I know what’s happening.”

Wallace asked if there were such a thing as a basic WDF kit, what would it include?

“A point of sale system is ideal, but a three-part ticket (system) at the least,” says Runfola. “You need packing supplies: bags, hangers, hanging bags. Some sort of system of labeling, whether it’s through point of sale or on tape. To be able to check things so that it’s not just a person’s name on a bag; there should be something that says ‘bag 1 of 3, bag 2 of 3...’ That cuts down on missing items.

“Detergent, softener, good-quality stuff that will work. Depending on market, you might want to have a fragrance-free option.”

And don’t forget storage space. Runfola suggested shelving but noted that her store uses laundry carts that fit under folding tables to store completed orders.

WHAT, NO DONUTS? Training was the next topic up.

“We never know who can do laundry well in the beginning,” Lipman says. “Many of the people I hire come from customers, people that are in my store doing laundry anyway. I see how friendly they are, how nice they are. It doesn’t mean they’re going to do laundry at my store the way they do it at home.

“Everybody in my store does it exactly the same way. That’s important because if the night attendant starts an order … the attendant who comes in the next morning picks up where they left 12

AMERICAN COIN-OP JULY 2021

off. You never know who finished it.”

Lipman trained attendant candidates by having them wash, dry and package their own laundry. When a store was just getting WDF off the ground, this helped project that it was a going concern worthy of attention.

“You don’t want to go to a donut shop and have no donuts on the rack,” he explains. “That really helps to build your business.”

Pettefer says it’s important to hire people who fit the culture you’re going to establish.

“My main question is, ‘Do they want to be here?’ I only want to hire people who want to be at my place,” he says. “I’d rather be short (staffed) and have to deal with those problems than to have someone who is just biding their time.”

Rather than doing traditional interviews, Pettefer conducts paid tryouts that he calls “auditions.”

Runfola does something similar that she calls “practicals” but says she’ll be renaming it after hearing Pettefer’s story.

“How do they interact with customers? Can they fold clothes?

We’re going to train them the way we wanted it folded but where is their starting point?,” she says. “Do they have energy? Do they mope around? Are they on their phone the whole day? Do they show up on time? These are things you can tell right away.”

Training attendants how to properly use detergent, bleach and other laundry items is important, as is understanding the need to ask customers about things like allergies and personal care preferences.

Lipman favors pre-spotting all collars and cuffs, and the fronts of children’s shirts, as well as separating children’s clothing from that of adults throughout WDF service to make it easier for the customer to put items away once they’re home.

Pettefer says WDF is its own business deserving of personal investment.

“We’ve got to treat this like we’re professionals in a real business, not a sideline in an old laundromat,” he says. “Most of us who are in the game, we abandoned that language a long time ago.”

As the gathering was winding down, Wallace asked about common mistakes or pitfalls one might make just getting started.

Pettefer says he regrets not having paid closer attention to machine repair or stain care in the beginning, For Runfola, it was not spinning the dryer drum before and after a load to make sure no items were left behind. She recalls receiving calls from customers who’d found clothes in their order that weren’t theirs “and it was always underwear.”

In closing, the conversation pivoted to marketing and the tools each operator used to get the word out. A unique approach was Runfola’s choice of apparel, a T-shirt she wears while out and about that reads, “Life is too short to fold your fitted sheets.”

“It’s probably my biggest conversation starter,” she says. “It feels so nerdy but the number of people who are like, ‘Oh, I like your shirt. That’s so funny.’ Then I tell them it’s my business and we start talking about it.”

For anyone who sees laundry as a chore best left to someone else, a WDF service can be a godsend. When presented with such an opportunity, it’s up to laundry owners to arm themselves with the knowledge needed to push beyond self-service.

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POINTERS FROM PAULIE B

MAXIMIZING YOUR STORE’S SECURITY D

Paul Russo

14

uring my career, I saw years when we had relatively low crime, and years when crime was rampant. I learned a lot (the hard way) from those bad years, especially the 1980s when drugs were everywhere in New York.

The best security requires that you make everyone think that your security is sooo good, they’ll choose an easier target. And I mean everyone! The bad guys, the public at large, your customers and your own employees.

Why everyone? Because they will find your weak spot. Your customers or employees may make deals with certain bad guys they may know. They call them “contracts” in NYC: “Hey, my friend, you want an easy hit? My laundromat doesn’t have any cameras, they close at 10 p.m., and their security is weak.” Or, “My mat’s owner comes to collect the money every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, at around 11 in the morning. He has a black Honda. You can get him in the parking lot when he leaves.”

Here are some tips for keeping your store secure: Departure of Employees — Always change your alarm codes and entry locks whenever an employee gets fired, quits, or retires.

Individual alarm codes should be given to each employee so your system can identify who’s opening and who’s closing your mat, and when. Instruct them to

never give their code to another employee. They should consider it just as important as their bank password.

Decoys, Decoys, Decoys! — Back in the ’80s, I had one mat where there were drug dealers outside 24/7.

Before leaving with coins, I would put them in a bag, then put that in a bag filled with laundry so I could walk out undetected.

Now, how do you protect it when a robber sticks a pistol in your employee’s face, demanding that he/she hand it over? And the employee has no keys to open it up? How do you defuse this? How do you protect that worker?

No problem! Just keep an old computer, DVR, or hard drive behind the counter. Make sure it lights up. Then, if there is a robbery or burglary, let the criminals take it so they can leave without hurting anyone. I especially like attaching a sign, “Video Hard Drive. Do NOT touch!”

You can do the same with a small safe. Put a few bucks in it. Don’t bolt it down. Let them take it, while your real money is somewhere else.

Is your surveillance or Wi-Fi equipment protected in a locked “safe space”? Good!

Alarm Systems — Old phone-based systems are highly vulnerable. All that’s needed is to cut the phone lines that are outside your building. If you can’t protect the wiring to/from your building, you can try a system that sends out a cellphone-type call to your central station monitor.

If you use a wireless alarm system, hackers can intercept it, but I’m thinking this is unlikely.

Protect the wiring to your building, including the cable lines that connect to your Wi-Fi. I’ve seen criminals cut the phone/cable lines a few times to prevent the system from sending out signals.

Oh, and make sure nobody can fool around with your electricity as well.

Locking Doors — Lock your doors from the inside after closing. Since mats have lots of ductwork on the roof, some perpetrators will enter through there. I had already placed lighting on my roof to discourage that, but one time a perp broke in anyhow. Only this time, all my precautions worked.

He triggered two motion detectors on the way down.

We had our “night lights” on, and a roll-down grille as opposed to roll-down shutters on our storefronts, so the NYPD did a pass-by.

They looked into the mat and saw our drop ceiling

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AMERICAN COIN-OP JULY 2021

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PERFECTING EQUIPMENT MIX Assessing washer, dryer choices to reap maximum revenue per square foot

by Bruce Beggs, Editorial Director

16

AMERICAN COIN-OP JULY 2021

ity bulkheads. There are efficiencies in buildout when retooling an existing store and keeping the same layout. However, antiquated layouts are worth reimagining when funds permit.

New stores are blank slates; we get the opportunity to utilize everything we know to make the store a market leader.

Kevin Hietpas, Director of Sales, Dexter Laundry: While not as critically important as making sure the demographics are suitable for a laundry, I would put getting your equipment mix right among the top couple of options to “get right” in updating an existing location or building a new one. First, because changing the mix will be expensive and inconvenient, if you get your equipment selection drastically wrong to begin with, and secondly, because the wrong mix will dramatically impact your revenue-generation Hietpas potential.

A common mistake we see, especially with investors who are new to the business, is choosing to install too many smaller-capacity machines in order to keep the capital investment below a certain amount. This decision significantly limits the store’s revenue potential, and it’s also costly to remove them and replace them with larger machines, especially once a store is already up and running.

Joel Jorgensen, Vice President of Sales for Girbau North America: With existing stores, the equipment mix is critical. And it’s really critical to review the equipment mix on a regular basis, I would say every three to five years. Neighborhoods evolve, competition evolves, traffic flow evolves, and through that transition you really have to rank that review and your ability to address the market needs and transitions through the capacity adjustments in your store.

With established locations, all the other considerations of the location are fixed, so now you’re into maintaining sustainability of your service in that market. That’s why it ranks so high. Mix in

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M

any elements contribute to the success of a self-service laundry but it’s hard to ignore the impact that the equipment mix has on a business. While there may be no universal formula, putting together and maintaining the ideal equipment mix will go a long way in ensuring that your laundromat is reaping the maximum revenue per square foot.

American Coin-Op invited representatives from vended laundry equipment manufacturers to answer some questions about assessing washer and dryer choices and what stands to be gained by offering customers what they want in capacity and capability.

Q: Where would you rank, in importance, having the proper equipment mix related to 1) an existing store and 2) new selfservice laundry development?

Matt Conn, Director of Product Development and Marketing, Commercial Laundry at Whirlpool Corporation: In an existing store, the proper equipment mix can mean the potential for added revenue for store owners. Between smart use of store space and customer-minded cycle and pricing options, owners can demonstrate an investment in the store and customer experience.

Replacing banks, or a group of similar machines, can make it easier to increase vend prices, and the consistency can help with business budgeting and planning. Depending on the size of your store, it can also provide flexibility to adjust machine mix.

In a new self-service laundry development, you can affect store mix not just in a bank of replaced machines, but in design overall.

Not all locations or demographics support all available capacities.

Designing a footprint around machine sizes most applicable to the area demographic and customer needs means making choices right from the start. This creates potential for new store owners or those doing a complete retool to build for the most potential profit and meet the needs of their customers from day one.

Jason Fleck, Lead Sales Development Manager, Alliance Laundry Systems: Often, store owners are hesitant to change a layout (of an existing store) because of concrete pads, bases, or pre-existing util-

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AMERICAN COIN-OP JULY 2021

and then start moving forward in store design.

From there, square footage and the dimensions of the space is super important. … Stores that are 2,500 or 3,500 square feet are more the norm. There are more capacity options and, more importantly, vend values.

Conn: Knowing your customers is a key factor in equipment mix, and our distributors work hard to uncover and know the areas they serve. That means demographic details of the area, research into other laundromats and customer habits, and an understanding of the area’s growth potential. With this knowledge in hand, distributors can advise on where multi-load or single-load equipment makes the most sense, what capacities are going to have the most potential for use and profit return, and where potential utility savings can impact other costs. Consider warmer climates and a laundromat’s cooling costs. Equipment mix could be a conversation that includes a complete picture of electric expenses and even dryer heat outputs to find the right machines and models to potentially impact all of the business, not just the profit potential from each machine.

Our customers may also be considering newer options like card readers or variable pricing features and a distributor can advise on when or where those solutions can work best.

Another reason your distributor can be helpful in determining mix is their relationship with the manufacturer and financing partners. Understanding the full profit potential of your plan can impact pricing packages or help a financier see where the capital investment lies and how ROI might be realized.

Q: How important is it to balance drying capacity with wash capacity? What can happen if that isn’t done properly?

Hietpas: Offering ample drying capacity is something that has gotten harder as washer capacities have gotten larger. Investors who are getting solid advice on a new location generally get the wash/dry ratio right. It’s more often that we see problems with locations that have been updated over time and due to the addition of larger washers, the location is now short on drying capacity – as well as short on folding space. … Having the right amount of drying capacity, in the right dryer sizes, with the right number of dryer pockets helps locations avoid the bottlenecks that can happen at busy times when customers are waiting for dryers simply because wash capacity at the location exceeds the available drying capacity.

Jorgensen: A lot of stores back in the day were built with improper ratios at the time, so to go in and add wash capacity without any consideration of dry (capacity) would certainly be a mistake. It’s done a lot but you’re going to very quickly run into logjams during peak periods of business on weekends. When stores are doing a large percent of their volume, all of a sudden you have a logjam at the dryers. Customers are dissatisfied, arguing over which dryer they’re in line for and then it even trickles down to folding tables and the ability to move them through that customer circuit.

Conn: Balancing drying capacity with wash capacity is important to keep a store running smoothly. With the proper equipment mix, you can avoid bottlenecks and ensure your customers have a positive and efficient laundry experience. With the right equipment mix, owners can ensure dryers will be available when customers need them, minimizing wait time between washing and drying and keeping customers satisfied.

Fleck: This is a very important edict of the laundromat industry. It’s critical to maintain a minimum of 1 to 1.1 of wash/

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capacity options sometimes are limited in those existing stores and spaces due to utilities, infrastructure and sometimes even access.

When contemplating a mix change, the whole project scope and all those considerations have to be considered in order to maximize the impact on that change and what it might do to your workflow and space overall.

For new stores, it ranks lower because, in the scope of the total project, you really have to take care of location and site selection first, and that happens with a market valuation and you have to negotiate a lease or a location purchase, so those are certainly going to rise to the top above mix. Once you determine that location and all the qualifiers are done, now your site development takes over and obviously with that the same considerations would come in.

Q: What factors are generally used in determining a store’s equipment mix? And should an investor or store owner seek help when trying to make this decision?

Fleck: Don’t do this alone. Seek out a distributor with experience laying out stores and lean on them to get things started. Tour successful stores for ideas and interview successful store owners for their advice/ regrets. Understand your demographics and competition.

Hietpas: The demographics of the expectFleck ed customer base is a very important factor.

If the location caters to customers with large families, it will need more large-capacity equipment. If there are a lot of one- and twoperson households, more smaller-capacity equipment will be OK. The size of the location is also a determining factor. A small store with too many capacity choices generally doesn’t work well, and likewise a large location with only a few capacity choices doesn’t work well, either.

Getting advice on equipment mix and layout is never a bad idea.

Our industry is constantly evolving with new equipment-capacity options, as well as new control features and capabilities. Owners should take whatever input they get and use it to put together the best experience they can for their customers.

Jorgensen: I’d always seek qualified help. Let’s face it, we go online for help with a restaurant decision. If you’re going to make a multi-thousand-dollar, long-term decision, it only makes sense for professional consultation with a qualified distributor with a proven track record. By all means, they’ve got to have strong references.

As for factors, we always start with a market demographic analysis. … Most distributors and many, if not all, manufacturers … offer demographic services, and they’re all high-level analyses that don’t just include population. It also includes traffic count, sometimes a competitive analysis, and it’s all out there, publicly available for you.

Once the market analysis is done, you’re going to dig into the overall market valuation and see how you might rank in that market of competition, and then start analyzing square footage and what you have space for. All of that comes into an overall possibility of what volume of business you might do in that neighborhood or market area.

You combine that with some reasonable assumptions about market share and potential revenue and then what’s done with your professional consultant is you’ll come up with a conservative pro forma to look at what impact the equipment mix might have

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dry capacity in a laundromat to allow efficient flow of traffic and minimize bottlenecks, especially on peak days like weekends.

Q: How have the technological advances we find in our industry today—high-speed performance, programmable controls, networking, mobile payment, etc.—influenced equipment mix?

Jorgensen: It’s clear that smart business owners are always going to accommodate customers in any practical way they want to pay. I haven’t seen anyone accepting bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies but who knows, that might be around the corner. It’s crazy the way and speed of payment and the options and the way people want and expect to be able to pay and satisfy our ever-growing vend prices. … You’re talking 50 to 70 washers, four or five washer Jorgensen capacities and varied vend prices, and that is what’s driving us further and further away from a quarter-based transaction.

The other part of that, store management, alternative payment and POS systems, you’ve got attendants handling cash, over the counter sales, you’ve got POS tied to drycleaning partnerships and textile care, pickup and delivery.

Conn: Technological advances give store owners the opportunity to increase ROI potential with an equipment mix that includes new machines. The intelligent controls on Maytag® Commercial Laundry machines let owners easily set time-of-day pricing and other cycle modifiers for potential added revenue. A washer’s flexible controls can help owners manage profit opportunities with cycles and options including temperatures and rinses that can be priced individually. The axial airflow dryer can help manage utility costs while still providing consistent, effective drying for efficient machine turnover.

Whether owners are planning a replacement or opening a new store, investing in new machines can have a significant impact on business success. Owners should take the warranty and full life cycle of a machine into consideration when evaluating their equipment, because parts and repair expenses may end up outweighing the money saved by purchasing a lower-priced model.

Fleck: Today, we can look at a store through an online dashboard through (Speed Queen and Huebsch) systems ... and see which machines are outperforming the others, and how many turns we are getting by capacity. This can certainly help influence the layout of future projects and retools the store owner is considering.

Technology can also help us drive more wash-dry-fold (WDF) business or commercial pickup through CRM, advertising, geofencing — but now that you’ve successfully targeted this business, how will your mix accommodate it? Should you designate an attendant-only area of equipment for this business, or have it washed, dried and folded in the general area with your self-service customers? It really depends on the volume you intend to do.

Hietpas: New payment options like mobile payment have made it even easier for customers to use large-capacity equipment. Instead of a handful of coins, customer just use their own mobile phone.

Mobile payment apps … also allow customers to track their load progress so they know when their load is ready. And the increased amount of machine usage information and revenue collection data from (management) systems ... allows owners to clearly see which machines are getting the most usage, which allows them to adjust vend prices between models to maximize usage and revenue, and 20

AMERICAN COIN-OP JULY 2021

to also plan future equipment upgrades to better meet customer capacity preferences.

As equipment capacities get larger and the capital investment gets bigger, something we take very seriously at Dexter Laundry is the ability to make existing machines better with new features and capabilities. Since 2014, Dexter machines with (certain) controls have had the ability to have the operating firmware updated. This has allowed us to add new capabilities like cloud connectivity … and mobile payment acceptance … to models already installed and operating. Customers who have taken advantage of free and ongoing firmware upgrades have a better machine today than the one they originally purchased.

Q: Depending on the scope of a store’s service offerings, is there other equipment besides washers and dryers that might become part of the mix?

Conn: Make sure the store is equipped with enough laundry carts and folding tables to meet the demand of traffic in the store.

Pay attention to whether customers put in their laundry and leave, or if they stay in the store. Providing book nooks for kids can make parents happy, and adding amenities like vending machines, a coffee machine and Conn arcade games can provide opportunities for added income.

Fleck: I’ve seen ironers/folders used in some laundromats for WDF/commercial pickup business. Again, it depends how much of this, percentage-wise, you intend on doing versus the normal self-service side of the business. Another option is a less traditional washer and dryer combo with stacked units — meaning the dryer is on top and the washer on the bottom. Given their footprint and the flow, you could designate an area with these units for attendants to use for WDF without interfering with your self-service business and machines.

Hietpas: It’s not exactly equipment, but along with the right mix of washer and dryers, I encourage owners to give proper consideration to offering ample folding space and to make that space convenient to the dryers. Folding space doesn’t generate revenue, but folding is the last thing customers do in your store, and it’s one final opportunity to leave them with a positive experience.

Jorgensen: I’ll stay on the self-service floor initially as a ‘back of house’ consideration but there’s a lot of interest in these ozonation systems. They’re on the rise. The public is educated. There are a lot of tangible environmental and efficiency that leads to more manageable store odor control where you have open troughs.

Everybody loves an open trough from a serviceability standpoint but you have to manage the lint and the maintenance of that. …

I’ll take it off the self-service floor. Ironing is a real trend that’s been around for years but laundromats and their idle capacity during the week, they’re oftentimes pursued by different markets, whether it’s day clinics or restaurants, wanting an alternative for the rental service industry. … Commercial work and the laundromat’s involvement in particular has driven designated machines in a work area for staff only. With ironing systems, it’s also driving some of the self-service business to laundromats and their drop-off alternatives for table coverings, comforters and so forth.

ACO Watch for an expanded version of this article to be posted on AmericanCoinOp.com during the month of July! www.americancoinop.com

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(continued from page 14) was hanging down at one spot, so they also broke in to send two police dogs inside first.

The dogs found the culprit hiding behind a bank of dryers. Because we had locked all our doors from the inside, he couldn’t get out! It cost him two years behind bars.

Clear Your Windows — Make sure you keep your windows as clear as possible with 24-hour lighting. Install roll-down grilles. Bad guys don’t like a lot of light, and the grilles allow patrols to see inside.

It might make someone nervous enough to choose an easier target. It also doesn’t hurt that you’ll be showing off your mat every night to potential customers.

Install a Drop Safe — Don’t let easy access to cash build up. Installing a safe protects your employees and your cash.

Make sure you have signs in the two predominant languages for your area that state, “Money is removed from the store every few hours. Employees don’t have access to cash,” or something similar.

Make sure that this safe is bolted down!

Add a PA System — A PA—or public address—system is a handy way to remind people that you are watching, even when not there. Many surveillance systems allow you to not only see what’s going on in your mat, you can add microphones and speakers. Some cameras have that feature built in.

This is handy for attended mats, but it’s really helpful for unattended mats! A PA system throws them off-balance when you announce something and give an impression of authority.

Buddy Buzzer System — In the days before modern security systems, I installed two simple doorbells. One had a hidden button in my mat that rang the pizza place next door, the other had a hidden button in the pizza place that rang a buzzer in my mat.

If we had trouble in the mat, we would press the doorbell and the pizza guy would call the cops for us, and vice versa. Simple and cheap. We would test the doorbells occasionally to make sure they worked.

Mirrors — I installed mirrors on some of the walls of my mats. For instance, a folding table that’s up against a wall should have a mirror on that wall. People folding there get to admire themselves as they fold 22

AMERICAN COIN-OP JULY 2021

but, more importantly, they can see anyone coming up from behind. This is more useful for attendants to help them more easily see who’s coming and going. A bonus is that mirrors can help a small mat feel bigger.

Get to Know Local Police — Establish a relationship with your local police department. Many local departments have created a “Community Police bureau,” through which they take a proactive approach to reducing crime by listening and engaging the people and businesses in their precincts.

I used my local community police a number of times to establish a rapport with them. They helped a little with reducing transients and loiterers by sending patrol cars in the parking lots near my stores.

Control the Homeless — If you have non-customers hanging around in your mat getting high, drunk, vomiting, passing out, smelling bad, etc., you will surely attract the real bad ones who will be looking to steal. Regular customers won’t come in and your business will suffer.

The homeless problem is sad but I believe it’s way beyond us. It’s a social problem that requires social cures outside of our control.

I found that if you politely ask a homeless person to leave, it works fairly well.

Buzz ’Em In — If your mat is in an area susceptible to armed robberies, consider a buzz-in lock system on your entrance doors to protect your employees, like some apartment houses use. And make sure you have at least one camera aimed at the door outside for easy identification of who wants to come in.

Private Entrance — A card-based store offers a little more protection from crime than a coin-operated mat does, but it’s been my experience that bad guys don’t like to steal coins. What they really want is paper money that’s in your changers or VTMs. Some smart operators are building their mats with a separate private, dedicated entrance to their security rooms. If done right, you can come to take out the cash and go without anyone knowing!

‘Pin’ Your Door — You can make your out-swinging exit doors like a safe door.

It’s inexpensive and a clever way to secure those doors by creating an interlock at the hinge side. Anyone trying to gain entry by cutting off the hinges when a pinned door is shut will not be able to open the door.

First, drill a ¼-inch pilot hole in the door

edge. Next, screw in a 3-inch by 3/8-inch lag bolt and let it stick out about ¾ inch to 1 inch, then cut off the head to leave just the bolt shaft exposed; this is now your first “pin.” Gently close the door so that the headless pin is touching the edge of the door frame. Draw a circle around the pin onto the frame edge. Drill a ½-inch hole in that frame circle. You now have one pin finished. Repeat with the others.

I usually did four pins so they would be above and below each hinge. You can use different-size lags and holes to suit your particular door. I would not go smaller than 5 /16 of an inch for the lags.

Windows and Other Openings — I thought I had secured the back windows of my mats with steel bars spaced 6 inches apart. Guess what? They greased a kid so he could squeeze through the bars to let the big guys in! This is when I realized I had to lock the doors from the inside as well as the outside after closing that store each night.

The same goes for any other opening like makeup air vents. Just make sure you aren’t violating any fire safety laws. During the day, people must have clear exits.

In closing, remember that your security is only as good as your weakest point.

Make sure you have a secure door to begin with. A real solid commercial steel door should not be cheap. If you can’t find one, you can bolt a nice 1/8-inch steel diamond plate sheet to the inside of the door.

If the frame is attached to wood, then use some high-quality 3-inch screws for the hinges, such as deck screws that have a “bugle head” so they countersink into the hinge yet go all the way to the studs. This will help both the door and the frame weather crowbar and sledgehammer attacks.

For the locks, use heavy-duty carriage bolts, bolted all the way through the door, and epoxy glue the threads inside.

For a general rule of thumb when looking at any high-value object you want to secure, ask yourself this: Can it be opened in less than 10 minutes with either a sledgehammer or a crowbar?

ACO Paul Russo owned and operated multiple Laundromats in New York City for more than 40 years before retiring in 2018.

You’re welcome to direct any questions or comments for Russo to Editor Bruce Beggs at bbeggs@atmags.com. www.americancoinop.com

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PRODUCT NEWS

«

CONTINENTAL CONTROL UPGRADE KIT FEATURES ‘EXTRA SANITIZE’ OPTION

Continental Girbau® has introduced a ProfitPlus® Control upgrade kit for vended Continental washerextractors manufactured after 2009.

In addition to “extra” cycle options including Extra Wash and Extra Spin, it showcases a new “Extra Sanitize” option that allows store owners to easily add functionality for sanitization of laundry loads, and to monetize that cycle selection. Whenever a customer selects the “Sanitize” option, an owner-specified cost is added to the overall vend price.

This market-unique upgrade kit will immediately grow store revenue and help ensure customer/staff safety during a time when it’s needed most, according to Continental

Girbau Vice President of Sales Joel Jorgensen.

The affordable kit, which takes 15 minutes to install per washer, includes a firmware download, new overlay with “Sanitize” option, and clear installation and programming instructions.

“The introduction of the upgrade control kit for washers up to 12 years old is yet another example of Continental not leaving customers behind,” says Jorgensen. “It’s something we feel will immediately and positively impact vended laundry revenue and customer retention. For the first time, it makes it easy to interface with, and monetize, new and emerging laundry sanitization practices that are in demand by consumers.”

Steps for integrating the new control kit are simple for laundries already using sanitizing ozone storewide; for laundries using automatic chemical-injection systems; and for those interested in sanitization of laundry options: Step 1: Contact your Continental equipment distributor to order the

upgrade kit. It will assist you with questions and installation, if needed.

Step 2: Add the ProfitPlus upgrade kit to washers with a simple overlay, firmware install and reprogramming.

Step 3: Configure the control to add a dosing signal for sanitizing chemical or sanitizing ozone injection. You’ll need to add a sanitizing chemical or ozone to each washer if you don’t already have it.

If you already have storewide ozone, it’s suggested that you increase the ozone exposure/cycle time and/or rotation action when the “Sanitize” option is selected. This immediately monetizes the “Sanitize” feature.

Or, Step 4: You can opt to add a third water inlet for pre-ozonated water.

The ProfitPlus Control upgrade kit is available now for use on qualifying Continental vended washers. With the new upgrade kit, owners can set their laundries apart from the competition, comply with rigorous cleaning and health guidelines, ensure the safety of employees and customers, and maximize revenue and customer retention.

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CLEANER’S SUPPLY INTRODUCES LINE OF LAUNDROMAT VENDING MACHINE SOAPS

Cleaner’s Supply reports that it has introduced an expanded line of laundromat vending machine detergents, softeners, dryer sheets, bleaches and more.

New brands include Tide, Clorox, Cheer, Downy, Gain, Bounce, Suavitel and Ares Green Performance.

Other product offerings include

new plastic coin-op bags, wash ’n’ fold bags in yellow, nylon liner inserts for laundromat carts, antimicrobial carts and more.

The 2021 catalog is available online at the Cleaner’s Supply website listed below. You can place an order or request a catalog

by calling the number below; for a Korean-speaking representative, call 800-368-7768.

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New Laundromat A Owner Undaunted

by COVID-19 Business Challenges Morton perseveres and opens California’s The Laundry Room

On the day of The Laundry Room’s grand opening, owner Denise Morton (right) points out some features to Mike Bonin, 11th District council member for the City of Los Angeles.

26

AMERICAN COIN-OP JULY 2021

fter many years as a successful residential property manager, Denise Morton decided it was time for a change and entered into the vended laundry business.

Her decision was not a hasty one; it was informed by knowledgeable acquaintances and backed by many months of research and time spent searching for the right property.

Eventually, Morton found the perfect situation for her after a few false starts: an outdated laundromat in a highly visible location in a densely packed neighborhood. The clincher was that she formed an immediate connection to the former owner which not only favored her sale offer, it eased her transition into the business.

Morton acquired The Laundry Room, a 3,200-square-foot Culver City, Calif., laundromat, in January 2020. She put an extensive remodeling plan into action, working with Michael Ambrose of Dexter distributor Western State Design. This involved upgrading the laundromat in stages so she could keep it open for business, retaining her customer base and maintaining cash flow.

Unfortunately, Morton’s careful plan was thrown into disarray when COVID-19 struck Southern California. Since laundromats had been decreed “essential” businesses, she could keep her doors open even during lockdown. The bad news was that customer traffic tailed off as people minimized their time spent in public. That forced Morton to pause construction.

As the virus-related business disruption continued for months on end, she says she was tempted, at times, to hand the keys over to her landlord and simply walk away from her new venture.

While there were overarching business challenges related to the pandemic that threatened to jeopardize her new business, other issues created headaches for Morton.

The laundromat’s hot water heater stopped working the day after she took ownership. Rather than take a less-expensive “bandaid” repair approach, she invested in a state-of-the-art system consisting of four tankless water heaters.

Besides this, Morton called the national coin shortage a “nightmare.” At times, she couldn’t go more than four or five days (instead of the usual six to seven) without having to replenish her change machine. www.americancoinop.com

But she stuck it out, thanks in part to her landlord’s understanding and support. Now, after more than a year since she acquired her new business, she has finally celebrated its grand opening.

The renovation and retooling is complete—for now. She believes her laundromat has a fantastic look, and business is growing as new customers take notice. In addition to being impressed by the surroundings, brand-new Dexter Laundry equipment, and the store’s customer service efforts, local customers are pleased to support a minority- and woman-owned neighborhood business.

Morton attributes The Laundry Room’s growing popularity to many favorable features and amenities, including: • Its proximity to other popular retail destinations in its area; • Twenty-four private parking spaces adjacent to the entrance; • Highly visible and attractive signage and exterior; • Freshly painted walls and clean, polished floors, creating a bright and airy interior; • A full complement of new Dexter coin- or card-operated commercial washers (12 T-400 30-pounders, nine T-600 40-pounders and four T-900 60-pounders, an increasingly popular large-capacity model), and dryers (10 50x2 [50pound pockets] reversing stacks and six 30x2 stacks), all visible through the large front windows; • A change machine; • Vending machines offering popular laundry products; • Free Wi-Fi, plus USB charging stations; • Large-screen TVs featuring popular movie streaming channels and Atmosphere TV; • Attendants on duty (store is partially attended weekdays, full-

time on weekends) to assist customers; and • A wash-and-fold service (introduced during the early days of COVID-19, rather than later as originally planned).

Morton praised Ambrose for his assistance, saying he “truly guided me along my new laundromat business journey with his expertise and patience. He didn’t act at all like a typical salesperson; he was more like an advisor/mentor/partner.”

Looking forward, Morton intends to add pickup and delivery service sometime during the second half of this year, and she plans to pursue local commercial laundry business.

In the meantime, she’s determined to continue learning as much as she can about her new industry by joining various trade associations and networking with industry leaders.

Morton concedes that the challenges of running a small business such as this one will remain, even as the pandemic’s threat recedes.

But she promises that she’ll be ready for them.

“Because of my property management background, I am conditioned and prepared for the plethora of mishaps that can occur: leaks, flooding, power outages, broken machines, angry customers, graffiti, you name it,” she says.

And there are aspects of her new job that she likes: “What I do prefer about the laundry business is the repeat face-to-face interaction with customers in the store, as compared to phone or email interactions with tenants.”

Morton says she is confident that if she provides a good product, is responsive to people’s needs and provides a high level of customer service—and continues with her long-term approach of investing in new equipment—The Laundry Room will be successful.

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NEWSMAKERS CARD CONCEPTS INC. PARTNERS WITH OPERATIONS PLATFORM CENTS Cents, a business management and in-store operations platform that enables laundromat owners to run and grow their business, has partnered with Card Concepts Inc. (CCI), an innovator of automated payment systems, marketing and management solutions for the self-service laundromat industry, with over 40 years of experience in the business.

The Cents-CCI partnership will enable operators “to leverage CCI’s best-in-class hardware and card technology, alongside the No. 1 POS, online ordering, and business management platform in the industry,” the companies say.

“For over 20 years, CCI has been the preferred payment system for self-service laundromat operators,” says CCI President Steve Marcionetti. “Offering store owners the ability to integrate with Cents was a logical next step in ensuring that CCI customers are equipped with the tools to maximize their profitability.”

Everything that Cents does is focused around creating the largest network of laundromat owners that can leverage its platform to increase margins and revenue through operating efficiency and larger order volume, according to CEO Alex Jekowsky.

Cents and CCI customers will have access to an all-encompassing business solution with a tablet-based POS, modern payment technology, wash/dry/fold operations, employee management, store marketing, remote business management, revenue reconciliations and more.

HAPPYNEST HIRES MESSOM AS CUSTOMER SUCCESS MANAGER Tech-enabled laundry pickup and delivery service HappyNest has named Alexandria Messom as its Customer Success manager.

She comes to the company from custom sports apparel provider SquadLocker, where she was team lead for customer onboarding.

HappyNest has been bolstering its customer success team of late, hiring Director of Customer Experience Kyle Ricci in January.

“Our customers’ happiness is of utmost importance as they trust HappyNest with the care of their personal laundry and rely on us to get it done accurately and quickly,” says Ricci. “As part of our focused efforts to provide the best customer service in the industry, Messom we are thrilled to welcome Alexandria who is a seasoned customer service professional with years of experience implementing strategy, improving processes, and managing staff.”

Messom’s other experience came during a three-year stint as senior customer service representative at online print and design company Moo, and in member services for National DCP, the $2 billion purchasing cooperative serving Dunkin’ Donuts franchisees.

“HappyNest pickup and delivery laundry service is expanding quickly throughout the U.S. so this is an exciting time to be joining the company,” Messom says. “I look forward to supporting customers using our services as well as helping our valuable and growing list of laundromat partners to succeed.”

LES EXPANDS SALES TERRITORY, WELCOMES KEMP Commercial laundry distributor Laundry Equipment Services Inc. (LES) reports it has expanded its sales territory into Pennsylvania 28

AMERICAN COIN-OP JULY 2021

and hired Nick Kemp to serve as sales representative there.

Kemp tells American Coin-Op he’s been involved in the commercial laundry industry off and on over the past several years, mainly doing service works and installs.

He has family who was in the industry for 30-plus years and says he gained a lot of knowledge and experience working with them.

As Pennsylvania sales representative for the Maryland-based distributor, it will be Kemp’s aim to provide clear and concise solutions for challenges that LES customers Kemp face on a daily basis. Additionally, he’ll look to provide unmatched customer service while being the person LES customers can count on to get the job done right.

“I am very excited to be part of the team at LES!” Kemp exclaims. “I look forward to helping grow the company and create strong, meaningful relationships with our customers along the way.”

STARCHUP, DROP LOCKER MERGE TO CREATE SUD SYSTEMS Starchup and Laundry Locker Inc., doing business as Drop Locker, have entered into an agreement to merge their companies in a new entity, SUD Systems. The companies announced the development in a joint press release.

Effective immediately, the two will operate as a unified team with an eye toward taking the best from both companies’ offerings and technology platforms to create “the premier POS, delivery, and operations platform for the laundry and drycleaning industry,” they say.

The joint entity will also be looking at future strategic acquisitions and partnerships that continue to enhance the operator and customer experience.

Earlier this year, Drop Locker and Starchup announced a licensing partnership for Starchup to utilize the Drop Locker intellectual property for locker pickup and delivery.

Customer software and support will remain the same. Employees from both teams will be joining the new entity. Over the next 6-12 months, the organization will focus on streamlining operations and merging platforms, with the goal of delivering to both Starchup and Drop Locker customers an enhanced experience with the best features from both.

ANOTHER LAUNDRY SERVICES FRANCHISE ENTERS U.S. MARKETPLACE Mr Jeff—a laundry franchise that has modernized the task in more than 30 countries through a 48-hour pickup and delivery mobile app-based service—is expanding into the United States, the company reports.

After raising $43 million in funding and growing with 2,000 franchisees in Europe, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, Mr Jeff is introducing its comprehensive “Business in a Box” franchise opportunity, connecting the offline and online worlds, to U.S. entrepreneurs.

Initially, the franchisor is offering the opportunity to qualified parties in select cities in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, Nevada, Oregon, www.americancoinop.com

pickup and delivery timings and routes.

With its simple yet advanced operations, each location typically has up to five employees, including a driver.

An example of a Mr Jeff service hub.

(Photo: Mr Jeff)

Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee and Vermont.

Mr Jeff intends to announce additional target markets throughout 2021.

Mr Jeff franchisees can take advantage of a turnkey model, with everything needed to run the business from day one, as well as a comprehensive “Business in a Box,” with three proprietary technology products: the Jeff App, for customers to schedule services; the Jeff Suite, a management software designed to attend to the needs of the business and cater its growth; and the Jeff Driver app, which is connected to Jeff Suite and Jeff App, to manage all the

ORIEL JOINS LAUNDRY BASES OWNERSHIP TEAM Justin Oriel, president of Garment Machinery Co. Inc., has joined the ownership team of commercial laundry equipment base manufacturer Laundry Bases LLC, the latter reports. Both companies are based in Needham, Mass.

“We are excited to have Justin join our team at Laundry Bases,” says the company’s owner, Daniel Greiff. “Justin and I have built companies that have a loyal customer base, built on the foundation of long-term partnering relationships and trust. Whether our customers are independent laundry dealers, laundromat owners, universities, resorts or multi-family facility owners, Laundry Bases has taken pride in providing top-notch customer service to all customers by offering quality product solutions needed for their laundry operations.”

Laundry Bases provides steel bases that are used for Wascomat, Dexter, Speed Queen and, soon, other Alliance Laundry Systems machines. Aside from manufacturing singles, the company also builds doubles and triples ranging in height from 4 to 12 inches.

Oriel’s company has been supplying coin and on-premises equipment to the New England laundry industry for more than 75 years. (continued on page 32)

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Advertiser Page Aaxon Laundry Systems......................... 11 AC Power ...............................................27 BDS Laundry Systems .............................19 Card Concepts ........................................13 Cleaner’s Supply ......................................31 Continental Girbau ...................................1 Curbside Laundries .................................23 CryptoPay ...............................................30 ESD Inc. .................................................BC Gold Coin Laundry Equipment...............17 Hainsworth Laundry Co. ........................31 Imonex Services ......................................30 KioSoft ......................................................9 Laundroworks.........................................15 Laundry Concepts ...................................25 LaundryParts.com ...................................29 LG Electronics ......................................IBC Maytag Commercial Laundry ...................7 Metro Laundry Tech Corp. .....................31 Mountain Electronics ..............................30 PayRange ................................................21 Setomatic Systems ................................ IFC Speed Queen .............................................3 Sudsy Vending Supplies ...........................29 Tjernlund Products .................................30 Vend-Rite ..................................................5 Vending Machine Sales ...........................30 WASH Commercial Laundry...................30 JULY 2021

AMERICAN COIN-OP 31

NEWSMAKERS (continued from page 29)

Founded in 2013, Rinse says it offers a simple, consistent, high-quality solution to dry cleaning and laundry in seven major markets across the United States. The acquistion of ButlerBox will expand its customer base in Los Angeles and further solidify its position as “the market leader and the fastest-growing clothing care provider in the L.A. market,” Rinse says.

With Rinse, ButlerBox customers will enjoy door-to-door service available daily and have the option to use additional services beyond dry cleaning and wash and fold, like hang dry, clothing repairs, and more. Rinse also offers a laundry subscription service, priced by the bag instead of the pound.

Rinse will continue providing service to all of ButlerBox’s multifamily and commercial office partners through its own branded services.

A rendering of The Depot, a community resources center that received a $75,000 Pennsylvania state grant to support ongoing construction in Tarentum, Pa. When completed, the town’s only laundromat will be located there. (Graphic: FCP Services) REMEDIATION PROJECT TO PRODUCE COMMUNITY’S ONLY LAUNDROMAT The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Financing Authority has issued $200,000 in Blight Remediation Program grants to several projects, including one that will help produce a community’s only laundromat.

State Sen. Lindsey M. Williams announced that FCP Services (FCP is short for Faith Community Partners) in Tarentum, Pa., a town northeast of Pittsburgh, received $75,000 for an ongoing remediation project that will result in The Depot, a financially selfsustaining community resources center that will house a laundromat, Wi-Fi café, high-tech meeting room, and co-working space in a formerly blighted building.

This funding will be used for structural support in the café area, installation of a concrete slab and mechanical rough-in in the laundromat area, and façade work.

FCP Services is a nonprofit collaboration of churches, community organizations, businesses, government agencies, and individuals committed to positive social and economic change in Tarentum and nearby communities.

It describes The Depot under development at 305 E. 5th St. as “a community gathering place where individuals with spiritual, economic, housing, family and employment needs can find solutions.”

The FCP community laundromat will be the only public laundry service in Tarentum, the organization says. State-of-the-art washers and dryers in a well-maintained facility will provide a much-needed service, and volunteers will serve as staff to assist each customer.

The laundromat will have easy access to the rest of the building, affording customers the opportunity to take advantage of other services while their laundry is being done.

RINSE ACQUIRES BUTLERBOX IN CONTINUED NATIONAL EXPANSION National drycleaning and laundry delivery brand Rinse has acquired ButlerBox, a Los Angeles-based drycleaning and laundry provider specializing in locker-based service with multifamily and commercial office partners. Terms were not disclosed.

ButlerBox is the latest in a series of Rinse acquisitions that includes Chicago-based Dryv (2020), the Bay Area-based OffToYou (2020), Cleanly’s San Francisco operations (2019) and Washio (2016).

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AMERICAN COIN-OP JULY 2021

The Chambersburg, Pa., store is the largest Spot Laundromat at 6,000 square feet, and contains over 100 pieces of Huebsch laundry equipment. (Photo: Spot Laundromat) SPOT LAUNDROMAT CHAIN OPENS 1ST PENNSYLVANIA STORE A growing mid-Atlantic Laundromat chain recently opened its latest “Spot” in Chambersburg, Pa. Spot Laundromats LLC continues to expand its number of locations across Maryland, West Virginia and now Pennsylvania. Altogether, the chain now operates eight stores.

The newest location in the chain opened in March at 245 Southgate Shopping Mall. It’s the largest Spot Laundromat at 6,000 square feet, the company says, and contains over 100 pieces of Huebsch laundry equipment.

The equipment showcases Huebsch’s latest technology, including touchscreen controls and the Huebsch Pay payment center.

Customers can use a mobile app to pay for, start and monitor their laundry equipment’s progress right from their phone, but the contactless payment system also accepts cash and credit card.

Spot Laundromats are fully attended, offering wash-dry-fold services, separate lounge areas, bar top work areas with Wi-Fi, and children’s play areas. There are custom folding tables built specifically with customer needs in mind. Ample windows and well-lit parking areas coupled with a 24-hour security surveillance system give customers peace of mind.

The Spot Laundromats chain is planning to open four more stores in 2021-2022 “to better serve the neighboring communities” but released no further details.

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