Store Profile

The Family Bubble in Knoxville, Tennesse

The Family Bubble Bursts onto the Scene: Former California Laundry Owners Open Family-Focused Operation in East Tennessee

When the head basketball coach of the Runnin’ Rebels of West High School in Knoxville needed his team’s uniforms spotless for the next big game, he didn’t have far to go – just across the street to The Family Bubble laundromat.

“He doesn’t let them do their own uniforms because they’ll either forget or they’ll put the white uniforms in with something they shouldn’t,” laughed The Family Bubble owner Dee Dee Landreth. “So, this gentleman was in here, and he did all of their uniforms.

“I paid for the drying of the kids’ uniforms,” she added. “I figured that I’d treat the kids this time around. Plus, the word gets out. It builds goodwill and shows that we really want to be a part of this community.”

The outgoing Landreth, who owns the self-service laundry with her husband Jim, said that the coin laundry business suits her personality perfectly – and her recent conversation with the local high school coach whom she had never met before is a perfect example of that.

“I have a gift for gab, and I know a little bit about a lot of things, such as sports,” she explained. “It’s my personality. I can just walk up to people and start talking. My granddaughter always asks, ‘Do you know them, grandma?’ And I say, ‘No, but you don’t have to know somebody to talk to them.’ I’ve always been able to talk to people. I don’t think you can be a shy person in this business.”

Landreth and her husband have been in the coin laundry business for about five years. Before moving to Tennessee and opening The Family Bubble, the couple owned three small laundromats in Palm Desert, Calif. In addition, for 13 years, they also managed the laundry rooms for an apartment complex owner in southern California.

“We took care of all of the washers and dryers in the laundry rooms,” she explained. “It wasall affordable housing. The apartment complexes were anywhere from 70 apartments to 163. A lot of complexes had up to five laundry rooms.

“When they were building them, I worked with the superintendent to make sure all of the vents went in properly and all of the plumbing was set the right way for the laundry equipment that had to go in these places. I was in charge of ordering the equipment and making sure everything was installed correctly. We would pull the money, do the repairs and make sure the equipment was clean.”

In 2007, the Landreths decided that it was time to say goodbye to California, but not necessarily so long to the laundry industry.

Jim Landreth’s family is originally from Tennessee, just outside of Chattanooga. And the couple would head back east to visit whenever they could.

“Every time we came here for a vacation, we’d say, ‘We’ve got to move here,’” Dee Dee recalled. “Finally, the housing market was at the point where we knew it was time to get out. We had had it with the desert and the heat. We looked at the Knoxville area and saw that it was growing. We really love East Tennessee. We were just very fortunate to get out when we did and come here.”

The Landreths also were fortunate to hook up with Dwayne Rogers of DLR Enterprises, a laundry distributorship based in Morristown, Tenn.

“At first, we were going to build our store on our own, but not having connections here like we had in California, it was a slightly different situation,” Landreth said. “How do you find all of the right subcontractors to do the job for you so that you’re not spending more money than you want to?”

For the Landreths, the answer was DLR Enterprises, which secured a storefront in a brand new, 10-suite strip mall in Knoxville and subsequently handled the entire build-out process.

“Basically, all we came up with was the equipment,” Dee Dee said. “And we also decorated the interior ourselves.”

The Family Bubble is a 2,500-square-foot facility nestled between a self-storage business and a Dollar World franchise. And plans are in the works to add a Subway restaurant, a pizzeria, a nail salon and a Chinese buffet to the plaza.

“We were the second business to open here, and I’m really glad we got in,” said Landreth, who has a five-year lease on the building, with a couple of two-year renewal options after that. “We got the upper hand of getting in here while everybody else was coming, which will bring us more business.”

In fact, the laundromat receives business from a number of different channels. Perhaps the most lucrative source of laundry customers are the more than 3,000 apartment units within The Family Bubble’s marketplace – with a large complex located directly behind the store and another just five minutes down the street.

Also, in addition to having the local high school across the street, the laundromat is located close to the University of Tennessee, as well as a National Guard armory.

“We get a variety of people in here,” Landreth said. “There are a lot of Hispanics moving to this area. We also get a blue-collar crowd, as well as a lot of UT students and teachers from the high school – like the basketball coach. Several teachers from the school across the street have come over and done their laundry.”

For those who don’t live or work across the street from The Family Bubble, Landreth reaches out to them through a number of advertising vehicles, including targeted direct mail campaigns and the use of coupons.

In addition, her son is currently working on the store’s new Web site, along with building an e-mail database of customers.

“We’re going to build up an e-mail list,” Landreth said. “I run a contest each month, where customers fill out an entry form and we give away a basket full of top-brand detergent and laundry products. Those entry forms tell me who my customers are and where they’re coming from, along with the fact that now I’ve captured their street and e-mail addresses to use in future marketing campaigns.”

Another project Landreth is working on is building up Family Bubbles’ commercial business.

“Commercial accounts are down the road,” she said. “We’re trying to study this side of Knoxville and get a feel for what’s out there. Plus, I have to get to the point where I know I have the vans and the people available to pick it up and deliver it without any mix-ups. You’ve really got to know the area and how far out you want to go for that business.”

Manpower is perhaps the biggest stumbling block to Landreth’s commercial business at this point, given that Family Bubble is truly a family-run operation.

“Jim and I have been manning the store ourselves since we opened,” explained Landreth, adding that her husband handles most of the equipment maintenance himself. “My son has another job, but he comes in on the weekends, and my daughter-in-law, who is at boot camp in the National Guard, is going to work here when she gets back. She’s from Guatemala, so she’s bilingual, which will be extremely helpful. Also, my grandson and two granddaughters work here on the weekends. And my husband has two sisters who have worked in laundromats before, and they’re thinking they might move here. For now, we’re just trying to keep it for us, for the family.”

To differentiate The Family Bubble from other stores in their Knoxville market, the Landreths have tried to create a warm, family-friendly atmosphere for their customers.

“Instead of installing the typical plastic seating you find in most laundromats, we put in a couch and a love seat, and we have comfortable chairs,” said Dee Dee, whose laundry is open 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. “We also have two study desks, free Wi-Fi for the college students, and people have told me that our play area looks as nice as a daycare center.”

The Family Bubble also features two crane games, a pinball machine, a driving game and something called a “multi-cade,” which include 48 different arcade-type games in one unit.

“We went to an arcade auction in Tennessee and that’s how we got all of these,” Landreth said. “We also have two candy vending machines, as well as machines that dispense bouncy balls, temporary tattoos and plastic bracelets.

“One machine is right by our bill changer. The kids will say, ‘Oh, Mom, now you have quarters!’”

Landreth also plans to install a copy/fax machine in the store for customer convenience. In addition, the laundry has been approved as a Western Union outlet, so patrons can transfer money and pay their utility bills at The Family Bubble.

“This is what I would want if I went to a laundromat,” she said. “This is the atmosphere I would want. The key is to just be nice to the people, show them courtesy – and if they need help, help them out.”

Another key that Landreth would no doubt agree to is that the customer is always right.

“I will never say that a customer can’t just wash or can’t just dry their clothes here,” Landreth said. “Some places are like that; they won’t let you do one or the other – you have to do both. That doesn’t matter to me. I look at it this way – it’s still money. They are still spending money here, and then they’ll probably buy a soda or something to eat. Why turn them away?

“I got turned away from a laundromat one time because I just wanted to dry my clothes, and the owner wouldn’t let me. I asked, ‘Why not? Don’t you like making money?’”

Clearly, Dee Dee and Jim Landreth do. And they plan for make a lot of it with The Family Bubble.

Equipment Mix

The Family Bubble • Knoxville, Tenn.

20 Wascomat 25-pound frontloaders $2.00
12 Wascomat 35-pound frontloaders $3.50
4 Wascomat 45-pound frontloaders $6.00
26 Wascomat 30-pound stack dryers (PRICING??)
6 Wascomat 50-pound dryers (PRICING??)
1 Rheem water heater
1 Standard Change-Makers bill changer
11 R&B Wire Products laundry carts
1 Vend-Rite Manufacturing soap vending machine 75 cents per box
Painted gray floor with inlaid color to match the store’s scheme (CONCRETE FLOOR??)
1 soda vending machine
1 snack vending machine
Various arcade games
Candy and toy dispensers
3 27-inch televisions
An 8- by 12-foot children’s play area, including books, toys, dolls, games, coloring books and a play desk
Free Wi-Fi access
Wash-dry-fold service: $1.05 per pound; 10-pound minimum

Distributor: DLR Enterprises, Morristown, Tenn., (423) 312-1801

Three’s a Charm: An Interview with New Jersey Laundry Owner Ted Beyda

Want a daunting task? Try this one on for size. Ted Beyda launched three new laundries in a span of one year in New Jersey. That’s right. After gaining more than three decades of experience as a certified public accountant, Beyda dove head first into the unknown waters of laundry ownership. The top-of-the-line laundries in Newark, Ewing and Willingboro simply offer everything that Beyda would want as a customer – and more. The first opened in August of 2006, the next in February of 2007 and the third in November of 2007.

“It’s hard to believe it’s been a year already,” Beyda said. “I started getting involved in the business in 2004. All three stories are new installations. It took about 20 months from Day 1 to opening day of the first store.”

Each of the three posed their own separate challenges to get underway.

“It was a very, very stressed out two years,” Beyda said of the building stage. “We raised a lot of capital to go into three stores, and it still wasn’t enough. Just getting across the finish line – that was my goal. I was juggling a lot of balls with little margin for error.

“One thing that I did was very, very smart, and thank God I did it. From Day 1, I envisioned the idea of a chain of stores, so that everything I did was a chain concept. What we did from the beginning was build the chain even though we didn’t have one. As each store came on, they came on more seamlessly. It’s more expensive initially to do things that way, but overall saved us a lot of money and a lot of aggravation.”

An admitted technology addict, Beyda prides himself on using technology to improve his bottom line. In fact, he was operating his business from home on the day this interview took place.

How did you get involved in the coin laundry industry?

It’s a strange story. I was a CPA, and a client of mine asked me to look into laundromats as an investment he was making. So I did the research for him. I was looking to make a career change, and as I got into seeing what the Laundromat business could offer, I said ‘You know, that’s something I think I’d like. I’d like to be in this business.’ It may not be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, but what the heck, I’ve got to live with it. [Laughs]

Did you client decide to enter the business also?

No, he never made the investment.

What part of the laundromat business intrigued you as you looked at it from the outside?

There were a number of things that intrigued me from a business model perspective. I kept getting more and more interested, sucked in inch by inch, and all of the sudden here I am.

It was October of 2005 and I had already been investigating it for over a year. Then I had to decide: I’m either in or I’m not; either I was going to do it or not. I decided to go into it whole hog and signed my first lease in December of 2005. The other two stores’ leases came about shortly after that first one.

What attracted you to this business?

I think that the coin laundry industry was primed at the time for a significant upgrade in terms of the business model, technology and customer service. I felt we could deliver on all thee counts in a way that hasn’t been done across a broad scale.

Using technology at the highest level possible, providing customer service at the highest possible level, and using a significant amount of capital to build a laundry experience – that’s where we can make our mark. That’s why we call it The Laundry Experience.

And, all of that considered, at the end of the day, you can make a lot of money in the business.

What are the keys to a successful self-service laundry business?

Like any other business, planning, planning and planning. This business needs the same elements as any other business – planning, capital and a top-level product to deliver to customers. Just because it’s a laundry doesn’t exempt me from thinking I can run it professionally, or that I don’t have to interact with customers.

It’s a very capital-intensive business when you do it the way we want to do it. There’s a lot of management, planning and interaction with the customer. We believe we’re delivering a different kind of experience to our customers, and we believe they’re recognizing it.

As part of your planning, did you visit any laundromats to see what you liked or didn’t like about them?

I visited Tom Benson, who has the World’s Largest Laundromat in Berwyn, Ill. I flew out to meet with him and see his store. He was very open and shared a lot of ideas. I gained a great deal from meeting with him.

I also rode around locally and saw what was around. Deleted sentence. Everybody has their own way of doing what they’re doing, but they all have washers and dryers.

What are some of the hot-button issues for laundry operators in your area?

Everyone is always concerned with utility prices. But I don’t worry about that because it’s not something I can change. Delete sentence.

I would think that in the back of their minds, without them even knowing it, operators wonder: How do I deal with technology; how do I increase prices; how do I keep business? That’s sort of the question that really wraps up all the others– how do I keep my business and make it grow? Utilities, competition, rent – they’re all subsets of that question.

What major trends are you noticing in this industry, particularly in your marketplace?

I think I’m seeing laundromats that are not only laundromats, but also tanning salons, convenience stores, or dry cleaners. To increase cash flow, operators are moving away from being a laundromat. I think the best way to be a better laundromat is to be a better laundromat. I don’t know that diversifying away from being a laundromat is a better way of being a laundromat. Instead of worrying about running a tanning salon, I worry about the laundromat.

What is the biggest concern you hear from the customers in your area?

Customers are most concerned with getting value for their money. Whatever money they’re giving us, they want to get full value. They’re not that price sensitive, but when they put the money down, they want to know what they’re getting. As long as they know they’re getting value for their money, they’re OK. They enjoy what we’re giving them, they enjoy the product. They believe that when they give us a dollar, they’re getting a dollar’s worth of value, and not 98 cents worth.

What’s the greatest technological advancement you’ve seen since you’ve been in business?

I haven’t been in the business that long, but I saw the ability of technology to change the industry. I’ve applied technology internally in terms of management and internal operations. Technology was one of –if not the – main impetus that got me into the business.

I’ve been hooked on technology in business since the early 70’s. In my prior professional career, I was always impressed by technology and the ability of certain businesses to apply it to their advantage. The greatest example is Wal-Mart. One of the significant contributors to their fantastic success is their ability to use technology to their advantage.

That is an aspect of the business that drew me into the industry. Otherwise I would not have gotten into the business. I thought the industry was lagging very far behind in terms of technology. Our stores are all very high tech card-operated stores. From the management side, everything is computerized to the nth degree. I’m literally running my business remotely as we speak.

What’s an example of how you’ve used technology to improve your business?

All of our stores are card operated. I wouldn’t have even thought of getting into the business if I had to empty coins every night. Our water heaters and air conditioners are operated with technology equipment.

We’re willing to invest upfront dollars and in technology. We believe it will return significant returns in the long run. That’s one of our mantras, I guess.

In one of the stores, we have tremendous exposure to the sun in the morning, and we had to deal with the store really heating up. So we went out and found this new high tech tinting that goes over the window. It was developed for the space shuttle. It cuts down on heat penetration by 80 percent. It costs double the price of standard tinting, but visually it’s much nicer, and it’s more efficient. So we used technology to benefit us in three different ways: the customers see a nice store, there’s a better work environment for the employees because it’s not so hot, and I save money on utilities. In a case like that, we applied technology and ended up with something. Everyone thinks technology is all about computers – it’s not.

With technology such a vital part of your business, how do attendants adapt to using the technology?
There’s not a single thing in our stores that is not at some level computerized. If we have a technology-challenged employee, it just doesn’t work out. They don’t fit into our environment. Much of their work involves computers.

Do you have a business philosophy that guides your decisions?

How do I make more money? [Laughs] I’m not young. I’ve been in business a long time. I know I’ve got to treat my customers right and my staff with respect. My customer owns me. I’ve got to make sure whatever customers we have, we keep them happy. If they’re happy, we keep them as customers.

The same is true of our staff. We recently had a staff meeting in each of the stores. Staff meeting in a laundry? People don’t do that. Well, we do that. Delete sentence. We want to treat our staff the way we want them to treat our customers.

What’s one of the ways you make your stores an attraction?

We try to do all the little things that I would want if I went into a laundromat. Delete sentence. When customers walk in, we want them to feel different about our store. We’ve spent a lot of money in terms of designing the stores with concern to layout, color schemes and amenities. When the customer comes into our store and uses the bathroom, they’re not in a typical laundromat bathroom. It’s a fully-tiled, well-equipped immaculate bathroom.

Many times there are kids in the store for an hour or two. Normally, there’s nothing for them to do but drive their parents crazy. One of the TVs is always on cartoon station
We give out coloring books and crayons to all the children. Parents appreciate that, because we’re taking their children into account. They can go down the block and my competitor doesn’t give a hoot about their children. The coloring books have our name and logo across the cover.

We make sure the kids can come in and chill out. We can distract them for a few moments with coloring books. The parents see it, and when we see the smile on that parent’s face, we know that we bought a customer. Even the customers that don’t have kids in the store appreciate it. All because of a coloring book.

Specific to your market and region of the country, what are your thoughts on vend pricing? Utilities? Attendants and their training? Marketing?

With pricing, we’ve found that if we do our job in delivering the product the way it should be delivered, the customer is happy to pay the price we charge them. We’re not by any stretch the cheapest store around. But they’re willing, in economically strapped neighborhoods, to pay pricing based on the product they receive.

With utilities, I don’t know that there’s much I can do with it on the pricing end. I deal with it on the technology end. I have a contract with my HVAC units to have them cleaned and maintained every three months. If they’re operating efficiently, I make more money. We spend money to save money. That’s what we’re doing vis-a-vis the utilities.

I tried to get involved in buying future gas contracts, but I don’t belong in the commodities market. I am losing a lot of money on it. I belong in the laundromat business. If I take care utilities within the building, that’s probably the best way for me to deal with it.

With attendants and their training, the training is absolutely mandatory – and aggravating. The face of my business is my attendants. Customers know the three or four attendants working in their store, the customers don’t know me. My business is my attendants. We encourage attendants to be proactive in managing the store. We ask them to give us their ideas as to what they think we should do.

What’s your next stage of marketing?

We do a lot of in-store marketing, and we’re reaching out to do external marketing, Initially our marketing was tied into brand marketing, with the colors and logo. I tried my hand at marketing. It didn’t work out. I decided to turn it over to people that are more professional and know how to do it. We know it’s a requirement for the business, and I’m stepping out of it so it can hopefully work better. I thought I knew how to market my business. I don’t.

We’re moving into target marketing, so that we can pinpoint buildings and streets. We’ll also use technology, so that we’ll be able to better utilize our marketing dollar.

Personally, what’s the biggest mistake you’ve ever made in this business?

Thinking it was going to be easy. One thing that I did – opening three stores in a relatively short period of time – multiplied the challenge, especially since I didn’t have any experience. It was a little bit insane. But all in all, the plan was to get here, and we’ve gotten here.

Tell us a little about your stores.

All stores have card systems. All stores have free Wi-Fi, free coffee and high-tech soda and candy machines.

The Ewing store is 4,800 square feet. It’s the flagship store and is the most unique in terms of location and presentation. It’s part of a converted warehouse with 20-foot-high ceilings and glass all around it. A customer walks in and there’s definitely a “Wow!” factor to it. We chose the location to be able to do that unique kind of presentation.

Ewing has 67 washers and 68 dryer pockets. Sixty-two are 30-pound machines. Six are double-stack, 75-pound dryers.

We have 12 flat-panel TVs in the Ewing store.

The Newark store is 5,000 square feet. We have 70 frontload washers and 64 dryer pockets.

We have eight flat-panel TVs in the Newark store.

The Willingboro store is 3,000 square feet. We have 47 frontload washers and 22 double-stack 30-pound dryers and two double-stack 75-pound dryers.

Willingboro has four flat-panel TVs.

From a business standpoint, what goals are you looking to accomplish in 2009?

We’d like to get the marketing up and running full-fledged, and expand more into commercial laundry. That would increase utilization of our capital in terms of dollars and equipment, especially at times when they’re not being used. Reaching out to the commercial market will allow us to maximize their use.

What advice would you give a new store owner just getting into this business?

Take care of your customers, take care of your capital, and take care of yourself.

In your market, is the coin laundry business still a good business to get into?

I think it is. I think that our experience shows that the stores that are run well and planned well – when all the right boxes are checked – coin laundry can be very profitable and rewarding.

It’s challenging. It’s anything but easy, especially if you’re a person who doesn’t know diddly about like I was.

The Eco Laundry Room in Peterborough, Ontario

A Little ‘Green’ in the Great White North: Energy Efficiency Delivers Solid Profits for Canadian Laundry

A “green” coin laundry in Canada is turning heads. At 900 square feet, the highly profitable, postcard-sized laundry is not only environmentally friendly; it’s the source of much hoopla across Canada. Owned by partners Brant Kelso, his wife, Natasha Bick-Kelso, and Paul Bichler, The Eco Laundry Room recently debuted on YouTube and may soon be aired as part of BBC’s The Dragons’ Den television show.

Energy Efficiency Unparalleled

A year-old coin laundry in Peterborough, Ontario, The Eco Laundry Room is a uniquely “green” self-service laundry complete with solar tubing to heat the store’s water; environmentally friendly insulation made with recycled pop bottles; T8 florescent lighting; a recycled rubber floor that mimics hardwood; and energy-efficient washer-extractors and dryers. The entire package is wrapped up in a 100-year-old building – completely refurbished – with a second-floor apartment occupied by one of the owners. Potted outside are indigenous plants given rainwater collected in an outdoor barrel.

The Dragons’ Den

The Eco Laundry Room’s quick success spurred its owners to publicly share the concept in hopes of franchising the business and attracting investors. Bichler, the partner who occupies the second-floor apartment, developed a YouTube video sales pitch about the new laundry. That video was posted on The Dragons’ Den Web site. The Dragons’ Den is a television show that airs in Canada. During the program, an entrepreneur puts up a portion or all of his/her business for sale by pitching it to five venture capitalists, who might decide to invest.

“We were accepted for the show and taped in July,” said Bichler. “You go on there and describe your business and try to sell it to them by justifying its worth.”

Bichler, who is interested in franchising The Eco Laundry Room concept, offered the venture capitalists a 30 percent stake in the company.

It is still not definite whether or not that taped sales pitch will be broadcast or not on The Dragons’ Den. But Bichler does know the result – whether or not the venture capitalists decided to invest in The Eco Laundry Room or not. However, he must keep that information secret until he knows whether his business pitch will be broadcast.

Why A Laundry? Why An Eco-Laundry?

The development of The Eco Laundry Room was driven by a desire to invest in an industry that performs well despite a slumping economy, according to Bichler.

“I’ve developed businesses before and was looking into a ‘green’ business,” he said. Bichler’s partners, who own rental units with vended laundries, knew from experience their profit potential. Thus, the partners developed a unique eco-niche within the marketplace by developing an environmentally friendly self-service laundry. Anchored by eco-friendly, energy-conserving products and equipment to lower utility bills and improve profits, The Eco Laundry Room successfully draws customers.

From the onset, the business met revenue goals, despite its petite footprint. “We’ve been profitable every month since we opened,” Bichler said of The Eco Laundry Room. “I expected to be profitable, but not to this extent. We’re showing a profit of 10 percent and cash flow of between 42 and 50 percent. The cash flow is really strong.”

The Eco-Recipe for Success

Critical to profitability are the laundry’s low utility bills – making up just 12 to 13 percent of its revenue. That’s really good, according to Bichler, considering the average coin laundry spends 20 percent to 25 percent on utilities, according to the Coin Laundry Association.

“When we looked at expenses for utilities we were very shocked,” said Bichler, who holds a bachelor’s degree in finance and economics. “We performed better than anticipated.” That’s because the laundry and its second-floor apartment share gas and water. The electricity is separate. All told, according to Bichler, gas makes up 3 percent to 4 percent, water/sewer makes up 5 percent to 6 percent, and electric makes up 3 percent of the laundry’s utility bill. By paying less in utilities, The Eco Laundry Room enjoys more profit.

Developing a ‘Green’ Coin Laundry

The process of developing an environmentally friendly business involved reworking an historic building and seeking advice from product experts, according to Bichler.

“We ripped the building down to the brick, reframed it and sprayed in foam insulation made of recycled soda bottle plastics and soya-oil extract rated at R30,” he said. “It’s just like regular spray insulation but environmentally friendly. Our solar tubes provide all the hot water and have turned out to be more efficient than we first thought. The flooring looks like wood, but is partially recycled rubber. It’s durable and holds a warranty of 15 years. All the lighting is T8 lighting for specialized energy-efficiency. Some lights are on motion sensors so they aren’t running all the time. The washroom lights are also on a motion control, and we put a brick in the toilet tank. It uses half the water that way and is cheaper than purchasing a low-water use toilet.”

To round out the “green” aspects of the laundry, the partners provide soap vending machines filled with their own Eco Sudz, an all-natural, unscented, non-toxic, biodegradable and phosphate-free laundry detergent that’s septic and gray water safe.

Freestanding, High-Speed Washer-Extractors and Energy-Efficient Dryers

Equally critical to the store’s bottom line are its energy-efficient washers and dryers. Ray Helwig of Sparkle Solutions, a laundry equipment distributor in Concord, Ontario, worked closely with Bichler, Kelso and Bick-Kelso to select the laundry’s equipment mix: 10 20-pound-capacity (double load) washer-extractors, two 40-pound-capacity (extra load) washer-extractors and eight dual-pocket, 30-pound-capacity stack dryers.

“We went with Sparkle Solutions because we knew we could count on them in the future,” Bichler said. “We wanted energy-efficient equipment, so we looked at the product specifications to see how different products stacked up.”

Rather than install topload washers, which use from 30 to 40 gallons of water per load, the laundry features 20-pound-capacity frontload washers, which use about 13.4 gallons of water per load. Energy-Star-qualified, the machines use single-phase power and plug into a regular appliance outlet.

In addition, the washers are freestanding, making them easier to install and service than hard-mount washers. They also offer high-speed extract of up to 354 G-force and superior energy efficiency. Most traditional hard-mount washers extract at between 70 and 150 G-force, according to Helwig. “These washers remove significantly more water by comparison, and in turn, cut the resulting dry time by as much 50 percent,” he explained.
By shortening the time it takes to dry a load, customers complete their laundry more quickly and the store uses less gas – a win-win, according to Bichler.

In and Out in 60 Minutes

To maximize washer performance, Bichler customizes each machine’s extract speed, mechanical action, wash temperature, water levels and rinse time according to his laundry’s needs.

“Our longest wash is the 30-minute ‘super wash,’” Bichler explained. “We also have a popular warm-water wash that lasts 26 minutes. Most of our customers can wash in 26 minutes and dry in 24 minutes.”

That way, customers complete their laundry in less than an hour – always a welcome convenience.

Drawing a Broad Base of Customers

By delivering a quicker and “greener” wash, The Eco Laundry Room successfully caters to couples, students, working people, retirees and families.

“We are hitting every demographic because of how the laundry is designed,” Bichler said.

The business offers craved conveniences, including wireless Internet access, a children’s play area, café tables, magazines and snack machines. It’s also heavily monitored by the owners, thanks to a security system that allows them to view the laundry remotely via the Internet.

The laundry unlocks automatically at 6 a.m. daily. And, each evening, Bichler checks on the equipment and cleans up.

“I record how all of the machines perform each night, so we know the revenue for each one,” he said. “We average four to five turns per day.”

And despite a gas rate hike of 30 percent, The Eco Laundry Room hasn’t raised vend prices. Some customers are convinced that doing laundry there is less expensive than doing it at home.

“I have an accountant customer who priced out the cost of a washer and dryer and figured it was easier and less expensive to do laundry here,” Bichler said. “They decided not to buy a washer and dryer for their house. A lot of people want home frontloads, but they don’t compare with the machinery we have here.”

An entrepreneur at heart, Bichler maintains he got into the laundry business for its potential. If The Eco Laundry Room continues its performance, he said that he and his partners would realize a full return on investment in less than five years. With or without additional investors, the partners plan to open more laundries across Canada, all mirroring their flagship eco-store.

Equipment Mix

The Eco Laundry Room • Peterborough, Ontario

10 Continental Girbau 20-pound E-Series washer-extractors $3.00
2 Continental Girbau 40-pound E-Series washer-extractors $5.00
8 Continental Girbau 30-pound stack dryers six minutes for 25 cents
60 Evacuated Solar Tubes heat laundry water
1 Eco Sudz vending machine, offering eco-friendly soap
Dryers automatically stop heating when optimum temperature is achieved
T8 ballast fluorescent lighting
Restroom lights and fan on motion sensor
Restroom sink faucet features automatic shut-off
Wall insulation is comprised of soya oil and 7 Up bottles
Outdoor panels made from MDF, a recycled wood product
Partially recycled rubber flooring
Laundry cooled by a furnace fan that pulls cool basement air through the store
Using a heat exchanger, dryer vent air is used to heat the laundry (in addition to forced-air gas heating)
Local, indigenous plants are used in pots outside the laundry
Rain barrel is used to collect the water for the plants

Distributor: Sparkle Solutions, Concord, Ontario, (866) 660-2282

America’s Most Progressive Laundry Winners

Double Play: An Interview with America’s Most Progressive Self-Service Laundry Owners

For the first time in the history of its contest, the Coin Laundry Association has declared a tie in its annual search for the most progressive laundry. The co-winners in the 2009 search are Tolt Laundry Co. in Carnation, Wash., and Giant Laundromax in Minneapolis.

“We received a great many deserving entries for our America’s Most Progressive Laundry contest,” said CLA President and CEO Brian Wallace. “These two facilities and owners embodied the spirit of the contest by incorporating industry advances such as card technology, high-efficiency machines and alternative sources of energy.”

Tod and Linda Johnson, owners of Tolt Laundry Co., have an unattended store with high-end finishes that include granite folding tables, cobalt lighting and multiple flat-screen televisions that give the laundry a loft-like feel. In addition, the laundry features a lint recovery system and solar panels.

John and Marilyn Craig, owners of Giant Laundromax, cater to their market’s demographics. Their progressive nature lead them to realize that the local Somali population needed large machines to wash prayer rugs, so the couple installed two 125-pound washers and two 115-pound dryers.

In general, what does the term “progressive” mean to you?

John Craig: It means being on the leading edge, using the technology that’s available today.

Tod Johnson: Being progressive to us meant that we were going to provide three things to our customers: very high quality, extremely high durability and cleanliness to the nth degree.

What does it mean to you in terms of running your laundry business?

JC: It means providing our customers with the most up-to-date equipment in terms of what is available, staying up with the trends for larger machines and energy efficiency – and just trying to exceed customer expectations. That’s what you need to do. If you don’t, someone else will.

TJ: To accomplish what we wanted to do, we needed to implement as many energy-efficient elements into the business as we could think of. We used materials that would maintain the look of the building and the inside of the facility even after several years. We accomplished that with corrugated metal on the walls, galvanized frames for the folding tables with granite countertops, and a stained concrete floor.

Did you set out to create a progressive store?

JC: I had a dream of the things I wanted to do with the store, and I like to think of it as a work in progress. I was looking to make a statement in the marketplace and to exceed my customers’ expectations.

I’m still looking to make further improvements on the cutting edge of today’s trends.

What are the most modern or progressive elements of your laundry?

JC: First of all, we have a lot of very large equipment. We have two 125-pound washers, and the turns on them have exceeded my expectations. Then, I added two 115-pound dryers. In addition to that, we put in 10 80-pound washers and 10 75-pound dryers. We’ve also got 14 60-pound machines. So, I have 26 machines that are more than 50 pounds as far as capacity, which exceeds most other stores.

Also, one of the most important elements to the store is its card acceptance equipment. In fact, it’s actually online credit card acceptance. The system is set up wirelessly. In addition to accepting coins, the machines will also accept credit cards such as Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express – and recently we added the ability to use our own private cards as well.

Everybody had credit cards in their wallet, and everybody is using them in every industry except for ours. Why are we behind the curve on that? I was seeking out someone to provide that type of service and discovered WashCard Systems, based here in Minnesota; they are in the car wash industry and wanted to test their system in a laundromat setting.

The timing was right, with us building the new store. So we agreed to test my store, and I’ve been extraordinarily happy with it. It’s online and instantaneous.

Beyond that, we’re just trying to provide the latest conveniences for our customers. We provide free WiFi. We have four 50-inch flat-screen, high-definition TVs and 3 42-inch TVs. Why not make it as enjoyable as possible for the customers? Doing laundry doesn’t have to be such a chore.

TJ: At Tolt Laundry Co., we have extremely efficient washers, which, of course, mean that our dryers don’t have to work so hard. We also offer tiered pricing on our washers. This way, our customers receive the financial benefit of their selection, and we get more use out of our solar heating system, which features 12 panels on our roof. In fact, between 38 percent and 51 percent of our hot water are covered by our solar system.

One interesting element is our gas line. Rather than merely running a gas line going to our dryers, we installed gas loop so that we have gas coming at the burners from both directions; there is no chance we’ll have a dryer down at the end of the line starving for gas. It feeds the dryers from both ends. And it will help the dryers last longer.

What’s more, we used a high level ceiling grid with wire panels to allow for plenty of air movement and to avoid any moisture collecting on them. It’s going to look the same 10 years from now as it does today.

Also on the progressive side, we looked at all of the items that cost us operation money. For instance, we installed a vertical baler compactor, and we compact all of our garbage. We’re able to save $250 to $300 a month in garbage dump fees because we compact everything – what would normally fill a dumpster, we can compact into just one 96-gallon garbage can.

What are the keys to being a successful laundry owner?

JC: For me, the keys are to continually be looking at the business as if I am a customer. I try to look at it with fresh eyes.

I think two other very important elements are finding the right distributor and becoming a member of the Coin Laundry Association. The laundry owners who seem to be the most progressive are also the ones who are the most involved with the local CLA affiliate here. And the more involved I become, the more I learn. I’m always learning new things. It’s important to not only be a CLA member, but also be involved with what’s going on.

TJ: Being successful in this business requires the same elements that we found were necessary to be successful in our other businesses – to provide an environment that allows our customers to have a good experience.

If you tap your own experiences and recognize what you need to have a “good experience,” you’re going to be successful, because you’re going to be sensitive to cleaning, parking, garbage and all of those things.

Plus, our lack of practical laundry experience has been offset by the CLA. The association has created an environment that allows the novice laundry owner the opportunity to tap into a knowledge bank of probably 500 or 1,000 years worth of self-service laundry experience.

We don’t think you need to experience everything to become qualified. You can tap into somebody else’s experience. How many parents say, “I don’t want you to make the same mistakes I did.” Does that not apply in business?

What’s your favorite aspect of this business?

JC: The best thing about this business is putting smiles on customers’ faces, as corny as that may sound. When customers compliment me on the laundromat, it gives me the greatest feeling. It gives me a sense of pride and accomplishment. Obviously, I’m in business to make a profit, but if I can put a smile on a customer’s face and make his or her day a little bit more enjoyable, it makes doing my job very enjoyable.

In addition, operating this business provides me with the opportunity to give back to the community, whether through charities or other programs – far exceeding what I could ever do on a personal level. I sponsor some local teams, and I give to a large number of charities.

TJ: The customers are my favorite aspect. They come in and say, “This is the coolest place I’ve ever seen.” We’ve really had some wonderful experiences will people coming into the store.

In our advertising, we tout, “This Ain’t Your Momma’s Laundromat.” We’re changing the laundry experience in this market, and the customers are replacing their old experiences with this one.

As America’s Most Progressive Coin Laundry Owners, what do you envision for the future of the coin laundry industry?

JC: I think the future is bright. Of course, staying on top of energy and water costs is going to be crucial to this industry. We’re continually looking at ways to save energy. Hopefully, there will be more improvements in solar technology, as well as some of the other energy-saving technologies. I’m sure water efficiency is something that will continue to move forward.

As far as being progressive laundry owners, we all need to provide the amenities that our customers are looking for – or maybe ones they don’t even know that they’re looking for. That will keep us competitive. And as customers become accustomed to more amenities, they will begin to expect them – and we will have to evolve to something else. It’s an ongoing process.

TJ: In the future, I think you’re going to see a lot more marriages between similar businesses, where owners can combine management and staff. Due to exposures and the price of ground, it makes sense to couple two different businesses and use the same exposure. We also have a mini-storage business attached to our laundry. The laundromat and the mini-storage demographic profiles are exactly the same.

Why is being progressive so crucial to this industry as a whole, especially these day?

TJ: The American people are becoming cynical about service. If you don’t provide a high-quality environment, you’re doing so at your own risk. The consumer is getting tired of receiving only lip service when it comes to service.

The downturn in the economy right now is going to create an environment for people to return to service, because that’s the only way they’re going to be able to attract new clients.

Customers are not going to settle for less. Money is going to become a lot more important. You better be progressive. You don’t have to do it like I’m doing it, but you certainly have to think about that process.

Valley Laundry in Park Falls, Wisconsin

Northern Exposure: Wisconsin Entrepreneur Cleans Up with Energy-Efficient Laundry

Mark Wagner’s personal philosophy would probably extol the virtues of diversifying one’s business interests… if he ever stopped to think about such things. However, chances are, Wagner is probably too busy with said interests to even consider something so esoteric.

Wagner began his professional career in the late 1970s, operating a steam turbine generator for a local paper mill in northern Wisconsin. However, by the mid-1980s, he saw bigger entrepreneurial opportunities in the booming Northwoods real estate sector, and quickly shifted his focus.

“In 1984, I got my real estate license and bought an existing real estate company,” he said. “I’ve been involved in real estate ever since.”

Along the way, Wagner has used his real estate knowledge and connections in Park Falls, Wis., which is about 50 miles south of Lake Superior, to gather up some additional revenue-generating properties of his own.

“I’ve got several other business entities going in Park Falls,” he explained. “Rental units, a small hotel, a car wash – I’ve diversified into a few different things.”

One of those things is 2,400-square-foot Valley Laundry, which Wagner opened in 2002.

“What really attracted me to the coin laundry business was the fact that our community needed one,” Wagner said. “We have a strong tourist trade here during the summer months. There are a lot of cottages in my market, and I learned, from my years in the real estate business, that a lot of these people don’t have proper septic systems to do their own laundry at the cabins, or else they simply don’t desire to do it there. They’d rather bring it off-site to a laundromat. And, of course, we also have the locals who are my core business. That’s what got me going in the coin laundry business.

“And with the current economy, I’m glad I did,” he added. “The laundry seems to do well in this challenging economy.”

Valley Laundry is a stand-alone building that was constructed from the ground up in only about 90 days, according to the owner.

“We designed the building to be a laundromat,” explained Wagner, who worked with Minnesota-based distributor BDS Laundry Systems on the project. “However, I naturally did have a little bit of fear when I first built this store, as to whether or not it would be successful. As a result, it’s built on a four-foot crawlspace, which would have allowed me to retrofit this building into something different had Valley Laundry not taken off. We’ve engineered a floor joist system; we’ve got solid concrete in the center, where my 35- and 50-pound washers are. I didn’t spare any dollars when I built it.”

The laundry is located in the center of Park Falls, which has a year-round population of slightly less than 3,000. Wagner had purchased the land years earlier on the hunch that it would eventually turn into a solid, high-traffic area through the town.

“I’m on Highway 13, which is a main highway through the corridor,” Wagner explained. “I’ve got the laundromat, the car wash, my real estate office, the motel and a beauty salon that I don’t own but rent out on this road. I can look either way down the highway and see my properties. And it’s easy to manage because it’s small town America.”

In addition to his own real estate holdings, Wagner noted that there is a fast-food restaurant across the street from Valley Laundry that has helped boost his walk-in business.

“That helps me a lot,” he admitted. “People will come in, put their laundry in the machines and then walk across the road to have something to eat. Probably one-third of my customers do that.

Wagner pointed out that there is also a Department of Natural Resources office nearby. “That’s a place where the sportsmen will go to buy their hunting licenses and to get maps and other information about the area,” he said. “It helps my business because, when they get out of their cars and look across the road, they see my laundry and often they’ll come back when they need to.”

Of course, the tourist trade boosts Valley Laundry’s revenue from Memorial Day through Labor Day. Then this out-of-town business tends to tail off a bit, despite the popularity of the fall hunting season and the influx of winter snowmobilers.

However, the laundry’s core customers are still the year-round residents of Park Falls and the surrounding areas. According to Wagner, the locals tend to skew slightly older – in their 50s and 60s, on average – and fall within what would be considered the middle income bracket.

“Some of my walk-in customers own their own homes,” said Wagner, who is also considering adding some commercial accounts in the future. “I don’t know why they don’t have their own washers and dryers in their homes. Is it because they can’t afford it? I don’t think that’s the case. Some of these people just like the social aspect of going to the laundromat. In fact, for my regular customers, I can tell you which day of the week they’re going to come in.”

With one other coin laundry in the marketplace, Wagner sets Valley Laundry apart with a strong emphasis on cleanliness. And his father, Frank, comes in every morning and every evening to keep the store spotless.

“He’s on my payroll,” Wagner chuckled. “And I’m lucky to have him.”

Wagner is also a stickler for timely equipment maintenance, much of which he had learned to handle himself.

“At first, I thought I could just hire it all out,” Wagner admitted. “However, some of these things are basic, five-minute maintenance fixes. They’re very simple once you’ve done them a few times. Sure, I could hire someone to do those routine things, but it would still cost me a $75 service call. And I have to wash a lot of clothes to recoup $75.

“Plus, we’re also very good at preventive maintenance, as far as keeping the internal workings of the machines clean, not just the exteriors.”

A third element for the success of Valley Laundry that Wagner has identified is energy conservation.

“We’ve tried to conserve energy every step of the way,” he said. “For example, I installed all frontloaders in 2002, and I am so happy I did, because my water costs are probably more than my natural gas costs right now. We’re running close to $800 a month for water and sewer costs. If I had less-efficient machines, it would cost twice that amount.

“You’ve got to look into the future,” he added. “I’m at the point where I’m starting think about a water reclamation process. That would be my next goal. It’s going to happen – 10 years and we’re going to be there.”

However, at present, Wagner is using “wood power” to keep his costs at bay.

Four years ago, Wagner was ready for some relief from the high natural gas bills he was paying. Living in the midst of Wisconsin’s Northwoods region, he found a solution using waste from the area’s active lumber industry. Wagner installed a large wood furnace and boiler, stoking it with wood waste he purchases from a local veneer mill. The unit now heats the laundry – and three of the adjacent buildings Wagner owns – and heats the water for the washers and the air for the dryers.

“It’s located about 300 feet from my laundromat, and all of the lines are insulated and buried underground that feed into the laundry,” he explained. “The first place they go when they enter the laundromat is to my back room. Imagine three radiators. When someone puts a quarter into a dryer, the vents open to let outside air in – that air is pulled through the radiators, pre-heating the air before it hits the dryers. That saves on natural gas consumption right there by pre-heating our air. From there, the glycol goes over to a heat exchanger and heats the hot water that is used for the machines. So, basically, we supplement our hot water cost. I think we’re hitting about 70 percent in the winter months.”

The system, which uses 70 to 80 cords of firewood per year, cost approximately $30,000 to install. And it not only takes care of Wagner’s laundromat, but it heats his real estate office as well.

“In the community I live in, we can run the wood stove five months out of the year,” he explained. “My gas bill will probably go from $500 to $600 a month down to maybe under $100 a month for gas.”

In addition, Wagner replaced his store’s interior lights with 32-watt high-efficiency fluorescent fixtures, which are saving him about $50 a month on lighting alone. What’s more, he’s installed motion sensors on his lighting.

“We shut off half the lights when there is no one in the laundry,” said Wagner, who expects additional saving of $25 a month. “I would suggest every laundry owner do this.”

Another suggestion Wagner might have for some of his fellow laundry owners would be to get their vend prices up to a reasonable level.

“Right now, I’m the price leader in my market,” Wagner said. “My 50-pounders are at $8.25 a load, and I’m at $6.75 for a 35-pounder. When I look at what other people in the marketplace are charging, I’m way above that.

“I might lose a few customers because of it, but I think you have to charge a reasonable rate in order to maintain a good facility. You can’t do this for nothing. Natural gas costs are high. Maintenance costs need to be factored in. You’ve got to figure that a machine has a finite life, too. At some point, you have to replace it. Don’t fool yourself.”

From his cost-saving conservation initiatives to his proactive vend pricing strategy, it’s clear that Wagner is in this self-service laundry business for the long haul.

“I’m not afraid to try new things, to jump into something,” he said. “You can never quit experimenting with different things or ways to try to make your business more profitable. You’ve got to be hands on in the business.

“In my real estate business, I list and sell properties. I own the company, but I’m not afraid to take a buyer out and sell a home or a piece of property. That’s part of my job. I don’t sit back. I’m active in the marketplace.”

Above all, don’t ever give up, Wagner advised.

“There will be times when you’ll have slow day and you’ll say, ‘OK, what happened here? What’s going on?’” he said. “But you can’t give up. You can’t base your business on a short time period. You’ve got to take a long-term look at the picture. Persistence and longevity are the keys. Keep pushing. You don’t get rich in the laundromat business overnight. It’s not get rich quick. It’s a steady stream.

“I’m 48, and I look at my laundromat and my car wash as my 401(k) plans,” he added. “My generation knows that we’re going to have to be working retirees.”

How many self-service laundries will Wagner have accumulated by retirement age? Wisely, he’s not speculating on that at the moment.

“If the opportunity arises, I would open another laundromat,” Wagner said. “But at this point in time, with the downturn in the economy, it’s been a good slap in the face. You can’t ride that wave forever. Right now, I’ll just concentrate on what I have – and make it more profitable.”

Equipment Mix/

Valley Laundry • Park Falls, Wis.

20 Maytag Neptune washers $3.25
6 Maytag 35-pound frontloaders $6.75
2 Maytag 50-pound frontloaders $8.25
24 Maytag stack dryers eight minutes for 25 cents
2 Maytag 50-pound dryers seven minutes for 25 cents
1 Hamilton Engineering water heating system, with 80-gallon storage tank
2 Hamilton Manufacturing bill changers
10 R&B Wire Products laundry carts
Customized log furnishings
Ceramic tile flooring
1 Vend-Rite Manufacturing eight-column soap vending machine
1 soda vending machine

Distributor: BDS Laundry Systems, St. Paul, Minn., (800) 688-0020

Scotty D’s Laundromat in Uniontown, Pennsylvania

On the Move: Mover Launches Self-Service Laundry to Limit His Time on the Road

Scott Darnell recently had a pool installed in his backyard.

“And we’ve got a nice gazebo and a pond, too,” said the owner of Scotty D’s Laundromat in Uniontown, Pa. “I enjoy just being at the house, sitting by that pool. I’ve never really done a lot of that.”

As a mover for United Van Lines, he’s never had the time to stop and smell the roses… much less the chlorine.

“I’ve been a mover for 28 years,” Darnell explained. “I own my own truck, and it keeps me on the road more than 300 days a year. But, about a year ago, I started to get tired of being out there all the time. I decided that I wanted to begin winding down. My son, Scotty, is getting older. He’s 19, and he’ll be able to take over this truck eventually.”

Part of Darnell’s plan to transform himself from road warrior to homebody included the opening of Scotty D’s.

“I’ve had to do my laundry on the road all my life,” he said. “Something that I always liked was a nice, clean laundromat. Plus, I saw it as a good, simple way to make money. You don’t need to have an Einstein degree to run one.”

But you do need a solid location.

And Darnell thinks he found one in the 50- by 100-foot former garage in Uniontown that dates back to 1940. With the size of the building he purchased, Darnell realized that he could run more than just a self-service laundry out of there. As a result, he decided to dedicate 1,500 square feet to Scotty D’s Laundromat, while turning over 1,500 square feet to a separate venture named after his 23-year-old daughter, called Jolene’s Post, Pack & Ship – which is a shipping and business center, much like a FedEx or Kinko’s location.

“I’ve got an additional 2,000 square feet in the back that still looks like a garage, and there is a second floor with another 2,000 square feet up there,” Darnell said. “With the Post, Pack & Ship business, we also are a U-Haul dealer through that business, so I’m planning to make some storage lockers all through that other 2,000 square feet in the back. Upstairs, I don’t have anything but storage yet, but down the road, I think it would make a nice apartment.”

Darnell owns the building and the two acres it sits on. But that’s not all.

“I also bought four houses that are directly across the street,” he said. “Basically, I bought the whole block here. For $225,000, I bought the houses and this property. It all boils down to where you live. That’s a lot of money here, but you couldn’t buy a lot in California for that.”

Of course, when it comes to buying real estate, a good price often comes with a lot of elbow grease. That was certainly the case with Darnell’s purchase.

Darnell had two contractors working on the renovation project of the future Scotty D’s from January 2008 to the end of May.

“They had a lot to do,” he explained. “Basically, we were starting from scratch. We had to install a two-inch water line. In fact, all of the utilities needed to be upgraded. It was quite a job. Again, it was just a big garage.”

Fortunately, Darnell said he received a lot of guidance from his local distributor, Fran DeJulia at Alco Washer Center.

“Fran gave me a layout of the machines,” Darnell said. “He offered his opinions as to how he would design this laundry, based on how I wanted to utilize this entire building. He also helped me to set my eventual vend pricing.”

The five-month retrofit project cost Darnell $78,000 for the buildout itself – and another $112,000 for the laundry equipment.

Next, Darnell turned his attention to the second business – Jolene’s Post, Pack & Ship, which opened its doors in August. But Darnell still wasn’t done. After all, he still had four houses to account for.

“One of the houses was already rented when I bought it,” he said. “We put a deck on it and painted it. My contractor is currently working on the house next to it now. I got a $35,000 loan because it needed to be completely gutted – new windows, new roof, everything.”

Darnell has decided to tear down the third of the four houses because it is in such poor shape. As for the fourth house, he plans to get to work renovating it, once he finishes revamping the second one and is able to find a tenant for it.

“Everybody around here is pretty tickled because these were old, dilapidated buildings. I’ve spruced it all up. Nice paint jobs. I’ve cut the grass and taken care of the landscaping. We’ve put in flowers. The locals love it.”

Scotty D’s Laundromat is located in an historic section of Pennsylvania, along the National Pike, which is part of the famed U.S. Highway 40 – and not far from the former location of Fort Necessity, which served as the battlefield for the first military engagement of the French and Indian War.

Today, despite its rich historical tradition, Uniontown’s Fayette County is one of the poorest in Pennsylvania. But, nonetheless, Darnell insisted that his laundry business serves a wide demographic.

“We’ve got low-income people coming into the store,” said Darnell, who currently employs one full-time attendant. “But we’ve also got several high-end businesspeople that stay at the area hotels and use our wash-dry-fold pickup service. Plus, we get a lot of oil workers in here. There is extensive exploration here for oil, and we get the workers on those oil rigs.”

The oil industry has been a huge boon to Darnell’s business thus far.

“I wanted to put a wash-dry-fold business here because there wasn’t such a service in this area,” he explained. “There are a lot of businesspeople in town, especially within the oil industry. A lot of contractors stay in our hotels. That accounts for a good portion of my drop-off business now.

“With a drop-off laundry service, it won’t take much effort to make money here,” he added. “I’m sure. And I have never been able to make enough money, so I won’t stop at doing just OK.”

To keep the money rolling in, Darnell has tried a number of advertising vehicles to get the word out about his new laundry business – from radio spots and newspapers ads to a creating a Web site and distributing flyers by hand throughout his marketplace.

“I spent about $3,500 on radio advertising,” he said. “They created a 60-second commercial for Scotty D’s and Jolene’s Post, Pack & Ship. They did a great job with it. I’ve also made flyers and passed them out at the hotels around here. And word of mouth has been very strong, too.”

Darnell figured that the reason for the positive word of mouth is due in large part to his business’ clean, smoke-free, heated/air-conditioned environment.

“I’m by far the cleanest laundry,” said Darnell, whose store is open from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. “Something that I looked at whenever I was on the road was the cleanliness of the laundromat. Plus, everything in here is handicap-accessible. And I’ve got two great big restrooms.”

Scotty D’s also features a 32-inch television, along with snack and soda vending machines, for its customers’ comfort and convenience.

What Darnell would rather not offer his customers are toploading washers.

“I’ve got three toploaders,” he admitted. “You almost have to have them because there are people who just won’t use anything but toploaders. If it was up to me, I wouldn’t have them. I would just have the 20-pound frontloaders. But some people would walk right out if they didn’t see any toploaders.”

Clearly, Darnell understands that he’s going to need to capture a sizeable portion of the area’s drop-off laundry business to make a serious go of it in Uniontown. However, just as clearly, he’s not going to forget about the local, walk-in customers who so badly needed a first-class laundry facility like Scotty D’s.

“I’ve been taking care of the public all my life,” explained Darnell, who admitted that, if Scotty D’s is successful, he would consider expanding his laundry business to a second location. “I take someone’s important belongings, and I moving them clean across the country. And I have to be able to develop their confidence in me that I’m going to do a good job for them. What am I good at? I’m a good furniture man. That’s all I’ve ever done. I’m a good customer-service person. I know how to treat people.

“Being out on the road all my life and having to deal with eating in restaurants and doing my laundry in laundromats, I’ve learned that it’s not hard to make somebody happy. If you’ve had a rough day, it doesn’t take a whole lot to either turn you sour or turn up your smile. I’m good at that. I’m good at turning up the smiles.”

Equipment Mix

Scotty D’s Laundromat • Uniontown, Pa.

3 toploaders $1.50
3 Dexter 20-pound frontloaders $2.00
3 Dexter 30-pound frontloaders $3.00
2 Dexter 45-pound frontloaders $4.00
1 Dexter 80-pound frontloader $6.00
14 Dexter 30-pound stack dryers 25 cents for eight minutes
1 Dexter 55-pound dryer 50 cents to start; 25 cents for each additional four-minute cycle
1 NATCO water heater
1 Standard Change-Makers bill changer
8 R&B Wire Products laundry carts
5 Caco folding tables
Ceramic tile flooring
1 Vend-Rite Manufacturing soap vending machine 75 cents per box
1 soda vending machine
1 snack vending machine
1 32-inch television
Free coffee
Wash-Dry-Fold Service: $1 per pound

Distributor: Alco Washer Center, New Castle, Pa., (724) 658-8808

Soap City in Paterson, New Jersey

The Transformation: Forced Out of Business by the Home Improvement Retail Giants, New Jersey Hardware Store Owner Reinvents Himself as a Laundry Operator

In recent years, many have lamented the loss of countless small, family-operated businesses at the hands of today’s omnipresent big-box retail chains, which seem to be sprouting up on every corner in every town and city across the country.

Paterson, N.J., has been no exception.

But one Paterson businessperson who has refused to fade quietly away into the night is Ralph Carbonell.

Since 2001, Carbonell had been running the family-owned hardware store that his grandfather, also named Ralph, began in Paterson in 1985. However, in February of last year, the business took a major hit when Lowe’s opened a new location in town.

“The Lowe’s store that opened in Paterson was about 10 minutes from where we were at,” Carbonell explained. “At the same time, Home Depot submitted an application with the local planning board to build a store five minutes from us.

“I knew the Lowe’s was coming in about a year before it happened, so I started planning what we were going to do, because I knew it was going to be a blood bath.”

Carbonell was right.

“They opened in February 2007 and by April, we were down 50 percent,” he explained. “Thank God that I had already started planning.”

The plan included remaining in the same location that the Carbonell family had occupied since the mid-1980s – but letting the big-box giants slug it out over the Paterson hardware and home improvement market.

Instead, Carbonell would transform his hardware store – for which he owned the property – into a new business that was big-box bulletproof.

That business would be the new Soap City self-service laundry.

In fact, by the time Lowe’s began cutting into the family hardware business, Carbonell had already contacted a local distributor and was deep into planning his upcoming laundry venture.

“We quickly got everything approved by the city,” he explained. “And we started construction on the laundromat in July 2007.”

Why a laundry?

“We obviously had the property here,” he answered. “We had the 5,000-square-foot location, so it had to be something that was big enough to take up the whole place, but at the same time, not too big.”

Carbonell also was looking for a business without inventory requirements.

“I wanted a business where I didn’t have the headaches of the hardware store, which was constant inventory,” he explained. “It was crazy. You have to lay out so much money in the hardware business. I would have to have $300,000 to $400,000 in inventory, just waiting there for somebody to come in and buy. The laundry business, of course, is completely different.”

And as a young entrepreneur, Carbonell certainly wasn’t ready to just sit idly by and lease the retail space to someone else.

“At first, I was looking to rent it out,” he admitted. “But then I thought if I rent it, what am I going to do, be a landlord? That’s it? I can’t just sit back. With the hardware store, I always worked 60 to 70 hours a week.”

Soap City has certainly kept Carbonell busy, especially during the 10-month period leading up to the store’s grand opening – a nearly year-long construction phase, where his family hardware store was molded into today’s now-thriving, card-operated laundry.

Retrofitting the facility turned into a huge undertaking. The first step was slogging through all of the bureaucracy involved in repurposing the hardware store into a self-service laundry.

“Here in New Jersey, it’s so complicated because you have to go through so much red tape,” Carbonell noted. “For instance, we have sewer tap fees of $67,000. Mind you, they didn’t do anything. We are using the existing line.

“In a way, it hurts,” he added. “But it’s also a way to keep away some of the competition. It has to be a person with a lot of money who is willing to lay it on the table.”

Having jumped through all of the required municipal hoops, Carbonell was ready to begin the real work.

“The building is about 130 years old,” he explained. “It’s a solid building. It’s not going anywhere. We had to gut the whole place. As we started taking down the sheetrock and the drop ceiling, we began to realize how much work we had to do. We had originally planned on completing the renovation in six months, but then we saw how much work that was to do.”

First off, all of the store’s utilities needed to be upgraded to handle the demands of self-service laundry. In addition, Carbonell completely replaced the flooring, added a new roof to the facility, and installed granite countertops and windowsills throughout the laundry.

The building’s basement was another challenge. On one hand, it provided extra space for Carbonell to install his water heater, overflow tank and other utilities, without taking up valuable square footage upstairs where the money-making washers and dryers are located.

“If we didn’t have a basement, this would have been a 4,000-square-foot laundry, rather than a 5,000-square-foot one,” he said.

But, on the other hand, the presence of a basement required some extra retrofit considerations.

“The basement is only about 20 percent of the building,” Carbonell explained. “So we put all of the small machines in that area above the basement. Then we reinforced it with a concrete pad going all the way down. We also installed vibration columns at a 35-degree angle. These columns take away the vibration from the washers, and the ground absorbs it. If not, it would be shaking all over the place. If we had 24 machines all going at the same time on a wood floor, forget about it.”

All in all, the entire retrofit cost Carbonell in the ballpark of $1.2 million, including the laundry equipment. And, in April, Soap City opened for business – much to the delight of the neighborhood residents. With only a handful of laundries in the area, it was a service that Carbonell felt was sorely needed.

“Within a half-mile radius of the store, there are 5,700 apartments,” said Carbonell, who added that his clientele is evenly mixed between Hispanic and African-American customers. “And within a mile, we have 16,000. In fact, 82 percent of the residential space is renter-occupied.

“We’re on a busy street, with a 25,000 to 30,000 traffic count per day, yet there are not a lot of other businesses. It’s mainly residential. It really is in the middle of the neighborhood, which is good for the future of this laundry, because there is less of a chance of competition moving in.”

Also, having served the area and its residents for the last quarter century as a hardware store, the building is certain well-known in the neighborhood.

“It was a neighborhood hardware store for 25 years,” Carbonell said. “When people passed by and saw that it was under construction they were curious abut what was going on. So, six months before we ever opened, people knew that there was a laundromat going in.”

This has helped many of Soap City customers develop an almost instant loyalty to the new laundromat.

“I know almost everybody who comes here,” Carbonell said. “Because we had the hardware store there for so many years, my family is known within the neighborhood. A lot of the same people who went to the hardware store now go to the laundry. People like to come in and just talk to me. It’s not like going somewhere where you don’t know anyone.”

However, Carbonell is making sure Soap City also gets its share of new customers with regular advertising in the local, weekly newspaper, as well as an aggressive direct mail campaign to local residents.

“You can go crazy with advertising,” he said. “I just want to attract people around me. You can do a lot of cable TV spots and radio advertising, but for my particular market, I don’t need that. People watching or listening 10 miles away are not going to come to do their laundry in the middle of Paterson. My customers are within a mile of my store.”

And once customers are lured into Soap City, they’re hooked, according to the owner.

“The way we designed the store, it’s very open,” said Carbonell, who employs four attendants – two full-time and two part-time. “There are always laundry carts. There are always folding tables. And we have 123 machines.”

In addition, the 24-hour laundry features air conditioning, video games, a wide range of vended snacks, eight televisions, a massage chair, satellite radio, a large parking lot and same-day wash-dry-fold service.

The century-old building itself also helps Soap City tower above the crowd – with a higher than normal ceiling.

“We opened up the ceiling,” Carbonell explained. “We have 20-foot ceilings, which is crazy for a laundromat because of the utility costs. But I don’t care because it makes the store look double its size.

“We have all of the original beams, the trusses that hold up the roof. They are huge metal beams opened up and painted black. It costs us double to cool the store, but even when the store is crowded, the high ceiling provides a very open feel.”

And now that Carbonell has gotten his feet wet in the industry, a second self-service laundry is not out of the question. Of course, he’ll probably never find a building and location that fits his requirements and comfort level quite like the old hardware store that had been in the family for more than 20 years.

“I’ve been looking around,” he admitted. “The key is finding a location, and it’s difficult. Right now, you have to put up a store that’s at least 5,000 to 6,000 square feet. If you do anything smaller, forget it.”

Spring Clean Laundromat in Wichita, Kansas

Going Against the Grain: From Big Dryers to Wall-to-Wall Carpeting to Energy-Efficient Innovations, Kansas Mega-Store Owner Runs His Laundry His Way

Back in the mid-1970s, Perry Duncan was a diesel mechanic in Wichita, Kan., going to electronics school in the evenings – when a friend asked his opinion of a business idea. The plan was to purchase an existing coin laundry as a side venture.

“We took a look at it,” Duncan remembered. “I looked at all of the numbers with him and told him that it would work, but not at 18 percent interest, which was the case at the time. The interest rates needed to drop to about 12 percent, or it wasn’t going to fly.”

About a year later, interest rates did indeed take a tumble, but so did his friend’s interest in the laundry business. By this point, Duncan’s buddy was already contemplating a move to bigger and better things in Kansas City and urged his friend to purchase the old laundromat they had inspected.

Duncan took him up on it, borrowing $7,000 from his mother-in-law for the down payment on the store.

“I bought my first laundry in 1978,” he said. “It was a little junker that had old, used equipment. I worked four hours a night every night to keep things running and get it off the ground.”

Over the years, Duncan has bought and sold a number of coin laundries within the great Wichita area – at one point operating five stores.

“I ended up with five little ones,” he noted. “I was running myself ragged, trying to work full time. It was killing me.”

Today, Duncan, who still works full time – these days as a design engineer for the Boeing Company, has scaled back to just two self-service laundries. For the past six years, he has owned Derby Laundry, a 2,700-square-foot store in Derby, Kan. And, just last summer, he opened Spring Clean Laundromat, an 8,000-square-foot facility in Wichita, which he built from the ground up.

“I’d been looking at that piece of dirt for two or three years,” said Duncan, of the site where he eventually built Spring Clean. “There are several little laundries in the area, but I had a theory that little laundries are going to go by the wayside. I still do.”

And with 5,000 apartments within one mile of Duncan’s Spring Clean location, the area certainly can sustain such a large laundry.

“Right now, there are mostly apartment complexes around me,” explained Duncan, whose laundry boasts a 35-space parking lot. “I’m almost on the fringe of the city. When I originally found this site, there was supposed to be a beauty school on one side of me and a Dairy Queen on the other. However, once I got started with my project, they both dropped out. So, now I’m out here in the middle of a field. But I’m right on the street, and I’ve got about 20,000 cars a day going by. I’m very visible. It’s a nice building.”

Duncan, who advertises mainly in the Yellow Pages and through his store’s Web site, has three competing laundries within half-mile increments of Spring Clean, but they are all much smaller than his 8,000-square-foot showplace.

“My theory seems to be proving out correctly,” he said. “People are looking for something bigger. Why is Wal-Mart going to the super-store format? Laundromats are going to do the same thing. Bigger, better, cleaner, cooler – that’s what people want.”

And that’s what Duncan gave them.

The construction of Spring Clean Laundromat cost Duncan just over $1 million and took a year to complete. But, for Duncan, the extra effort was definitely worth it.

“I wanted to try some stuff with this store that, to the best of my knowledge, hadn’t been done before.”

One of those initiatives that Duncan had been mulling over was tying his air conditioning into his water heaters.

“I took some air conditioning courses a while back,” he explained. “Every time I talked to an air conditioning expert, I asked why we were dumping all of this heat into the atmosphere. I wanted to know if I could put it into the water, and they always said no – they never really gave me a reason why not.”

Duncan continued to study the topic, designing his own air conditioning system and even enlisting the help of Arkansas-based Hydro-Temp Corp. to help him complete the project.

“We came up with what boils down to a ground source heat pump,” he explained. “But, instead of having a ground source, I have my water tanks. So, I have 1,100 gallons of water, sitting in my tanks waiting to be used. It’s kind of a good news/bad news thing. As long as everybody in the laundry is using water, then the air conditioners have a cool water source to work off of.

“I’ve got 24 tons of air conditioning sitting there,” he added. “That’s a lot of BTUs being dumped into the water system. The heavier my customer load, the more water I use, which makes the air conditioners run that much more efficiently.”

The only potential problem with Duncan’s setup at Spring Clean is the fact that laundry customers simply aren’t using as much hot water as they used to, he observed. With today’s fabrics and laundering trends, more and more loads are being washed in cold water – occasionally leaving Duncan with too much hot water.

To alleviate this issue, he has installed another unit, which will cool his water tanks if they get too hot, pulling heat from the water and dumping the air behind the store’s dryers.

“I preheat the air to my dryers,” he said. “I don’t really waste anything to speak of. It lowers my gas bill for the water heater, and I’m able to get away with a single 199,000 BTU heater without any difficulty whatsoever.”

Another interesting aspect of Spring Clean’s design is the fact that, unlike many other self-service laundry’s, this store’s dryers do not vent up to the roof.

“If that’s not done right, you can end up with 42 roof leaks,” Duncan said. “Being as I was building from scratch, I moved my footing walls inward six feet and built another wall – and ran all of my dryer ducts down under the floor. They go around to the back of the building and come up in two single chases – going out the back of the building through louvers.

“It heats the floor under the dryers, so it helps the thermals for the dryers and makes for a nice warm environment. And, again, I’m not wasting anything.”

In addition, Duncan designed double-layer roofs for his laundry.

“My roofs are metal, and there are two layers to them,” he said. “All of the dryer air comes between the two roof lines, so I can preheat my air for the dryers that way. Nobody I know of has ever done that.”

Although Spring Clean has been open for only a year, Duncan’s energy-saving initiatives are already paying dividends.

“My gas bill is about 20 percent less than what I would normally see,” he said. “Overall, I’m keeping my utility rates below 25 percent of gross sales, whereas before I had been running about 28 percent to 32 percent.”

Further boosting that bottom line is the fact that Duncan tried to be the price leader in his marketplace – at least for washers.

“I don’t try to put anybody out of business,” he explained. “I try to figure out where they’re at price-wise, and then I just go in a quarter higher on the washers.”

The dryers are a different story: The entire store is equipped with 50-pound dryers – and only 50-pound dryers. And they vend for 25 cents for 10 minutes.

“If you poll your customers, it’s all about the dryers,” Duncan explained. “That’s the last thing on their mind as they leave the store. So, I buy 50-pounder. They’re not the most energy-efficient, but they get them in and get them out. My customers are happy when they leave, because the dryers dry in three quarters.

“A lot of owners have gone to eight, six and even four minutes, but I leave mine at 10. I figure I’m still making money on the dryers. I’m not making as much as I could, but I’m keeping my customers happy. And I make my money on the washers.”

Duncan also has set Spring Clean apart from the crowd in appearance by carpeting his coin laundry wall-to-wall.

“If somebody spills pop or soap on a tile floor and somebody falls, you get sued,” he argued. “With carpeting, it just soaks in. Carpeting makes the laundry much more comfortable, much more homey feeling. Plus, kids are less likely to get hurt on carpet. And I can steam clean the carpet a lot easier than I can mop the floor.”

Another rather unconventional practice Duncan has made work for his particular business is running this mega-store 24 hours – practically unattended.

“Employees cost roughly $70,000 to $80,000 a year here, and most of the time, I can’t generate more than $35,000 to $50,000 in drop-off business,” he reasoned. “So I can afford to get rid of the employees. And I learned that even with a carpeted, air-conditioned, 24-hour laundry with TVs and a playground for kids, it works quite well.”

Due to a city ordinance, Duncan is forced to have an employee on duty in his store from midnight to 6 a.m. Beyond that, he pays a part-time attendant for two hours of labor to come through his laundry at noon and then again at 6 p.m. and keep the place clean.

And with Spring Clean Laundromat running lean and profitable, Duncan has set his sights on a third coin laundry for next year – this one in the north Wichita area.

“If I wanted to go to Kansas City, the cost per square foot exceeds what you can afford to put into a laundromat,” he explained. “You’d end up with $5 toploaders trying to pay for it. But in the Wichita area, you can still buy things for reasonable prices. If you can get the real estate for a reasonable enough price, where you can still afford to build a big store, you’ve got it beat.”

Equipment Mix

Spring Clean Laundromat • Wichita, Kan.

42 Huebsch toploaders $1.50
7 Huebsch 30-pound frontloaders $3.00
14 Huebsch 60-pound frontloaders $5.00
43 Huebsch 50-pound dryers 25 cents for 10 minutes
2 Bradford White water heaters
2 Standard Change-Makers bill changers
20 R&B Wire Products laundry carts
20 Sol-O-Matic folding tables
12 Sol-O-Matic seating units
2 Vend-Rite Manufacturing soap vending machines
Carpeting throughout the store
2 soda vending machines
1 42-inch flat-screen television
2 37-inch flat-screen televisions
Children’s plastic playground equipment
12-foot aquarium
Free WiFi access

Distributor: Washer Specialties, Wichita, Kan., (800) 835-1010

American Laundrymat in Riverton,Wyoming

Managing a Vision… Securing a Legacy: A Wyoming Family Pulls Together to See Their Father’s Business Plan Become Reality

In 2006, David Hinkle’s dream of upgrading the family’s self-service laundry and drycleaning business was about to become a reality. In August of that year, he broke ground on what was to become a state-of-the-art, card-operated store – a 3,000-square-foot laundry showplace in Riverton, Wyo.

Tragically, Hinkle never saw his dream take shape, as his life was cut short by a plane crash while the store’s foundation was still being laid.

But his dream didn’t die on that fall night in 2006.

His children would never let that happen.

“I came home for a visit on the weekend before my dad passed away,” said his daughter, Sarah Hinkle, who was living in Cheyenne, Wyo., at the time. “He passed away on the following Wednesday evening, and I never left. All three of us kids went to work on Thursday – and that was that.”

Sarah’s grandfather, Joe Hinkle, began the family’s drycleaning and laundry enterprise in 1946, with a store called American Laundrymat and Drycleaning, located in Lander, Wyo., which is still open and run by the family to this day.

David Hinkle joined his father in the early 1970s, working in the family’s uniform rental business. And, by 1994, he had taken over the entire operation from his dad, eventually converting that store to a card system in the late 1990s and, over the years, adding a second American Laundrymat in Riverton, which is about 30 miles north of the original laundromat and drycleaning operation in Lander.

“Our Riverton store had been around for a long time, and it was in dire need of being either renovated or replaced,” Sarah Hinkle explained. “Instead of repairing it, my dad purchased a lot next to a Wal-Mart about 10 years ago and held onto that property until he could build a new Riverton location and close down the other store.

“When he passed away, the plans were already made,” she added. “Everything was set. However, it was just dirt, with a little bit of the foundation that had been started.”

Sarah’s brother, Jess, was already working for Eagle Uniforms, the same uniform rental operation where his dad got his start in the family business. And her younger brother, Cale, who had taken a year off from college to do some traveling, cut his plans short to take over where needed.

The first order of business was to finish the Riverton laundry.

“My dad did a beautiful job of planning this store,” Hinkle said. “He did a beautiful job of talking with the contractors. The biggest issues during the build-out phase were just minor construction hang-ups, and that was just because of the inexperience of me and the contractors. None of us had ever done a laundromat before.”

Perhaps the most interesting snag during the construction phase occurred one day when Hinkle and her district manager, Bobbie, pulled up to the Riverton site to see the building that would house their new laundry painted a bright pink.

Clearly, not what David Hinkle had in mind.

“The color my dad picked out was supposed to be a dark red brick color, and when we got there, it was the color of lipstick,” she laughed.

Despite a few hiccups, in August 2007, almost exactly one year after David Hinkle first broke ground on his Riverton dream project, American Laundrymat held its grand opening.

“Everything was laid out for us,” Sarah explained. “I made a few changes that I’m sure my dad would have made anyway, if he had been there at those points in the construction process.

“All in all, he is completely responsible for this store – it’s his layout, everything. I just picked out some paint colors and floor tiles. It is his vision and his legacy. I just followed through with the plans.”

American Laundrymat, which features about $325,000 worth of laundry equipment, according to Hinkle, is located in a three-storefront strip mall that the Hinkle family owes. They lease the other two retail spaces to a Verizon Wireless store and an Advance America cash advance business.

In addition, the store is located in the heart of Riverton’s newer business district, according to Hinkle. As a result, American Laundrymat is surrounded by other small retail operations, fast-food restaurants, gas stations, banks, car washes and a host of busy destination businesses.

“It helps that we are right next to Wal-Mart,” Hinkle added. “We mention that fact in every ad that we run. We’re blessed to be where we’re located.”

What’s more, based on the laundry’s location, the Hinkles have customized the business around the particular clients within that marketplace. For instance, the oil industry is huge and very active in and around Riverton.

“We get a lot of riggers who come in to wash their greasy work clothes,” Hinkle noted. “So we have specific washers and dryers designated for them. We have a whole wall of 45-pound dryers just for them.”

Moreover, the attendants at American Laundrymat will offer the oil workers a “secret mixture” created through trial and error over the years, which has proven near-miraculous in cutting through grease and oil stains.

“It’s top secret,” Hinkle laughed, refusing to give up the recipe despite extensive prodding.

Riverton, a community of about 10,000 people, is located just off the 2-million-acre Wind River Indian Reservation. Therefore, the vast majority of the laundry’s customer base consists of Native Americans from the Arapaho and Shoshone tribes who live on that reservation.

“We have a lot of Native American culture around us,” Hinkle explained. “And the remainder of our clientele are just your average small-town people, ranchers and farmers.”

To attract this diverse mix of customers, Hinkle has done a lot of newspaper and radio advertising. In addition, she recently purchased a package of television spots that will be airing in the near future.

Of course, Riverton’s original American Laundrymat, which was closed when the new store opened last August, had been around for many years. And, if one considers the first American Laundrymat location in Lander, the Hinkle family has been doing business in the region since 1946. As a result, word-of-mouth advertising also is very strong.

With a card system, Hinkle has the flexibility to run monthly specials, giveaways and other marketing promotions designed to drive customer traffic through the door.

“We give away a lot of stuff,” Hinkle said. “It’s just a matter of getting them in there to see the store and use the card – and then they’re happy.”

And the store’s customers have had very little trouble getting up to speed with the card technology, according to Hinkle.

“Teaching them is the key,” she said. “You need to make them feel comfortable and make it not a big deal. In fact, the people we thought would be the most resistant to it – the seniors – love it. There’s been no backlash at all. We’ll take them through the entire wash process the first time with their cards.”

With two competing coin laundries within two miles of American Laundrymat, the card system has proven to be a great advantage and a nice way to differentiate the business from the other stores.

The Hinkles have done so in other ways, too – including an eight- by eight-foot children’s play area, wireless Internet access, arcade games, flat-screen TVs, “football nights,” bingo, and discounts for the military, law enforcement officers and seniors. In addition, both stores offer drycleaning; the Riverton store features a drop-off service, with all of the production done in Lander.

“But the first thing,” clarified Hinkle, who employs four laundry attendants, “is that we want to offer a clean, quality store and first-rate customer service.

“We just do what we can daily to make it work and hope that it works out,” said Hinkle, who hinted that she and her brothers are already looking to take the American Laundrymat brand statewide and beyond in the near future. “Our biggest strength is that we all have each other and we have the staff that we have.

“I don’t think it’s us – it’s the team that we have… and the fact that we really would like not to fail.”

It’s clear that failure in not an option for these third-generation entrepreneurs. And it’s perhaps just as clear that it was David Hinkle who set his children up for success at a very early age.

“He was always teaching,” Sarah said. “It was a daily thing. He was very good about telling us that he believed in us and that he loved us. That’s the most important thing. He was a teacher.”

From the way they have managed his vision and secured his legacy, the inherent teacher within David Hinkle would clearly give his daughter and sons an A+ for American Laundrymat.

Equipment Mix

American Laundrymat – Riverton, Wyo.

18 Speed Queen toploaders $2
10 Speed Queen Horizon frontloaders $2.75
8 Speed Queen 40-pound frontloaders $4.25
6 Speed Queen 60-pound frontloaders $6.25
4 Speed Queen 80-pound frontloaders $8.25
15 Speed Queen 45-pound stack dryers $1.75
3 Speed Queen 75-pound dryers $2.25
5 Rinnai instantaneous water heaters
Netmaster Card System with ESD VTM machine
Custom solid-surface folding counter tops and bulkhead covers
White plastic chairs
Polished vinyl tile
1 Vend-Rite Manufacturing VendMaster 360 soap vending machine ($1 per box)
2 soda vending machines
1 snack vending machine
2 arcade-type games (pinball game, driving game)
3 32-inch flat-screen televisions, with satellite cable service
Wireless Internet service
Children’s play area: eight- by eight-foot area with colorful foam flooring, a children’s table and chairs, books, toys and a playhouse
Wash-dry-fold service: $1 per pound; 10-pound minimum
Drop-off drycleaning service

Distributor: Martin Ray Laundry Systems, Denver, Colo., (800) 279-6622

Liberty Laundry in Trenton, New Jersey

Changing Course: Former Drycleaner Makes a Profitable Transition to the Coin Laundry Industry

Edward Choi got his start in the drycleaning business in 1986, taking over the business his parents had started – and even opening up three additional drycleaning locations to complement the original store.

However, by the 1990s, between employee headaches and regulatory issues, Choi was looking for an alternative to the drycleaning gig.

His drycleaning businesses relied heavily on highly skilled labor.

“Employees have to run machines, spot and press, and have a good attitude over the counter,” Choi explained. “In the drycleaning business, there are some difficulties I was going through, managing the employees. It’s very labor intensive. It’s tough to get quality work.”

In turn, these workers also demand relatively high wages.

Other hurdles facing the drycleaning industry include increasing insurance premiums to help protect businesses from liability claims, as well as hikes in the cost of materials needed to run a drycleaning operation, such as hangers.

The cost of hangers used to be something that you didn’t really think about, but recently it has become a big factor,” Choi noted. “Hangers have gone up three times in price over last year.”

What’s more, the industry is turning to more environmentally friendly solvents, which according to Choi, work only with newer, more costly equipment.

“These factors push drycleaners’ profits down,” he said. “The drycleaning business has a lot of regulations coming in now.”

Not that Choi has to worry about that anymore.

In 2002, after years of planning his exit from the drycleaning business, Choi sold three of his drycleaning facilities to fund a new, more profitable business venture – a 4,000-square-foot self-service laundry.

Profitable, indeed.

In fact, in its second week open for business, Choi’s Liberty Laundromat, located in Trenton, N.J., met its six-month revenue goal. And since then, the store’s total monthly gross revenue has nearly doubled.

And, as with his start in the drycleaning business, Choi has his family to thank for his introduction to the coin laundry business as well.

“My uncle, who is in the real estate business, had opened up his own chain of coin laundries in a different part of New Jersey,” Choi related. “I had visited him, and at the time, I wasn’t even thinking about running coin laundries. This was in 2000. I saw one of his stores running and thought that this industry might be something for me.”

Choi did some further research into the business and immediately began looking for sites to accommodate his new business venture.

He eventually located an existing laundry for sale, which he thought was perfect for his plans.

“The first store was a small, 2,000-square-foot laundromat with very old equipment,” he explained. “The owner was retiring, so I was able to purchase the store at a good price. The previous operator owned the entire property, and I bought it from him.

“I knew that it was very under-equipped,” he added. “But I also knew it could be a great store. The location was perfect. The owner was retiring, so he didn’t necessarily see the potential there. I spend a lot of time looking at the commercial real estate market. I try to find very affordable, underserved markets in urban areas.”

With Liberty Laundromat, he uncovered a gem. The stand-alone building, which features 20 parking spaces, is located in a mainly Hispanic neighborhood. In fact, Choi estimated that about 65 percent of his customers are Hispanic, with another 15 percent being African-American and the reminder Caucasian. In addition, the area is overwhelmingly blue collar and teeming with apartment complexes and other rental units.

Furthermore, the laundry is surrounded by other small to mid-sized, high-traffic destination businesses, such as a grocery store, a pizzeria, a beauty salon and a brand new CVS drug store.

Although Choi found himself a coin laundry gem, it was truly a diamond in the rough.

“I started looking for coin laundry locations in 2000,” he said. “And it took me more than two years to get that first store opened. It was an interesting two years.”

Choi knew his store would need more room and new equipment. Basically, he had to gut the current laundry and start from scratch. However, first he had to slice through a mountain of red tape.

“Being naïve about bureaucratic matters, the approval process took almost a year and a half,” he explained, “while the construction took another eight months.”

The construction phase included expanding the facility by an additional 2,000 square feet, in essence doubling the size of the laundromat.

The entire project, not including the laundry equipment, ended up costing Choi approximately $400,000. However, the result was well worth it: a fully attended “flagship” laundry that also offers wash-dry-fold and (of course) drop-off drycleaning services, in addition to vended snack and beverage options, arcade-style video games, Internet access, four televisions and the latest high-efficiency laundry equipment.

“In the beginning, the store performed better than I had expected,” Choi said. “Until I opened up, I didn’t realize how my customers actually used their time in the laundry. I thought people would come once in a while to wash their clothes, but I found out that they come in quite regularly, once a week. I realized that the volume can be very constant. Initially, I thought the business would be more up and down, but I have found that it is constant. Annual sales are very constant, and that was a little bit surprising.

“As soon as I opened up the first one, I knew that this was a good location,” he added. “It actually did way more business than I expected the first year, so I was encouraged to look for a second location.”

Building a Chain

To ensure Liberty Laundromat’s long-term success, Choi quickly constructed his second store just a mile away, also in Trenton – and a third just 30 minutes away in nearby Pennsauken. N.J. The second store flanks the entrance of a major shopping center and boasts 3,500 square feet of space.

“The second location was actually a house,” explained Choi, whose coin laundries are open from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. “I bought the lot, knocked down the house, and built from the ground up. It was a corner lot. I received some good training when I opened up the first store, as far as going through the city and dealing with the officials there. So things went smoother.”

Choi’s second laundry was up and running about a year and a half after the first Liberty Laundromat opened its doors.

The third laundry is a whopping 6,500 square feet. And both of these additional locations serve as a safety shield to protect the first store’s market share. Like the first store, the second and third laundries feature the same services and a similar mix of laundry equipment.

“I chose the locations knowing there would be some overlap between the stores,” Choi says. “My strategy was to make sure no competition came within one mile of the first laundry.”

Not that Choi doesn’t face any competition.

“When I opened the first store, the reason I wanted this location was because there wasn’t much competition at the time,” explained Choi, whose only advertising is in the backs of the bulletins printed weekly by the local Catholic churches in the area. “Since then, I opened up my second store just a mile away. But two additional stores have opened within a mile of my stores.

“At the beginning, there was less-than-average competition. Right now, there is healthy competition.”

To keep his business’ bottom line just as healthy, Choi makes certain that Liberty Laundromat is bright, clean and inviting.

“I even did my own drawings for the store,” he noted. “I made sure there were enough windows to keep it bright, and I insisted on very bright, white ceramic tile on the floor. Even the design from the outside makes the store look much bigger than it is. I used the corner of the lot and that becomes a very differentiating element. Most of my competitors are located in shopping centers, or they have older buildings with design limitations.”

And by also offering wash-dry-fold and drop-off drycleaning services, Choi grew Liberty Laundromat’s gross revenue by 20 percent.

“In the beginning, I decided to keep one of my drycleaning stores in order to utilize drop-off drycleaning from the laundromat,” he explained.

That decision boosted the store’s business and, simultaneously, increased revenue by $2,400 per month at the drycleaning location – a win-win situation.

Today, Choi operates four self-service laundries – those first three New Jersey stores, which he owns outright, along with a fourth laundromat, which he leases and is based in a new shopping center in Philadelphia.

In addition, as of this writing, he was preparing to close on three more coin laundries in Trenton, Roselle and Asbury Park, N.J. And with a soon-to-be seven-store laundry chain, including an average of three attendants per store, Choi has brought his brother, Paul, into the business to help him manage the day-to-day operations.

Clearly, the Choi family has made a seamless (and relatively quick) transition from the drycleaning business to the self-service laundry industry.

“I sold the last drycleaning store last year to fund the additional coin laundries,” Choi said. “I don’t know that I would ever go back to drycleaning. However, if I can get enough drop-off drycleaning orders for each of my coin laundries, I might think about that. But, for now, a local drycleaner does that for me. Unless my total volume of drycleaning becomes substantial, I’ll probably keep it this way.”

Choi’s way seems to be working well so far.

Equipment Mix

Liberty Laundry • Trenton, N.J.

16 Continental Girbau 18-pound frontloaders $2.25
20 Continental Girbau 30-pound frontloaders $3.75
8 Continental Girbau 40-pound frontloaders $5.25
2 Continental Girbau 75-pound frontloaders $8.25
52 Continental Girbau 30-pound stack dryers seven minutes for 25 cents
1 Hamilton Engineering water heating system
2 Standard Change-Makers bill changers
20 R&B Wire Products laundry carts
10 Sol-O-Matic folding tables
Ceramic tile flooring
1 Vend-Rite Manufacturing soap vending machine 75 cents per box
1 soda vending machine
1 snack vending machine
3 arcade-style games
Internet access for laundry customers, $1 for 10 minutes
1 ATM unit
1 47-inch television
3 32-inch televisions
Wash-dry-fold service: $1.15 per pound; 10-pound minimum
Drop-off drycleaning service

Distributor: Wholesale Commercial Laundry Equipment NE, Hatboro, Pa., (800) 281-6878