American Coin-Op - December 2021

There’s more: We’re just two members of NIE’s team of experts. NIE has been handling fabricare insurance since 1915!

CURB APPEAL

THE IMPORTANCE OF TURNS PER DAY

One completed cycle on a washer in your self-service laundry—known as a “turn”—may not seem like much on the surface, but it factors into a calculation that can play a huge role in illustrating your store’s busyness and efficiency.

ATLANTA HOUSING OPTIONS OPEN FOR 2022 CLEAN SHOW

Hotel reservations for The 2022 Clean Show in Atlanta can now be made through Connections Housing, the official housing agency for the late July event. Show owner Messe Frankfurt has arranged for exclusive discounts and amenities at a variety of hotels.

COLUMNS

12 COMPETITION IS HEALTHY, BUT BE EVER VIGILANT

Retired multi-store owner Paul Russo believes that competition is healthy because it keeps business owners and managers on their toes to do a good job for their customers: “Laundromats are wide open to the public, and competitors copy each other all the time. This helps advance the industry to new levels. It’s just that you want to limit how deeply they can see into your operation, while you can do a little of your own copying.”

(Cover image: © urfinguss/iStockphoto)

Bruce Beggs

LOOKING GOOD, FEELING GOOD

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

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

This month’s primary features are about looking good—literally and figuratively.

Our cover story is about “Curb Appeal” and how creating and maintaining a sharp, organized look on the outside of your laundry can help support the cleaning mission inside. What do you want a prospective customer’s first impression to be? A trio of laundry owners share looks at their laundromats and describe the steps they took to create and maintain their best curb appeal. That story begins on page 16.

Also in this issue is “The Importance of Turns Per Day,” a deeper look at the metric that store owners can use to determine how their laundromat is operating. The larger the number of turns, the better your laundry “looks.” But this calculation can also signal a need for maintenance, shift in equipment mix, or other action. Learn how beginning on page 6.

Main: 312-361-1700

Like 2020, the past year has featured its share of challenges for us. While we’re still a long way from being “back to normal” from the pandemic (if that’s even possible), there are signs of recovery.

It’s wonderful to learn that housing options for next year’s Clean Show in Atlanta are now open (see page 15). It’s a procedural matter, one that happens relative to every major trade show, but the fact that show owner Messe Frankfurt is inviting the textile care audience to book hotel rooms now means that things remain on track for the exhibition in July.

Clean is all about the possibilities, how taking advantage of the latest equipment, technology and supplies can boost a laundry operation. Its return after three years is a sight for sore eyes.

It’s a good look heading into 2022.

Bruce Beggs Editorial Director

American Coin-Op (ISSN 0092-2811) is published monthly. Subscription prices, payment in advance: U.S., 1 year $46.00; 2 years $92.00. Foreign, 1 year $109.00; 2 years $218.00. Single copies $9.00 for U.S., $18.00 for all other countries. Published by American Trade Magazines LLC, 650 West Lake Street, Suite 320, Chicago, IL 60661. Periodicals postage paid at Chicago, IL and at additional mailing offices.

POSTMASTER, Send changes of address and form 3579 to American Coin-Op, Subscription Dept., 125 Schelter Rd., #350, Lincolnshire, IL 60069-3666. Volume 62, number 12. 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 may 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 may arise therefrom.

The Importance of Turns Per Day

One completed cycle on a washer in your self-service laundry—known as a “turn”—may not seem like much on the surface, but it factors into a calculation that can play a huge role in illustrating your store’s busyness and efficiency.

American Coin-Op invited representatives from vended laundry equipment manufacturers to answer some questions about the performance metric known as turns per day and its place in self-service laundry operations and management.

Q: How does one calculate turns per day in a laundromat?

Michael Buzzard, senior manager of commercial laundry product development, Whirlpool Corp. (including ADC, Maytag Commercial Laundry and Whirlpool brands): It is the number of times you’re running your machines in a day but I think practically, more saliently, it’s really the number of revenue-generating machine starts per day. Not every start is necessarily a revenue-generating start, and typically what I think store owners are concerned with is revenue and return on investment.

It’s probably useful to consider both revenue-generating machine starts and overall machine hours or overall starts to understand how productive your equipment is, especially in an attended store where maybe your attendants are giving free vends to accommodate customers who may have issues or make an incorrect selection, something like that.

If you have a whole lot of free vends, just measuring the number of turns, the number of machine starts, is not going to give you an accurate picture of what your [return on investment] is or could be.

Gary Gauthier, national

Milnor Corp.: To determine turns per day (TPD), we need either washer and dryer revenues for one week or weekly cycle counts from all of the machines. If using revenues, monies need to be separated by class (or size/category) of machines.

One TPD is calculated by multiplying the vend price for each category of washer by the number of units in that category. If we take the total washer revenue for that category and divide that by the dollar amount of the TPD, we then get the number of turns per day for that category. Using cycle counts for the machines can take some of the math out of calculating TPD. Simply adding up weekly usage data for each category and then dividing that by seven will provide a TPD number for those machines. Of course, today’s computer controls and reporting systems can do all of this work quickly and easily.

Mike Hand, vice president of direct distribution, Alliance Laundry Systems (including Huebsch and Speed Queen brands): The simple formula is money in machine divided by vend price. Obviously, if you have cycle modifiers, it skews the calculation a little. This is where a laundry management system … gives you the number of starts.

Kevin Hietpas, director of sales, Dexter Laundry: A “turn” is simply one use of (a) washer. Turns/day for the whole store is just the total number of washer cycles divided by the number of washers.

Tod Sorensen, vice president of Girbau North America distributor Continental Girbau West: The simple math to calculate average turns per day (TPD) is to divide the number of turns by the ▼

sales manager, vended laundries, Pellerin

by Bruce Beggs, Editorial Director

(Photo: © JANIFEST/Depositphotos)

Appreciating the metric’s role in gauging store’s busyness, efficiency

number of washers. A more valuable and profitable calculation can be derived by breaking out average TPD/week by capacity/price category and by individual machine.

Q: Is it inherently more challenging for the owner of an unattended store to calculate turns per day than it is for the owner of an attended store? If so, why?

Gauthier: It depends on the equipment. Many machines have formula counters or other systems which allow even unattended stores to report wash cycle histories easily and quickly.

Hand: I don’t believe so. The process is the same regardless.

Hietpas: In an attended store, the attendant (or owner) can see which machines are getting the most use, and the owner can be more aware of levels of usage, i.e. more or fewer turns on certain machines. In an unattended store, the owner needs to watch collections more carefully—even to the point of collecting and counting by individual machine—or else utilize the capabilities of newer machine controls to keep track of levels of usage.

Owners with stores connected to [our cloud-based management software] can actually see number of uses in real time and for any period of time. This improved level of information takes all the guesswork out of calculating turns.

Sorensen: Not really because you can physically audit machines or get the number of turns through most store payment or management systems. Continental washers have total turn audit feature for stores without a payment system. Lifetime by cycle and total cycles run are available directly from the washer control. From there, you can also drill down on how many of the “Extra” cycles … have been utilized.

Buzzard: It really just depends on how you’re auditing and how frequently you want to audit. … If you have third-party equipment on your machines that are, in Maytag’s case, Gen 2 capable, you can actually read the counter and revenue information for any payment method off the machine directly. You don’t necessarily need to attend your store at all in order to access that information. … If it’s coin only, I think it probably is more challenging as an owner, especially of multiple locations, to get at least daily or very frequent audits via manually auditing each machine.

Q: How can that metric be used to predict when a specific machine may need to be repaired or replaced?

Hand: I don’t know that turns per day could be or should be used as a one-dimensional metric for machine replacement. You have to take more than turns into account. Factors such as age, maintenance record, appearance, efficiency, etc. all come into play.

Hietpas: Machines are all mechanical devices, and identical machines are designed to perform the same. All manufacturers recommend certain types of care or maintenance at certain time intervals or amounts of usage. Knowing which of your machines are reaching certain usage levels the fastest gives the owner a head start on what to be prepared for in the way of future maintenance.

Sorensen: Owners can use a machine’s total turns as a marker

of when it might be time to change out parts, such as bearings or seals, or consider replacing equipment. Trading in and buying new machines can be a tax advantage, as well.

Buzzard: Maytag equipment is designed for long life but if you have variability in use, much higher frequency or much heavier use of some machines, you’re going to drive variability and wear and service requirements. Owners who notice an uneven usage pattern in their stores may want to consider strategies to drive that usage more evenly across their footprint, especially those underutilized machines, potentially using them for wash and fold if it’s attended. Or modifying the layout, providing incentives to use, things like that. … You don’t want to drive a lot of (service) calls on your equipment in sequence for obvious reasons. … I think that’s probably the biggest issue that turns can help address. It’s a pretty good signal of usage and wear.

Gauthier: TPD figures are like odometers—when monitored over time, they can provide us with reasonable expectations for maintenance, repairs, and even replacement over time.

Q: Could turns per day be useful in signaling a need to try to divert business to less busy times of day or to look into the possibility of expanding by opening another store nearby?

Hietpas: The nature of our business is that stores will have busier times and slower times. If an owner sees that certain times are consistently slower than others, most of today’s newer machines have controls that allow for promotional pricing at set times. While most customers will still come to your laundry because it’s the time in their schedule that fits to do laundry, there are some customers who can be influenced by an incentive to come at another time, thereby freeing up time during a busier period.

With regard to expanding a location, or opening a new one, this would be indicated by a significant or ongoing increase in the number of turns/day. If you already have a healthy business, and turns continue to grow, it’s an indication that your market is healthy, and it might make sense to consider expanding your operation before a competitor notices that you are far busier than what might be normal.

Sorensen: Yes. By tracking turns, you can also see which machines and machine locations are most popular. If you have softmount washers, this information can prove useful in relocating equipment, or purchasing more popular machine sizes, while utilizing the store’s entire footprint. It’s easy to move soft-mount machines around because there’s no bolting, grouting or special foundation requirements.

Buzzard: In an ideal store, your machines are well utilized but also available and convenient for consumers. That’s a bit of a balance to strike but it may make sense to consider expansion or incentivizing off-peak usage if you find that a considerable amount of your open hours are at peak. If you’re at peak demand for a large share of your open hours and you’re turning away customers, it may make sense to start to consider some of the demand-shifting opportunities you have in pricing, or expansion.

Gauthier: Any store that starts consistently delivering TPD of 6 or higher should consider expansion or a second location. Chances are, if you don’t make that move, someone else will.

Hand: Many store owners will run specials based upon turns

Buzzard

Hietpas

Sorensen

per day. For instance, if Tuesday and/or Wednesday are slow days and they see an overall waiting period on the weekends, they may run a discounted wash special to relieve the wait times or [overcrowding]. I wouldn’t use turns per day to justify another store in the area. There are many more variables that go into building another store—population, renters, traffic and median household income, to name a few.

that you may be overpriced, or underpriced, on a certain size of machine. Understanding the difference in turns between sizes is a great starting point for most owners.

Q: Can you describe how turns per day can be used to show today’s revenue and utilities usage in a laundromat and forecast them for the future?

Buzzard: If you’re in a stable market and you have pretty consistent traffic—there may be a little bit of seasonality in your usage—I think you’re looking at more of a weekly profile than a very long run. … Revenue is a function of your turns and pricing, obviously, and so your revenue is going to be dependent both on how many revenue-generating turns each machine experiences in a period of time and also the effect of pricing. That’s for each machine.

At a store level, you’re taking each machine’s performance and adding those together, so it’s turns times pricing … for each machine and then added for all machines in a location to get your overall daily revenue. Understanding your turns profile and your average pricing gives you a pretty good picture, based on turns, of what you can expect in revenue in any period.

Gauthier: I’ve met store owners whose record keeping was so careful that they could compare their TPD data to water bills to determine if they had even minor leaks in drain valves or other plumbing fixtures. If water usage was creeping up with steady TPD, they started looking for leaks.

Sorensen: Yes, if certain sizes are getting more activity, an owner might want to purchase more of that size. Let the customer tell you. Also, it’s interesting to track turns in terms of number of self-service turns versus the number of full-service wash/dry/fold or commercial account turns. This tracking can also help in determining which machines you can increase (modify up or down) the vend price or utilize automatic time-of-day or -week pricing specials.

Buzzard: If you find specific capacities or platforms that don’t perform, regardless of placement, regardless of promotion, it may just be the case that it’s not the right solution for your customers. That footprint could be met with other capacities or platforms, and in that case, I think it does start to make sense to consider shifting your machine mix.

Gauthier: I’ve generally recommended that TPD should be closely monitored, particularly in a store’s first year, as a way to provide the most effective vend strategy for the business. Machines that aren’t being used enough might be overpriced and an overly busy bank of machines might be losing profits for the owner.

Hand: Yes, in some cases, they may need to add additional large-capacity washer-extractors. We have, on occasion, put larger equipment in on a rental program to validate—through the turnsper-day figure—the purchase of higher-capacity models. Showing the laundry owner that if they have these larger machines available, and customers use them, it’s worth the investment.

Hietpas: Absolutely! This is probably the best use of the turns/ day metric. Usage is our customers’ way of telling us what they want, or where they see their best value. If a store has significantly different usage between different sizes of machines, it’s a signal that your location might need more of a different size of machine, or

Hand: Forecasting of utilities is tough. As a laundry owner, you are at the mercy of the utility companies. You can collect daily and break down turns per day, but without a reporting service, there really isn’t a way to break it down daily.

Q: Could the turns-per-day metric ever be misleading? For instance, comparing the throughput of small-capacity vs. largecapacity equipment? Or washers vs. dryers?

Hand: I don’t personally think you can use turns per day as a metric for throughput. That is based more on time to wash and dry.

Hietpas: Turns/day is a good starting point, but the vend price of machines relative to one another can influence usage, as can the actual location within the store. Information like turns is just one metric that owners can use to keep improving the performance of their business.

Buzzard: I think this is a really important point. Maximizing turns may not always mean maximizing revenue and, ultimately, your return on investment. Maximizing both revenue and return on investment means choosing the right machine mix to serve your customers’ needs, then pricing it competitively and appropriately against those needs. Especially for washers, it may make sense to experiment with a variety of cycle configurations, cycle options, base cycle pricing, option pricing, to find the optimal solution for your store and ultimately for your customers.

ACO

Watch for an expanded version of this article on AmericanCoinOp.com during the month of December!

Q: Can the turns-per-day metric tell a store owner when certain machines may be underperforming and that shifting the equipment mix in some way may be needed? If so, how?

(Photo: © PinkBadger/Depositphotos)

Gauthier Hand

COMPETITION IS HEALTHY, BUT BE EVER VIGILANT

believe that competition is healthy because it keeps business owners and managers on their toes to do a good job for their customers. Laundromats are wide open to the public, and competitors copy each other all the time. This helps advance the industry to new levels. It’s just that you want to limit how deeply they can see into your operation, while you can do a little of your own copying.

I

You might say, “I don’t need to know my competitors. We’re already doing quite well.” Yes, you may be doing well, but wouldn’t you like to do better?

Wouldn’t you like to know if a competitor has implemented a great idea you’re not aware of, an idea that could be slowly milking your mat of customers?

Wouldn’t you like to know if any competitors are using your hard-earned ideas? Wouldn’t you like to see a flaw in their operation that you could exploit? I know I would.

For example, you don’t get why XYZ Laundromat does so many more drop-offs than you do. So you launch a little “recon” patrol of the mat. You discover they wrap their customers’ socks and small items in paper wrappers. Turns out customers love that, and you’ve been missing out on duplicating their success for a few years now.

There’s an old saying: “If you’re not going forward, you’re going backward, so always move forward.” This especially applies in business.

So, from time to time, it’s important to know what your competitors are doing. You can hear some things from customers but I think it’s best to personally see what your competitors are doing. This applies not only to nearby competitors but any other mat you may come across.

HOW TO LEARN THE MOST ABOUT COMPETITORS

Years ago, people would come into my mats with notebooks and a camera. By the time I threw them out, they had already copied most of my operation.

They kept coming and when cellphones came out, they could simply scan the entire store—signs, machines, prices, the works—on video within minutes.

I have an approach that’s better: simply become a customer of a competing mat.

I used to keep a bag of old laundry in the trunk of my car, ready to bring into a target mat. I’d get change or buy a card, use a couple washers and dryers, and even fold there. As the machines were going, I might even strike up a conversation with an employee. (Or you could send a trusted friend to be your scout.)

You learn a lot. You learn what they have, the vend prices, the condition of the mat and its machines. You learn the wash cycles offered, water temperature, and restroom condition. You learn the overall level of store comfort, the cycle times—in short, nearly everything you need to know except the rent!

You even learn how it feels to be a customer at that mat. This is important because people are more likely to make decisions based on how they feel about something rather than based on logic.

You see and experience the same things as their cus-

Paul Russo (Photo:

tomers. I hope you can see why people are choosing that mat instead of yours. Looking past their own bias is a hard thing for an owner to do. Most mat owners think their mat is better, but is it? If so, why isn’t everyone using only their mat?

ONLINE RESEARCH AND EQUIPMENT PROS AND CONS

While a personal visit garners the best information, check out a mat online before visiting in person. Read what ownership says about its mat. Look over the store’s website, photos, reviews, etc. Customer reviews can give you good insights if you feel uncomfortable to visit your competitors in person. You may be able to duplicate what the reviewers really like, avoid what they hate.

Getting back to those personal visits, becoming a competitor’s customer may give you the opportunity to learn how equipment from brands other than what you own can operate and perform. You may find a new brand attractive. For more tech-

nical information, I think it’s best to talk to your distributor as well as others in your area. Distributors know all the pluses and minuses of all brands. If they want to sell you their equipment, they will be glad to point out the great stuff about their brand and the bad stuff about their competitors.

BUSINESS SECRETS AND HIRING PRACTICES

I once had a plastic bag distribution business. It did OK, not bad, not great. However, my partner and I had a rude

awakening when a neighboring store owner told us that people were going through our dumpster and taking paperwork that we had thrown out. We bought a paper shredder the next day.

When staffing, hiring someone who used to work for your competitor may be useful. After all, they have experience. Some people are eager to spill the beans on their previous employers, but this must be judged on an individual basis. Why did they leave your competitor? How long did they work there? What were their duties?

However, if they reveal your competitor’s secrets, wouldn’t they do the same to you at some point?

So, you ask, “If I hire you, are you willing to sign a non-compete agreement stating that you won’t bring what you learn from us to any competitor within X miles of this store?” Probably overkill for the laundromat business, but it is an option to explore.

Non-competes aren’t 100% effective in many cases because you can’t force an employee to sign one. However, you can

“I used to keep a bag of old laundry in the trunk of my car, ready to bring into a target mat. I’d get change or buy a card, use a couple washers and dryers, and even fold there.”

choose not to hire someone who refuses. An agreement must have parameters to be enforceable, such as being limited to your local area, and it should have a time limit. Laws vary, so you’ll need to check with your attorney first to make sure you aren’t doing anything illegal.

UNFAIR COMPETITION

There are several ways that a competitor can compete unfairly, including:

• Place their flyers on your customers’ cars in your parking lot.

• Place their cards or flyers on your mat’s bulletin board.

• Come into your mat to hand out their business cards or their laundry cards pre-loaded with a free wash.

• Positioning a person holding their sign in front of your mat.

I remember reading about a mat owner who complained that his competitor would copy the license plate numbers from cars in

his parking lot. Turns out the competitor had a connection with the Motor Vehicle Department in his state that would give out the names and addresses of those cars’ owners in the parking lot. The competitor would then send those customers mailings with discount coupons usable in his mat!

This is clearly an invasion of privacy, and I suspect could even be illegal in some states. My strategy has always been to fight fire with fire.

First, call the offending competitor right away to ask them to stop. Say that it’s an unfair business practice that will trigger you to fight back and then nobody wins. If that doesn’t help, ask your lawyer to send a demand letter to cease and desist. If the competitor doesn’t stop, you need to sting him back. Legally, of course.

There is a big, multi-chain jeweler located near my home. When I drive past them, I usually see a guy from their competitor with a sign attempting to steer people to

the other store. I don’t know if that actually works. Maybe it does, but that’s really hitting below the belt. I would never patronize a store that does things like that, so these practices can backfire.

I believe what competitors really want is to grill your employees. Some will try to hire them away from you. It’s another reason to treat your help well.

THROWING THEM ‘OFF THE SCENT’

I can recall a time when we had a great commercial softener with a fragrance that customers really loved. Naturally, our competitors wanted to know what it was. So I had to put a sign next to our telephones warning employees not to give out any information about the business, as well as any personal information.

At first, I would remove the labels from the barrels so nobody could identify what we bought. Later on, I got smarter and started labeling the barrels myself with a cheap brand of detergent and softener, just to throw competitors “off the scent.”

Much of this column can be seen as negative toward competition, so I want to share a positive tale before I close.

When I raised my first mat from the dead in 1976, there was a competitor nearby who immediately began to offer a “buy one wash, get the second one free” promotion. He owned five mats at the time. That hurt, but we broke even anyway after about three months.

Years later, he sold that store and somehow we became friendly to the point where he was repairing and replacing the tub bearings in my mats.

One day, he confided, “Paul, when you first opened up, we freaked out, so we did the buy one/get one. Guess what? We ended up doing better with that promo!”

Remember, a sense of competition will keep you on your toes and give you more incentive to serve your customers to the best of your ability. 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.

“I can recall a time when we had a great commercial softener with a fragrance that customers really loved. Naturally, our competitors wanted to know what it was. So I had to put a sign next to our telephones warning employees not to give out any information...”

ATLANTA HOUSING OPTIONS OPEN FOR 2022 CLEAN SHOW

Hotel reservations for The 2022 Clean Show in Atlanta can now be made through Connections Housing, the official housing agency for the late July event.

Show owner Messe Frankfurt has arranged for exclusive discounts and amenities at a variety of Atlanta hotels, some of which are located within walking distance of the Georgia World Congress Center. Reservations must be made through Connections Housing to ensure receipt of these rates and amenities (beware of fraudulent companies presenting themselves as “official partners of Clean 2022”).

This is welcome news after the event originally planned for 2021 was postponed due to the global impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.

Hotels included are Aloft Atlanta Downtown Hotel, Atlanta Marriott Marquis, Courtyard Atlanta Downtown, Embassy Suites Atlanta at Centennial Park, Hilton Garden Inn Atlanta Downtown, Holiday Inn Express & Suites Atlanta Downtown, Omni Hotel at CNN Center, Renaissance Atlanta Midtown and The Westin Peachtree Plaza.

Nightly rates range from $175 to $259 and do not include local taxes. Per-night room rates are for single or double occupancy at most hotels and may be slightly higher for three or more people in a room.

Some hotels are designated headquarters for each of The Clean Show’s sponsoring associations: Association for Linen Management (ALM), Coin Laundry

Association (CLA), Drycleaning & Laundry Institute (DLI), Textile Care Allied Trades Association (TCATA) and TRSA, the association for linen, uniform and facility services. However, Clean 2022 participants may stay at any headquarter or general housing hotel.

Hotel reservations may be made online via the Connections Housing website at https:// www.connections-housing.com/Landing Page/Clean2022.php, or by calling 702675-6584.

Exhibitor and attendee groups requiring 10 or more rooms may choose to submit an online block request at https:// connectionshousing.us/SubBlockWebForm/ CleanShow2022/.

The reservation deadline is July 7. ACO

Appeal

Project high-quality service before customers ever step inside

by Bruce Beggs, Editorial Director

Before a laundromat is ready to open to the public, a great deal of time and resources are commonly spent on getting the store’s interior and laundry equipment just right.

But store owners shouldn’t sleep on the importance of what real estate agents commonly call “curb appeal,” the attractiveness of the building and its surroundings when viewed from the street.

American Coin-Op spoke to a trio of laundromat owners with varied levels of experience about how they have approached curb appeal in outfitting their stores and why they think that aspect of their operation can contribute greatly to its success.

SUN SHINES AT DAYBREAK

Erin Nemastil (pronounced nehm-uh-still) owns Daybreak Laundry, a Grand Rapids, Michigan, laundromat she purchased in October 2020. Her store is roughly 2,000 square feet and features Speed Queen washers and dryers.

make it a nicer environment for the people who work there,” Nemastil says.

“In the front, we cleaned out a bunch of signage, especially for promotions that were outside our core service area. We’re really focusing on the pickup and delivery side of the business, and the drop-off business. … We like doing bedding, we like doing towels for people and really just helping take care of their household that way.”

But improving the store’s curb appeal went deeper than ensuring an uncluttered appearance.

“One of the first things I did when I bought the business was to build up the brand. It had been Daybreak Laundry since the business was first put in. It was put in in 1969 when they ran water from Lake Michigan to Grand Rapids, which is about 60 miles away. It had been Daybreak that whole time but we knew that it was time for a refresh, especially with our core service and our strategy going more to pickup and delivery and drop-off service.”

She oversaw creation of a Daybreak Laundry logo in orange and blue, featuring a house with a clothesline extending into the distance. And then there was the main storefront sign.

counter (she describes it as “super bulkheads.

As a new owner, Nemastil took the opportunity to freshen her store’s appearance inside and out. Remodeling of the interior included painting, installing a new front counter (she describes it as “super retro” and repurposed), adding cabinets to the rear of the store, and installing countertops above the bulkheads.

“The sign that had been in there, it was a little dark, and the lettering on it was a little dated. We actually repurposed the sign case that was there but we installed new LED lights and just replaced the sign front.”

Local artist Gentry DeWinter designed a front-window cling that replaced the outdated promo signage but fulfilled other needs.

tle refresh inside, really to

“It was just a nice little refresh inside, really to

“That served a couple of purposes,” Nemastil says. “First off, it’s a nice tie-in to the branding but it also provides just a little bit of privacy for the people working at the front counter.” Lake

The photo at bottom represents the “before” at Daybreak Laundry. When new owner Erin Nemastil was finished, the store sported a new, brighter sign (at top), and the front windows had been cleared of multiple signs. A window cling now boosts the Daybreak brand while giving front-counter workers a bit of privacy. (Photos: Daybreak Laundry)

Michigan Drive is an extremely busy thoroughfare, carrying high volumes of traffic at all times, and it “kind of felt like you were on display” when standing at the front counter.

“We put up the window cling to provide a little bit of privacy, but at the same time letting it feel open,” she adds. “Then we put curtains in the front window because that is a south-facing window and it was baking that front area when the sun poured in.”

Because she is leasing the space, Nemastil says she’s limited in the changes she can make to bolster curb appeal.

“I do think that curb appeal is important for any laundry business, self-serve and more on the service side,” she says. “I think it’s important so customers understand your brand and what you say you’re bringing to the table, so they can feel good being there to improve their lives.”

‘GO BIG OR GO HOME’

Turbo Laundry, Fort Worth, Texas, is a brand-new store that just opened in May. Aislin Gerow (pronounced eyes-lynn juh-row) co-owns the business with husband Erik Ward and partners Seth and Katie Hensarling.

The laundry is located in a freestanding building that’s part of a strip center development. It’s at the front of the property near the roadway. As many as 50,000 vehicles travel the route every day, so there are plenty of opportunities to catch the attention of passersby.

Gerow, a retired chiropractor, says she and her husband have been involved in various entrepreneurial endeavors for the last decade or so, but this is their first foray into the laundry business. Supported by distributor Atlas Laundry Systems, the two couples leased the building and began overseeing its transformation into a laundry. But it wasn’t without some hiccups. The 60-yearold building had asbestos that had to be removed, and contractors couldn’t cut the slab because the building’s electrical service was wired beneath it. It took almost a year to remediate the issues and transform the structure, Gerow says. ▼

Aislin Gerow, co-owner of Turbo Laundry in Fort Worth, Texas, and her partners oversaw the transformation of a “dark, dingy cave” once occupied by a liquor store into a welcoming, well-lit “Citron” oasis that beckons to as many as 50,000 vehicles driving past each day. (Photo: Turbo Laundry)

“We feel like you kind of have to make a statement.” And an attractive appearance outside serves to reinforce the “clean” mission of the

The owners chose Huebsch laundry equipment, then carried the brand’s trademark “Citron” green through in the store design, starting with the pole sign and the sign above the door outside.

“We kind of believe in ‘Go big or go home,’” Jerow says. “We put a really big sign out front. It’s probably 25 feet in the air, and it’s got channel letters. It’s well-lit. There’s also a sign on the front of the building that says ‘laundromat.’ There’s also a huge sign on the back of the building that says ‘laundromat.’”

Inside, the tops of folding tables are in the same distinctive green, and a faux tile wall prominently frames the Turbo Laundry logo.

Before the transformation, Gerow likened the space previously occupied by a liquor store to a “dark, dingy cave.”

“The windows were blacked out, and they were only half height. … So we took out most of the storefront in the back and front and replaced that with floor-to-ceiling windows. Clear windows, so that you can see in. Then we added lots and lots of bright LED lighting.”

Automatic doors on the front and the back are functionally attractive as well as visually pleasing. Ramps lead from the sidewalk into the parking lot so carts roll in and out easily.

And Gerow, who says she’s “pretty aggressive about keeping everything tidy,” regularly directs attendants to go outside several times a day to pick up any trash.

buildings’ in-house laundries, so he decided to try his hand at retail laundromats. Jepsen now owns six O-Town Laundry stores in Ogden, Salt Lake City and other Utah locations. The flagship O-Town Laundry in Salt Lake City opened in early 2020 at the site of the former Village Coin Laundry. It covers roughly 5,000 square feet and features 135 Maytag Commercial Laundry washers and dryers. The coronavirus pandemic prompted the store’s closure for a time, and it reopened in March of this year.

“We always buy the real estate when we do it,” he says of opening new laundromats. “We don’t typically rent. That’s how we like to do it, at least. That way, we can do more to the building, get a return on the investment.”

With assistance from distributor Mendenhall Commercial Laundry Equipment, Jepsen’s firm opened its first laundromat in Ogden on the ground floor of Park Avenue Apartments, a building that houses 160 studios.

“This thing was an old hotel converted into apartments. We kept it very nice, we kept the landscaping nice, but by all means, it wasn’t the Taj Mahal. But I remember when we were building it out, once we got the plumbing and electrical in, we started looking at aesthetics.”

The group “took a lot of cues” from their experience renovating residential and commercial buildings.

“We’ve been perfecting them here and there but the overall look is similar in all of our laundromats,” Jepsen says. “We also try to have them look the same on the outside, or pretty darn similar, if the city will let us.”

In the case of the flagship store, Jepsen’s crew completely altered the former strip-center look of the property: “We changed out some old windows, put in nice, new windows that let in tons of sunlight. We redid the siding.”

Plus, the signature red O-Town branding was incorporated in the signage on the building and above the front entrance.

He believes it to be much easier to impact curb appeal when one owns the property rather than leasing.

“I think we’ve done everything possible to make sure that every aspect of the store is something that will invite [customers] in,” she says.

the store is something that will invite [customers] in,” she says.

MAKING A STATEMENT

“If you own the property, you can do what you want with it, with city permission. If you’re leasing, you obviously have to get permission to do anything to the outside of the property. Then, if you spend all that money on the outside of the building, you don’t own the building and your lease expires, you won’t be able to take it with you.”

Curb appeal is enormously important, especially if a laundromat is brand-new, says Jepsen: “We feel like you kind of have to make a statement.”

Not only that, an attractive appearance outside reinforces the very mission of the laundry business inside.

ting up and managing those

Joe Jepsen and his Diamond J Management company are best known for acquiring, renovating and then managing apartment buildings. But Jepsen discovered that he enjoyed setting up and managing those

“If your curb appeal is really good, it automatically denotes cleanliness,” Jepsen says. “It automatically tells a customer your place is clean. We find cleanliness is No. 1 among people, especially now with COVID. It’s just really important to be known as a clean laundromat.”

Joe Jepsen owns six O-Town Laundry stores in Utah, including this 5,000-square-foot flagship. He says curb appeal is enormously important, especially if a laundromat is brand-new:

laundry business inside. (Photos: O-Town Laundry)

WASH-DRY-FOLD POS BUILDS NEW CLOUD-BASED POINT-OF-SALE SOLUTION

The ability to create invoices and run reports from home has recently become a must-have in the laundry point-of-sale (POS) space. Especially for multi-store owners, there’s a shift away from driving to each store for payroll, shift reports, or to retrieve employee and financial insights.

“With hundreds of customers on our original desktop software solution, the demand for something bet-

ter was clear,” says Brian Henderson, who founded Wash-Dry-Fold POS. “We listened to our customers and rebuilt our drop-off laundry POS system into an entirely cloud-based solution using their feedback and our own experience as a guide.”

Multi-store owner James Radovic was so pleased with the commercial invoicing features of his upgrade that he wrote a thank-you email saying, “Three days on the old system have now become three hours on the new system. Over the year, you have given me an extra month of time.”

“Apart from existing customers converting to the new software, our monthly average of new laundromats has more than doubled,” according to Ian Gollahon, co-founder of Wash-Dry-Fold POS. “It’s clear that

our new solution is easier to use, easier to train, and more popular and approachable than anything we’ve offered in the past.”

The company attributes the increased growth rate in part to the new “Order Tracker” feature. By tracking machines used for drop-off laundry orders and their start value, the feature prevents theft, gives employee productivity insights, and streamlines operations, Wash-DryFold POS says. When an attendant drags an order to the “Done” column, the system can send a quick text message to the customer and print bag labels.

Demonstration videos for the cloud-based system and the “Order Tracker” feature have recently been posted on the company’s website.

www.washdryfoldpos.com

CURBSIDE LAUNDRIES IMPROVES COMMERCIAL INVOICING

Curbside Laundries LLC says it has released a much-anticipated feature of the commercial invoicing module to its wash-and-fold pointof-sale, process management system.

Commercial wash-and-fold clientele are now able to pay their invoices with the click of a button.

The new easy-pay feature allows clients to quickly view and pay their invoices online. Customers can log into their accounts, view past invoices, and batch-pay multiple outstanding invoices, the company says.

“It used to be a cumbersome task to create invoices, email the invoices to customers, and collect payment,” says Aaron Simmons, principal for Curbside Laundries.

“Now, the Curbside Laundries software solution automates all those tasks, which saves laundry owners time and money.”

The new commercial invoicing module allows laundry owners to customize individual accounts by allowing for:

• Custom pricing for each commercial client,

• Multiple locations and sub-accounts,

• Custom invoicing and payment terms,

• Purchase order management, and

• Custom laundry preferences, and more.

Curbside Laundries provides

enterprise-grade wash-and-fold management software for pickup and delivery, in-store drop-off service, and point-of-sale transactions for laundromats. The founders are laundry operators who provide their expertise to help clients increase their residential and commercial business by providing tools to manage and grow their wash-and-fold business.

info@curbsidelaundries.com | 562-533-0053

SETOMATIC SYSTEMS HIRES WEST AS WEST COAST ACCOUNT MANAGER

Ryan West has joined the staff of payment technology supplier Setomatic Systems-SpyderWash as the company’s West Coast account manager and is operating from California, the company reports. Setomatic is headquartered in Florida.

West’s entry into the laundry industry came as a laundromat owner approximately 10 years ago, Setomatic says. He went on to hold laundry equipment sales and laundromat brokerage positions at Elite Business Investments, Golden State Laundry Systems and CSC ServiceWorks.

“One of our main objectives in 2021 was finding the right person to expand and keep up with our rapidly growing footprint on the West Coast,” says John Kelly, director of sales for SetomaticSpyderWash. “Ryan is extremely well-rounded with experience ranging from equipment sales and brokerage to laundromat ownership to multi-housing. We truly believe Ryan will be a huge asset to our distributor and route operator partners, as well as laundromat owners on the West Coast.”

With his experience, West understands the needs of his customers and will work hard to deliver solutions for those needs, says Gregg Schantz, Setomatic-SpyderWash vice president.

“With the demand for contactless payments at an all-time high,

we felt the timing was perfect,” Schantz says. “With Ryan previously working for some of the country’s largest distributors as well as owning stores himself, he will be a great asset to not only Setomatic-SpyderWash but to all our distributors and customers.”

West says he is “beyond excited” to join Setomatic Systems, adding that the company has been at the forefront of payment systems technology “since the start.”

STATEWIDE LAUNDRY EQUIPMENT LAUNCHES NEW, IMPROVED WEBSITE Statewide Laundry Equipment (SLE), a regional commercial laundry equipment distributor serving Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Southern Virginia, has launched a new website including a plethora of user-friendly features.

SLE has distribution centers in Miami, Orlando and Tampa, Florida, and Smyrna, Georgia. It also exports to the Caribbean and other export markets.

While remodeling and redesigning its website to engage its rapidly expanding clientele more compellingly, SLE focused primarily on improving the look and making it more user-friendly. The distributor describes the new navigation experience as “flawless,” and says the site can be accessed using all types of digital devices. Visitors will find loads of high-quality content related to laundry equipment.

West

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“The online needs of our customers have changed over the years. To meet that challenge, we have revamped the website to make it functional, eye-catching, and easy to navigate,” says Dave Chadsey, SLE vice president. “This new version of our website makes it easier for our customers to find the products and services we offer, and information they need. Our new online presence is just one of the ways that SLE delivers superior performance.”

Visitors can inspect the site at www.statewidelaundry.com

HENDERSON

IS NEWEST MEMBER OF WASH-DRY-FOLD POS TEAM

Wash-Dry-Fold POS, a supplier of point-of-sale systems for laundromats, has hired Sean Henderson as software developer and technical support specialist, the company reports.

He comes to the company from his family’s Liberty Laundry, a northeastern Oklahoma laundromat chain where he served as operations manager. Wash-Dry-Fold POS founder Brian Henderson is his brother.

“Being operations manager at Liberty Laundry also meant I was the main repair technician,” Sean Henderson explains. “It was a headache to track equipment problems and repair progress across all three stores at once.”

His first project at Wash-Dry-Fold POS was to add the “Repair Ticket” module, an equipment repair log for laundromat washers, dryers, and anything else that needs to be fixed. The feature enables attendants to document machine issues through the POS while simultaneously notifying management with time-stamped records.

Henderson’s contributions have already received unprompted praise from laundromat owners utilizing them, the company says.

LG CLOTHING DRIVE GIVES UNWANTED FASHION ‘SECOND LIFE’

LG Electronics USA took its “Second Life” campaign on a fourcity road tour along the East Coast recently to collect unwanted

clothing for recycling and to encourage visitors to reduce their fashion footprint.

The tour began in New York City before moving to Charlotte, North Carolina. LG aimed to collect more than 5,000 pounds of unwanted textiles to be cleaned in LG washers and dryers before giving them a “second life” through donations to community organizations and responsible recycling.

The clothing drive is part of the brand’s ongoing effort to raise awareness around clothing waste and inspire people to take responsible action through fabric care, donations and upcycling.

“LG is invested in how to care for your clothes throughout their lifecycle — from how you wash them to how you ultimately dispose of them,” says Gail Conroy, senior director of marketing at LG Electronics USA.

OSHA ISSUES EMERGENCY TEMPORARY COVID-19 STANDARD

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in November announced a new emergency temporary standard (ETS) designed to protect workers from contracting COVID-19 on the job.

Certain employers must develop, implement and enforce a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy, unless they adopt a policy requiring employees to choose to either be vaccinated or undergo regular COVID-19 testing and wear a face covering at work.

Employers must comply with most requirements by Dec. 4, and with testing requirements by Jan. 3, 2022. (To learn more, visit www.osha.gov.)

The ETS covers employers with 100 or more employees — either at the firm or companywide — and provides options for compliance. It also requires employers to provide paid time to workers to get vaccinated and to allow for paid leave to recover from any side effects.

“While vaccination remains the most effective and efficient defense against COVID-19, this emergency temporary standard will protect all workers, including those who remain unvaccinated, by requiring regular testing and the use of face coverings by unvaccinated workers to prevent the spread of the virus,” says Jim Frederick, deputy assistant secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health. “As part of OSHA’s mission to protect the safety and health of workers, this rule will provide a roadmap to help businesses keep their workers safe.”

LG toured stops along the East Coast recently to collect unwanted clothing for recycling and to encourage visitors to reduce their fashion footprint. (Photo: LG)

(Photo: Statewide Laundry Equipment)

Henderson

THE PERFECT SOLUTION FOR DRIVING PROFIT CONVENIENCE

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Install washers and dryers to meet your needs and your location, with side-by-side or stacked configurations. The units are easy to move and reinstall in a new location.

Tub Clean & Waveforce

A dirty tub from hours of long operation can affect washing performance. Our tub cleaning program helps you keep a clean tub even in the busiest locations.

Auto Dosing System

With a simple to connect automatic detergent/chemical injection system, there is no need to manually add detergent to every wash.

LG Smart Solution

Streamline your machine maintenance by being able to view status and error codes anytime and anywhere. Maximize profit by setting and tweaking prices based on patterns, targeted timing and peak business hours.

Success starts with LG. Contact us at 800-256-1073 to get started with LG.

lg.com/us/business/commercial-laundry