Februarythe coin machine from Coin Op Laundry just after 6 a.m. Thursday. The burglar didn’t just take the coin machine: He took the money in the vending machine and all the snacks

February2020

Got News? [email protected]

BRAZEN DAY-TIME THEFT OF

CASH FROM LONG ISLAND LAUNDRY

MIDDLE ISLAND, Suffolk County, NY - Police are searching for the man who cleaned out the cash register at a Long Island laun-dromat. Video shows the man leaning over the coun-ter and opening the register inside the Middle Island Laundromat on Middle Country Road back on November 18 at 12:30 p.m.. It’s not clear how much cash he got away with. Suffolk County Crime Stoppers is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

MAN ROBS LAUN-DRY, FLEES IN

STOLEN VEHICLE, DROWNS IN RIVER

AFTER POLICE CHASE

YUBA CITY, CA - A burglar drove into the Feather River in Sutter County to avoid police and drowned Thursday, offi cials said. That was after he stole a truck and the coin machine from a laundromat, Yuba City police said. “He took the whole machine, with the whole building, out completely,” according to the laundry’s owner. Thousands of dollars worth of damage was done to the small business. However, the crime spree didn’t begin there. One witness said her home surveillance video showed a man stealing her husband’s work truck early Sunday morn-ing. “They obviously stole all the tools that he had,” she said.After fi ling a police report, the family waited to hear from detectives. That call came nearly a week later. “The vehicle was found and they tried to pull the vehicle over,” the witness said. According to her, police told the family their white pickup truck had been used to commit several crimes, including being used to steal the coin machine from Coin Op Laundry just after 6 a.m. Thursday. The burglar didn’t just take the coin machine: He took the money in the vending machine and all the snacks. Police said that several hours later, they got a call that the suspect was trying to open the

machine by using a vehicle on Wilbur Avenue. When police tried to stop him, they said the man sped away and eventually drove into the Feather River.The man then got out of the truck and swam to the riverbank, where he was confronted by offi cers. He refused to surrender to offi cers, went back into the river and drowned, police said. The Yuba City Fire Department water res-cue team had already arrived at the scene and pulled the man out of the river. He was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Your Monthly Video Link, Blues and rock guitar legend Rory Gallagher performing his song, “Laundromat.”

https://youtu.be/qp8iB9rraYE

COIN LAUNDRY NEWS • FEBRUARY, 20202

Published monthly. Mailed to laundry owners, vend suppliers, manufacturers, insurers, parts suppliers, repair technicians and distributors of laundry equipment.

The News neither endorses nor recommends any specifi c products or distributors.

By White Star Laundry, Inc. Publishing, which is solely responsible for all content. The publisher reserves the right of approval of all material and advertising.

Our street address is 28125 Bradley Rd Ste 250, Sun City, CA 92586-2248. Address for mailing is White Star Laun-dry, Inc., P.O. Box 2175, Sun City, CA 92586.

Advertising rate sheets are available on our website at www.clnews.net or can be mailed upon request.

Phone: (951) 219-7076 E-mail: [email protected]

Lionel J. Bogut – PublisherDavid C. Bogut – OperationsNancy Temple – Circulation &

Advertising Manager.

Closing date for each issue of the News is the fi rst working day of the month preceding the month of issue.

Happy Leap Year! Whether you like, or don’t like the extra day, we get one this year. I have often felt February is a transition month of sorts. We recover from the Holidays and get in gear in January, but we’re also still looking backwards just a bit. Often we have to wait right up until the very end of January or even into February before we have all of our tax documents gathered to take to our accountants or before settling in to do them ourselves. But then in many ways February is a truncated month, because we have the Presi-dent’s Day Holiday, or if we have kids of school age, they are in places off for a day on Lincoln’s AND Washington’s Birthdays. And of course there’s Valentine’s Day, or if you’re like me, it’s Pitchers-Catchers Report in Major League Baseball, and some of us start looking ahead pretty early for the Season to start. ☺ In our Industry, we need to start planning for Spring Sales Events and Service Schools, and of course, because we gathered everything the fi rst week of February for fi ling our taxes but didn’t, we can’t help but looking ahead to that April 15 fi ling deadline. Regardless of all of that, February is when we celebrate St Valentine’s Day, a day dedicated to love and romance and all of that, so speaking of love … Do you give your customers enough love? Sure, we know what they give us. Business! We do what we do to attract them, but are we doing enough to let them know they are appreciated? I’m just going to be blunt here. It’s too often too easy to view the people who come and go in our Laundries as pains in the _ss. Because we all have some customers who can be diffi cult. But people like to feel both welcomed and valued where they do business. Especially with something as personal as laundry. More on this topic inside. This month we’re also taking a reprised look at where the Internet, and all it has to offer, is taking us. On one hand, I personally think a lot of us have put too much faith in it, but then again I am old guy, so maybe I am not put-ting enough faith into it. I suppose like all things, there’s a balance there.

COIN LAUNDRY NEWS • FEBRUARY, 2020 3


What’s in it for me? Although you may not want to admit it out loud, the odds are you asked yourself that question before you opened your fi rst business. And again every time you expanded, or opened another laundry.

Of course every business person asks themselves that question. No one is going to build or buy a coin or card laundry sim-ply because they want the people near their business to have clean, fresh clothes. Sure, clean clothes are a good thing, but there’s no way around the fact that we all go into business to make money.

We also weigh other selfi sh interests. We’ll calculate what our return on investment will be, both from the monetary side of the equation, and the personal side. Will we have enough time to devote to our business AND our families? Is there a future in the task we are undertaking? Is there growth potential? Perhaps we may even consider whether or not our business venture can provide a steady job for that ne’er do well son-in-law of ours.

While none of these questions are wrong to ask, and in fact it’s essential that we ask them, when was the last time you stopped and gave some serious thought to an equally important

question: What’s in it for them? Your laundry’s customers?

Think about it from the same perspective you use when you evaluate products and ser-vices that you are willing to part with your

own hard earned money on.

You wouldn’t go and purchase a new car simply

because you want to help out the local Ford or Chevy dealer, because the sales-man had a great smile, or because you’re just looking to provide your city with a little extra sales tax rev-

enue.

No, you’ll go buy that car because you want and/or need one,

and you’ll do your research and fi gure out what will give you the most bang for your buck, and also what will best suit your per-sonal needs.

The same holds true for your customers. Of course your laundry’s customers want clean clothes, but that’s not all they are looking for.

It’s obvious that those who choose to wash and dry their clothes in your laundry want the best price they can get, but that is in no way limited strictly to your laundry’s vend prices.

“Of course every business person asks

themselves that question. No one is going to build or buy a coin or card laundry simply because they want the people near their busi-ness to have clean, fresh

clothes.”


Your laundry’s customers also want value for the money they spend, and value can mean many things besides out of pocket costs.

If you were going to handle something as personal as the chore of laundering your clothes at someone else’s place of business, think about what you’d want.

For starters, if you’re going to wash and dry your clothes (clean them) at some place other than at home, you’re going to want a clean place to do it in. A laundry that is dirty or messy doesn’t exactly inspire confi dence in what is essential a personal hygiene task. You and I may know that the machines will clean someone’s clothes the same whether or not the floor is dirty, and in fact your customers might even know that too on an intel-lectual level, but no matter the science, it won’t feel that way.

Now just as important as cleanliness, again thinking about what you would want if you were washing your own clothes in your own Laundromat, it’s a fairly sound bet you’d want a safe place to do your laundry. That means more than just a place that is safe, but also means one that feels safe. It’s doubtful that anyone wants to do their weekly wash in a laundry that is dirty, poorly lit, or has become a hang out for the less desirable elements. Would you?

Sometimes, this can put your immediate cash fl ow and the overall reputation of your laundry on a collision course. We’ve seen plenty of card and coin laundries where the owner, for example, chose to remove a certain percentage of the store’s fl uorescent lighting tubes to cut energy costs. While that might indeed save a few dollars every month on a util-ity bill, if taken too far, the resultant dark and

dingy store may start to loose customers.

Clearly, a clean, bright, well lit place feels safer and is safer. And political correctness aside, women still do more laundry than men, and are more likely to have kids with them when they do it. So a laundry that is clean and well maintained makes even more sense. So ask yourself, “Is my laundry a place where someone would feel safe bringing their kids,” because the moms who might do their laundry in your store will ask themselves that question

for sure.

Keeping your equipment well maintained is another

issue. While nothing is more frustrating for a laundry owner than someone who chooses to take their own frustration out on a machine

and vandalizes a piece of equipment that has taken their

money and not returned what they paid for, it’s far better for both parties

when everything is kept in working order. Of course clearly worded and well placed signs instructing clients what to do when a machine they’ve fed fails are an excellent idea, but an even better idea is to do what you can to keep everything running in the fi rst place.

In this same area, of course it’s aggravat-ing for you to have a machine fail, but try putting yourself in your customer’s shoes when a machine they specifi cally came to your laundry to use is out of order. Perhaps you have several top loaders, but only one or two large washer-extractors. No doubt you have a few regular customers who come to your place of business specifi cally for those machines. Perhaps so they can do the family’s entire weekly wash in one or two cycles, or maybe just to wash a large bed comforter.

They haul everything from their car into your business, only to fi nd that particular

“Your laundry’s cus-tomers also want value

for the money they spend, and value can mean many things besides out of pock-

et costs.”


machine is out of order. While of course this is just part of every day life, customers can be fi ckle. And if they’re in a bad mood, this just might become the time they decide to try your competitor a few blocks away. This will of course be worse for a laundry that has frequent equipment outages and seems to take a long time in getting broken appliances back on line.

So make sure you keep your machines well maintained and repaired promptly when needed. And be sure to check and refund promptly to those customers who have encountered a legitimate problem.

But really it all boils down to is this; ask yourself, “What’s in it for them,” your custom-ers, as you go about the daily task of running your laundry, and you can probably answer that question by also asking yourself, “Would I do my laundry here?”


Huebsch gives machines a more

modern look[Ripon, Wis., January 14 2020] Huebsch commercial laundry equipment continues its commitment to help laundromat owners differentiate their stores with the launch of new-look aesthetics. The product updates will impact cabinet hardmount washer-extractors and tumble dryers (stacks and singles). “Vended laundry customers increasingly expect laundromats to have a clean profes-sional look,” said Kathryn Q. Rowen general manager of the laundromat segment for Alli-ance Laundry Systems. “With the aesthetic changes, Huebsch continues to offer owners products that meet or exceed their customers’ expectations.” Huebsch washer-extractors will feature embossed front panels, a recessed control panel and refreshed-look control overlays. Single and stack tumble dryers boast ergonomic door handles, as well as fastener-less fronts and sleek lint drawers that combine for a far cleaner look to customers. To learn more about Huebsch, its new aesthetics or its industry changing technology,

Huebsch Command, visit huebsch.com or call 1-800-553-5120. About Huebsch: Since 1907, Huebsch has manufactured durable commercial laundry equipment engineered for effi ciency, reliability and optimal performance. Commercial laundry is our only focus and we back our equipment with an industry-leading warranty. Through-out our decades in the commercial laundry business we have continually innovated. We now produce some of the most effi cient and cost-effective washers and tumble dryers in the world. Our equipment is supported by a network of knowledgeable distributors and service professionals. Our customers further benefit from an extensive set of financing options provided by Huebsch Financial. Hueb-sch is part of the Alliance Laundry Systems LLC family of brands. Alliance is the leading global manufacturer of commercial laundry equipment and provider of services to laundro-mats, multi-housing laundries and on-premises laundries. To learn more about Huebsch, visit Huebsch.com.

8 COIN LAUNDRY NEWS • FEBRUARY, 2020

Editor’s Note: This is a long article and will run over several months. We will try to break the parts up logically, but that will not always be possible due to its length and the available space every month. Enjoy!

A wise old philosopher once said that there is a fi ne line between love and hate. I don’t know about that. I’ll leave those issues for Socrates or Plato to resolve. (That’s Plato, the philosopher, not to be confused with Pluto, Mickey Mouse’s dog)

That’s okay — Socrates doesn’t know anything about laundries, nor does Plato. (Nor, for that matter, does Pluto). I, on the other hand, do.

And, I can tell you from experience that there is a fi ne line between a “fi xer” and a “junker.”

In my title I chose to use the word “disguised” because it is not always easy to distinguish one from the other.

A fi xer represents an opportunity to invest in a business that has the potential to be trans-formed into a profi table and reliable source of income, while a junker has the potential to be transformed into someone else’s nightmare.

When deciding if a laundry is a fi xer or a junker, there is no room for error, the reason being, when you buy any laundry, you’ve made an inescapable long-term commitment. You have typi-cally signed a long lease, usually fi fteen to twenty years or more, and under no circumstances can you just walk away from the commitment if you’ve made an error in judgment and the laundry doesn’t survive. A laundry is not like other service or retail businesses with leases of one or two years, and in the event of failure, you can just sell your inventory, take the loss and go home. Not so with laundries.

BEWARE OF A “JUNKER” DISGUISED AS A “FIXER”

HOW TO TELL THE DIFFERENCE

By PHIL MOSESCoin Laundry Broker, Consultant & Expert Witness

Part One --The Basics

9COIN LAUNDRY NEWS • FEBRUARY, 2020

That said, however, keep in mind that the information in this article is not meant to make decisions for you. It is designed to provide a comparison of the two alternatives to help you achieve an accurate analysis that heavily favors one over the other — a “fi xer” or a “junker?” Some of the following principles are for the benefi t of the buyer, some benefi t the seller, while others benefi t both the buyer and the seller. I offer these principles as “Painful Lessons” and “Money-Makers” because I’ve learned some of them the hard way — by making painful mistakes. Hopefully, this article will spare you the anguish of trial and error and other such obstacles.

The entries are random, in no particular order.

Painful Lesson No. 1 — Leases and Landlords

In the event of a laundry failure, you are likely to discover that the pleasant, friendly land-lord that you thought was easy to get along with, in reality, has sharp teeth, long claws, an overwhelming love of money, and the world’s nastiest attorney. This is what I meant when I mentioned someone’s “nightmare.”

Painful Lesson No. 2 — The Amount Invested Means Nothing

The amount of money an owner has invested in the “fi xer” is meaningless. The fair market value is determined by net income alone, nothing more.

Painful Lesson No. 3 — Income vs. Potential

Prospective buyers and investors will buy a laundry that has potential, but they will not pay for potential alone. They will only pay for the laundry’s current performance. In other words, they will only pay for profi t alone.

Painful Lesson No. 4 — Say Goodbye to (Most) Tax Benefi ts

The days of buying a laundry mainly for the tax benefi ts are all but over. Until the government eliminated the investment tax credit, it was not unusual for investors to pay a little more for a promising fi xer to take advantage of the tax benefi ts. Laundries are not completely without tax benefi ts (but it’s close).

Painful Lesson No. 5 — Seasonal Fluctuations

The laundry business is subject to seasonal fl uctuations. Cold and wet is good. Warm and dry is bad. Therefore, time the completion of the remodel to occur in October or November, just in time to enjoy the strongest revenue fl uctuations of the year.


Painful Lesson No. 6 — The Importance of Timing

If your laundry purchase is being handled through escrow, time the closing to take place in May or June. This will result in the remodel taking place during the slower and weaker months, thereby minimizing the loss of revenue during the remodel. This timing also works well with the timing of No. 5 above, having your Grand Opening taking place just in time for the strongest months of October through March or April.

Painful Lesson No. 7 — Revenue Stops - Bills Don’t

With regards to No. 5 and No. 6 above, it’s going to take at least six months to a year for the revenue to peak and stabilize, which means you will have little or no revenue coming in, depend-ing on whether you are partially closed or completely closed for business during the remodel. Unfortunately, your expenses continue, uninterrupted.

What does all of this mean? It means you had better have some back-up capital to tide you over until your revenue stream materializes. It means that you can’t go into a laundry purchase “on a shoestring” so to speak.

It means you never want to fi nance 100% of a laundry purchase or a complete remodel. (Later I will have more information and advice on 100% fi nancing.)

Painful Lesson No. 8 — Investigate Seasonal Fluctuations

Conduct some investigative research to fi nd out if, when, and how much of a drop occurs in revenue during the slower seasons? Confi rm that you can survive the weaker months, including a drop in revenue. This is much easier than it sounds. You can contact laundry people who work in the industry, such as repair techs, vending and supply companies, local laundry equipment manufacturers and distributors, local laundry owners, etc. This will give you an accurate and very helpful bit of information that is vital in the timing of your business plan, as described above.

Painful Lesson No. 9 — Swing for the Fences - a Homerun or Nothing

Never settle for a short lease on the assumption that the landlord will renew, extend or sign a new lease at the termination of the existing lease. Between the laundry purchase and the remodel, you are going to have some serious cash invested in this venture. It is critical that you resolve the lease issue at the beginning of the deal, before it is in progress, and get a writ-ten agreement to establish a long-term lease before you purchase the fi xer and start spending money on the remodel.

What do I mean by a “long-term lease?” If the subject laundry has as much potential as you believe it has, you must have a lease of at least 20 to 25 years, especially if you have seven to ten-year fi nancing. It is when you own the laundry free and clear that the entire venture


pays off and truly becomes a “cash cow.” If you wait until closer to the end of the lease, and the landlord sees that you are doing well, he will use this information as leverage to sign a new lease as the termination of the existing lease approaches, and you can be sure that a lease negotiated in advance will have a far more reasonable rent than at the termination, when the landlord knows you’re making a good profi t. Why? Remember… you, as the tenant, need him. He, as the landlord doesn’t need you. A landlord can fi nd tenants easier than a laundry owner can fi nd a laundry to replace the profi t, if he loses his lease.

Painful Lesson No. 10 — Don’t Swing at High Fastballs! (or was it fast highballs? I don’t remember)

Anyway, when I was young (at least a century ago) I played baseball. As a batter, I loved high pitches. I swung at every one of them. Unfortunately, I couldn’t hit high pitches. That’s why I no longer play baseball (that and the fact that I’ve grown old). What does any of this have to do with laundries? Nothing. I just don’t want you to fall for the same trap when considering the purchase of a coin or card laundry.

In sales, there is a practice called “highballing.” That’s when a salesperson falsely infl ates the price of something in order to get the buyer to succumb to a sales pitch.

This concept is frequently used to deceive a prospective buyer in coin laundry brokerage and the purchase of a coin or card laundry. When you ask the seller or the agent the laundry’s gross revenue, they give you the highest month it ever achieved in its history, rather than to give you the current annual average. I’ve seen this attempted far too many times, and I am dedicated to making sure that my laundry buyers never fall into the same trap.

This deception is also commonly found in the matter of lease terms and conditions. The seller or the agent describes the lease term and other terms and conditions, only to discover after the buyer takes possession that the lease is signifi cantly different than represented. Since the lease is the lifeblood of the business, this is a tragic mistake. It is very common for commercial leases to contain subtle, obscured obligations to the detriment of the tenant. If you don’t feel comfortable relying on yourself, take the lease to an attorney. It’s a good investment.

Painful Lesson No. 11 - Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Compliance

The ADA is a law that is all but ignored in the coin and card laundry industry. The law states that all businesses must comply with adequate facilities for handicapped customers. It involves signifi cant, sometimes major, construction requirements and other physical improvements for those with disabilities. Non-compliance can and has been known to involve lawsuits against companies that ignore this obligation.

Landlords typically ignore ADA compliance, or they push it off to tenants in the form of triple-net-charges. Laundry sellers are not fully aware of the ADA law, or they ignore it altogether. This can be a painful and costly mistake.

Continued on Page 28



Duct tape. One of the most versatile items ever invented. There are those who will claim (only slightly exaggerating) that duct tape can be used to fi x almost anything. And anyone who has ever watched the hit cable show “Myth Busters” has seen duct tape used for everything from stopping bullets, to building a suspension bridge strong enough for a full grown man to walk across.

Unfortunately, too many people, and that includes too many small business owners (large businesses and corporations too, actu-ally) see the Internet much the way people see

In spite of what many people might have you believe, neither duct tape, or the Internet, can fi x everything.

duct tape, as something that can cover almost everything towards building and marketing their business. And while the Internet has truly revolutionized the world of business and marketing, it can’t fi x everything.

We in the coin and card laundry business are a relatively small, and somewhat niche type of business compared to giant retailers like Amazon.com or the Apple Store. Someone selling blue jeans has a much larger target audience, a much larger potential client base, than someone selling the washing of those blue jeans somewhere other than at home or in the laundry room of their apartment complex. In other words, almost everyone owns a pair of blue jeans, but it’s a much smaller number of people who need to actively go out and seek some place (other than home) to wash them. But before we can really delve into where the Internet can bring in new business for you, we need to stop and take a look a look at how potential customers might fi nd your laundry, and decide to wash and dry clothes there, out-side of the World Wide Web.

Let’s start with a simple hypothetical (but very realistic) scenario. Someone who has their own washer and dryer at home has heard about a new Mexican restaurant, and this little can-tina happens to be two doors down from your laundry. But this particular person isn’t even looking for a Laundromat. They’re looking for this Mexican restaurant they’ve heard about from friends, and they end up in the shopping center where both you and this restaurant are.

It is only by fate they see your storefront as well. But you’re a smart operator, and you have signage in your front window that clearly states (and is easily read from the parking lot) that you have large capacity washers and dryers. On their way in to that nice little eatery next

Editor’s Note: Things have changed quite a bit since we originally published this article in 2015. Or have they? The ability of digital marketing fi rms to target in the most focused of ways is truly amazing. One expert who works for a digital marketing fi rm recently explained to me that they have the capability of targeting a specifi c block, or building. If you specifi cally want to reach everyone who works at a tire factory in Akron, Ohio, you can literally gear things so that your specifi c ad pops up on their social media feed when they are at their plant. Might be great if you own a pizza joint across the way. This is, however, not a perfect system. Much like the junk mail you get in your mail box at home (or work) or the spam that hits your E-mail in spite of your best efforts and use of spam fi lters, saturation leads most people to tune out. So even though the methods of fi nding, tracking, and advertising to potential cus-tomers have advanced further from even where they were when we fi rst ran this piece, we stand by the the basic premise, and the overall argument that as great as it is, the digital world still has gaps, and the old ways still carry some merit. If they didn’t, you wouldn’t be reading this.


door, they see that sign, and make a mental note, because occasionally they have items like sleeping bags and throw rugs they’d like to launder. Those things they can’t do in their small machines at home, and you are going to end up with a new cus-tomer, maybe more than one, when they tell their friends who might occa-sionally have the same need for more heavy duty machines than they have at home.

Now here’s the real point. There is no way the Internet would have brought you that business directly, because that new customer wasn’t looking for a laundry at all. They quite literally tripped over you on their way to somewhere else.

You see, the Internet is so smart, that in some cases it’s almost too smart. It is trained to look at what people do, and then target them

for specifi c things that they are likely custom-ers for, based on what they do on-line.

A few months ago, I was poking around Amazon.com looking for a new wallet, and

decided to take a look at RFID blocking wallets. The next morning, I hap-pened to be on a popular social media website, and what should pop up right on the page? The exact same RFID blocking wallet I had viewed the afternoon before on Amazon. It was both fascinating, and a bit frightening.

However, that same weekend I was in Tar-get, and because I just happened to walk down a particular aisle by mistake while headed to a different section of the store, I walked right past the kitchen-wares, and suddenly remembered I had been wanting to buy a pair of those heavy duty cooking shears. And there they were.

Now, I had never looked up cooking shears on line, so the Internet didn’t know to market cooking shears to me. But thanks to a happen-stance turn down an aisle in a giant retail store, that giant retail store had something I needed, and made a little money off of my need.

The point here is not to suggest the Internet isn’t a valuable marketing tool, it’s to suggest that you not fall into the trap of thinking it can make up for shortcomings in your other marketing efforts, or that just because it’s made billionaires out of Silicon Valley kids, it’s going to make your card or coin laundry king of the hill too.

Let’s take a look at this from the other side of the fence for a minute, and examine how someone who makes the equipment you need to operate your business reaches you.

Information that should be posted on your Laundry’s website AND your store-front (when and wherever possible.)

Your hours of operation. ●Fluff & Fold Services (if you offer them.) ●Any Special Equipment such as large ●capacity machines, etc.WiFi Access (Again, if you offer it) ●Your Laundry’s Phone Number. ●Special Promotions, Discount Days, etc. ●Other Amenities (TV, Video Games, Cof- ●fee & Donuts, etc.)

Website Only:Your address and directions to your ●Laundry.

On your storefront:Your Laundry’s website address ●


As a busy small business owner operating a coin or card laundry, you no doubt use the Internet for many, many things in your daily life. Many of those things probably have little to do with shopping for new equipment. At least not on a regular basis. Odds are you are using the World Wide Web for things like banking, check-ing your kid’s grades and homework assignments, e-mailing your friends, laughing at funny cat pic-tures on social media, and perhaps looking to buy your own new pair of blue jeans. NONE OF WHICH helps the Internet help the washer, bill changer, or cart manufacturer fi nd you. In fact, they are only likely to fi nd you if you’ve sought them out fi rst.

Yes, they still have an obligation to have a well designed website so that when you do seek them out, you can quickly get the information you need. But if you think about it, most of the things you buy to run your laundry, you found through the diligent efforts and attention of your favorite, local equipment distributor, or thumbing through the pages of Coin Laundry News.

Another point to consider: the type of infor-mation we all come across over time has an impact on our buying decisions, and as valuable as direct marketing to a specifi c target market is, you can not make the mistake of underesti-mating the value of incidental marketing. You might see that Ad on TV for the “Hurry Cane” over and over until you are sick of it. You don’t need a cane and are thinking the only possible use you could have for one would be to beat the person over the head who made that annoying commercial. But then suddenly you have a minor injury, and do in fact have the need for some type of cane for a while, and what will be the fi rst product that pops into your head?

Well, all of these same principles apply to you and your laundry, and to how and why people may decide to walk through your doors. Yes, someone new moving into your area

is very likely to look for a Laundromat, and these days you absolutely need to have a website so those people will fi nd you, and know what you have to offer.

But for an example, there are actually two coin laundries literally within walking distance of the Coin Laundry News

offi ces. How will someone new to this area decide which one to use? If they rely solely on the Internet, will they be able to tell the two of them apart in a signifi cant way? The truth is, the odds are good they will fi nd both, and investigate both in person before making a decision on which to try fi rst.

In this real world example, one is better lit and has a much neater appearance. It also has more parking, and closer parking. Plus it has a nice little restaurant right next door, where a customer could grab a bite to eat or a cup of coffee. Yet none of that is apparent, nor would it likely be, from viewing web pages for either alone.

In the real world, we know what a wonder-ful invention duct tape was, and I am willing to bet most of us have found a few, perhaps many uses for this handy little product that go far beyond it’s original inventor’s intentions. And of course, we know the same thing is true of the Internet. But neither duct tape, or the Internet will ever be able to replace all the other proven products and methods we small business own-ers have been relying on for years.


The new wall hung heaters are claiming to be more effi cient and easier to install, but they are not the systems found in most of the existing laundries. The older ones have a more traditional make up.

Most water heating systems consist of one or more heaters, a hot water storage tank and a recir-culating system. For safety, there are thermocouples, safety thermostats and “pop off” valves on the tanks.

One of the most unpleasant surprises a laundry owner receives is when his otherwise dependable water heater system goes down. Not only can it cost an operator lots of money to repair or replace items lost to time and wear, but it can cost a loss of their business’ income as well.

Some of the potential for loss can be reduced or even delayed for a long time by a timely preventative maintenance schedule designed to keep the system working.

The things that seem to draw the most

visits from repair p e r s o n n e l a r e thermocouples for the water heat-

ers, recirculating pumps and the motors

for the pumps.

In the case of the thermocouples (a small metal probe that senses when the pilot light is burning),

they are so inexpensive that many coin laun-dry operators keep an extra on hand in case of a breakdown. This way they can be down for hours, not days or weeks. Once you have seen it done, it’s the kind of job operators can do for themselves.


Pumps for most hot water systems are of a standard two inch variety. Recirculating pumps are usually part of an older heating system. Their jtob is to push the hot water to the end of the system and return it to the tank and heater thereby maintaining the avail-ability of suffi cient hot water to the furthest machines.

Pumps can last for years, if they are main-tained regularly. Most will have an oil cap that can be fl ipped up to allow periodic lubrication. Still, it is only a matter of time until something goes wrong with pump motors or with the recirculating pump itself.

When the pump is installed in the pipes of the recirculating system, it is metal on metal, which is an invitation to water leaks. At that point a cork or composition gasket is placed to squeeze the metal to metal opening and prevent leaking. This too will weaken and can break down over time.

When the gasket material breaks down there will be a leak. These leaks will usually be small at fi rst and are hardly noticeable, unless you are expecting and looking for such leaks. As they grow, they can become more costly.

Gasket materials are not expensive and usually are available quickly at plumbing supply outlets. Still, it is wise to keep a sheet of the right kind of gasket material on hand to save travel time to and fro just to replace it. When you need it and have the material on hand, your system is down for just a few hours, not days.

Pumps run continuously during business hours and have been known to last 30 years or more, if properly cared for. For laundry

operators, the pump is the heart of their laundry business. When it’s down, you’re down.

Proper maintenance con-sists fi rst of doing regular checks for leaks, then lubri-cating the pump and it’s motor on a scheduled basis. Check once each month or so.

When the pump or its motor starts to go, there is a change in the sound they make at work. When you suspect they are on the way out, order replacements while they are still work-ing. It will have to be done sooner or later anyway, so it doesn’t cost more now

than it would in an emergency. Then, at a time most suitable for you and your business, you exchange the old one with the new. It’s quick and neat and there’s little or no loss of income.

There are laundry operators who will rebuild the pump they have removed so as to have another on hand for the next failure. That takes a lot of skill and patience, but to many it’s worth it.

When checking hot water systems, look to see that the storage tank’s pop off valve moves freely, and isn’t stuck. Thermostats can be checked by using a thermometer to verify they are providing the right temperatures. If thermostats or pop off valves go, they are usu-ally available locally, and easily replaced.




Too often in this industry, laundry owners will hire a brand new attendant, give them a brief oral outline of their duties and then leave them alone to work their shift. There is seldom real training, no time to interact and thereby little hope of getting things right. Over time, the more intelligent ones can become profi cient at handling customers and doing fl uff & fold orders that come in.

However, without training and incentives, usually the more intelligent ones leave to fi nd a better job. That means the laundry operator must spend his or her time hiring another attendant, who they also don’t train and lose in a month or two. It’s a vicious cycle.

Experienced fl uff & fold entrepreneurs avoid all that employee turn over by thor-ough training and by offering incentives and goals for their attendants to reach. Those who reach and exceed their goals are usually offered something extra as way of saying thanks.

Where can good attendants be found? Try looking close to home.

A really good way to fi nd laundry attendants is to post a job notice on your laundry’s bul-letin board. Among your customers you will fi nd a number of mature women familiar with your laundry. They know the people who come there and already know how to do laundry. Select ones that are personable and outgoing.

Most of these women are homemakers who have already raised their family, and are looking for something to do. Most instinc-tively realize the skills they needed to use at home work perfectly for laundry attendants. They might feel uncomfortable at having to compete for a job in an offi ce or retail setting but they are confi dent that their skills make a coin or card op laundry perfect for them. And, after they understand the job and receive some basic training, they can really help you grow your business.


If your own bulletin board doesn’t provide you with the right mix of applicants, try using a kind of publication that people who have time on their hands might read, such as a local shopper or Penny Saver. The ads are cheap and can be quite effective seeking new hires.

Exactly what kind of training will they need?

First, it is very important that they know how necessary for the success of the business your customers really are. Attendants need to know that they are to treat customers with friendliness, respect and courtesy while they are at your laundry. This is true for those who do their own wash as well as for the fluff & fold client. A hello with a smile, being helpful, courteous and saying thank you goes a long way to keep-ing laundry customers happy.

H a v i n g p o l i t e , pleasant and knowl-edgeable attendants is the best line of defense against future laundry business failure.

Prepare a list of what you want to have your attendants do, and give them a schedule of times to do it. Review the list with them and then post that list where attendants can check it during every shift. It doesn’t take all that long to write up a list of those duties before you engage their services. After you hire them it doesn’t take much of your personal time to check, then recheck that those duties are being done the way you want things done.

Employees are always much more effi cient and content when they know what is expected of them and have a list of duties to follow. They are also happier when the boss takes the time to let them know they are doing a good job.

Keeping employees happy is an art, and most operators can master the ways of keep-ing them happy by simply saying thank you for the job they do and also by offering them compensation that is appropriate for the job that they are doing.

What should attendant’s list of duties include?

The list should cover what they are to do and when it is to be done, along with a brief outline of how to do it. If the duties are related only to caring for the laundry it’s one thing. If they are doing customer bun-dles, it’s another.

For example, you want them to wipe down the machine tops twice during each shift. You should first show them how you want it done by going to the machine and showing them how to do it. One rag to wash and use a second one to dry. Then follow it up by periodically inspecting the tops to see that they look as if the work is being done.

If attendant responsibilities include tak-ing in and fi nishing customer bundles, they will need to learn how to weigh, price and record the orders the way you want it done. They will have to be shown how to record each


order so that you are able to follow that order, know when it came in, when it is fi nished and when it goes out.

Fluff & fold record keeping is vital and the laundry owner needs to spell everything out carefully, step by step, and then physically show employees exactly how and why each activity in processing customer orders is to be done.

There are several good reasons for keeping records honestly and accurately. Perhaps the most important reason is that it helps keep e m p l o y e e s honest. With t h e c o r r e c t record keep-ing system, it’s more difficult for people to rip off a few bucks here and a few dollars there, because they could get caught.

The attendant train-ing program for your laundry should include telling them how the records can be checked and hanky panky quickly found. Expect honesty and with regular checking, your expectations will be met.

How much individual pay out authority should a staff of attendants be given?

To customers, an attendant is the laundry and laundry users expect quick and cheerful refunds if there are problems. So, give your workers the right to refund within certain limits and with the right paperwork to back it up. That paperwork should include the time

of day, a description of the problem, the loca-tion of the malfunctioning machine and the amount of money paid out to the customer.

Carefully review every refund event so that you can show your employees how to check the machine at the time complaints are made. You want them to offer the use of another machine rather than hand back cash.

It’s important that you have each cus-tomer cash exchange recorded, whether it’s paid in or paid out. If there are coins put

into a second machine to satisfy a customer complaint, it should be

written down by the attendant so that it can be verifi ed as part of your

“ k e e p t h e m honest” pro -gram. When you check records, look for pat-

terns where one employee might be stretching their authority

limits.

Many laundry operators issue the people who work for them a fund of quarters to use as a cash source for both making refunds and for using in the machines to do customer orders for fl uff & fold. This fund can be given to the attendants either monthly or weekly. It is to be accounted for by the employees and then restocked. Some operators just keep a can of quarters available for use by attendants to do customer bundles.

Less trusting owners take the trouble to color quarters so the coins can be identifi ed as to which employee used it in the coin


drops. This helps owners identify activity by individual workers, and when it comes time to restock their coin account, helps balance the coins in and coins out totals.

In card operated facilities, owners just have to issue the workers a card to use. Settling up is done on a scheduled basis using the cash balance left on the card. For either cash or card, employees must balance up against the writ-ten paperwork they have completed.

Whether it is done with coins or cards, it is the clear responsibility of the laundry owner to make it easy for his or her employees to stay honest. This is especially true in the handling of the small amounts of cash used to make refunds.

It would be too easy for an employee to justify taking small amounts if they are not required to make an accounting and/or writ-ten report of their handing of the laundry’s funds.

There are many variations of the duties for which attendants may become respon-sible.

They take care of fl uff & fold and drop off dry cleaning orders, plus handle customer relations. They also are regularly charged

with the responsibility for opening and clos-ing of the business, doing janitorial work such as light cleaning and take care of some minor maintenance.

Attendant is a single employee title, but with a huge vari-ety of things they do, it’s a title that doesn’t say it all.

With all that stuff on an attendant’s plate, perhaps the owner’s obligation and need for train-ing and supervision i s more under -standable. Each of the activities above may seem easy to an experienced opera-tor, or employee, but can seem quite complicated to a newly hired worker. T r a i n i n g t h e m makes sense.

There is no doubt that the training of

new hires is critical to a laundry operator, and for that matter to the employee. If no training is done, the worker will feel the job isn’t that important to the boss. We know the job is important .

The economics make a great deal of sense as well. The better trained person makes more right decisions and that keeps the clientele of a laundry coming back bringing personal wash and drop off dry cleaning busi-ness. Having someone who knows the job, that people like and can relate to, brings a laundry success.


Speed Queen Products Get MakeoverNew Aesthetics

Package Presents More Modern look

in 2020[Ripon, Wis. January 1, 2020] - Speed Queen®, the global leader in vended laundry, intro-duced a new aesthetics package for its vended laundry products, including washer-extractors and tumble dryers. The products are currently available for order on models equipped with the Quantum Gold control. “Store owners were already familiar with our quality engineering and components inside; now, the outside of our machines matches that modern performance pedigree,” said Kathryn Rowen, general manager of the North Ameri-can laundromat segment for Alliance Laundry Systems. “I’m confi dent the upgrades will help owners merchandise their stores as the most modern and premium in their market areas.” Speed Queen washer-extractors will feature embossed front panels, a recessed control panel and a simulated carbon fi ber control overlay. Single and stack tumble dryers boast ergonomic door handles, as well as fastener-less fronts and sleek lint

drawers that combine for a far cleaner look to customers. They also will have carbon fi ber-look control overlays to match the washer-extractors. “We are excited to introduce these new aesthetic changes to the marketplace,” Rowen said. “We know that customers choose a laun-dromat for a number of reasons, but a bright, modern look with new equipment certainly ranks near the top. These products will help owners position their laundries for success.” For more information on the new upgraded Quantum Gold products, visit: speedqueencom-mercial.com. About Speed Queen - Speed Queen provides coin laundry owners with a variety of innova-tive and reliable commercial washers, dryers and laundromat equipment. As an industry leader, Speed Queen is dedicated to providing its market expertise to help grow the self-serve laundry industry. To accomplish this, the company offers Speed Queen Financial Services, which provides a continuum of stable, long-term capital solutions specifi cally for the laundry industry. The brand is an entity of Ripon, Wis.-based Alliance Laundry Systems LLC, a leading global manufacturer of commer-cial laundry products and provider of services for laundromats, multi-housing laundries and on-premises laundries. To learn more, visit www.SpeedQueenCommercial.com.


Utility rate increases are forcing laundry owners to develop utility cost-management programs just to stay competitive in the marketplace. As a result, an entire industry has developed around utility savings, includ-ing consulting and engineering fi rms, and manufacturers of every conceivable type of utility-saving device. Every new industry has its share of oppor-tunists, and some devices have as much affect on utility savings as Dr. Zarcon’s Snake Oil has in curing cancer. Don’t be victimized by high-pressure salespeople. Ask for a list of users, and check with each of them. Always contact the Better Business Bureau or other consumer protection groups before signing an order or contract. Never make a down payment before thoroughly investigating the manufacturer and product. Ask the manufacturer for a written guaran-tee of the savings, and make sure you agree on how the savings will be measured. For example, one laundry owner installed poorly designed heat exchangers in his dryer vents to preheat supply water to the water heaters. This did reduce the cost of heating the water somewhat, but that was offset by an extension of drying times due to lint buildup in the exchangers. He lost both dryer and washer cycles during peak laundry usage. In other words, his revenue loss was far greater than any savings.

Simple solutions are often best. When asked about his energy savings program, one laundry owner said: “I insulate everything that feels warm to the touch—or cold to the touch.” While this may not be scientifi c, it does reduce costs. Insulation is inexpensive to install and the savings are immediate. Establish priorities when considering a variety of energy saving measures. Use this formula to fi nd out how many months it will take you to recover your cost: dollar cost of system, device or measure ÷ proven dollar savings per month = months required to recover the cost Your priorities should be based on how quickly each measure pays for itself from the savings it creates. For example, one system might pay for itself in 8 months—another in 18 months. Obviously, you’ll install the system with an 8-month cost recovery fi rst. Solar panels can save on water heating costs, but if it takes 33 months for the savings to equal the cost of the system and your lease expires in 30 months, you’d incur a sizeable loss. Always consider the length of your lease before making an improvement.

Emerson G. Higdon is a coin laundry consultant and author of the book, “Coin Laun-dries — Road to Financial Independence”. He is a past member of SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) and serves on the board of experts for The TASA Group, Inc.

Energy saving devices—beware of the fl im-fl am man

by Emerson G. Higdon


In the period between now and April 18th (we get a few extra days this year) is the time when most of us start to get serious about having to pay our taxes. We search for receipts for what we’ve spent that could be a legitimately deduct-ible tax write off. Some of us dither and delay enough to require us to fi le an extension. We all worry a bit, but why? Just by having a plan, we can eliminate worry.

Tax breaks are not just for the rich and the connected as some people claim. We who are small business people can get some too. During their fi rst few years of operation, coin and card laundry operators are able to claim all of that wonderful depreciation to protect their incomes from taxes. Then there comes a time when the depreciation is gone and operators have to face the potential tax music, especially if and when they sell their business.

In the years between, it’s a struggle to fi nd every single legal, or close to legal deduction possible. The following are some suggestions you may not yet have considered, or perhaps might have overlooked in the past.

The fi rst suggestion is that laundry owners be tax aggressive about small things. Take every deduction you can, even if they are very small ones. Eventually, these small deductions add up, and if one or two are turned down later in an audit, you haven’t put much at risk.

You can deduct costs of travel to some coin laundry related events, such as a CLA seminar. For an example, going to the Clean Show in Las Vegas this year can be fully deductible next year. Imagine that, taking a trip to Las Vegas and being able to take it off of your income taxes. Even though you take your wife and kids along and spend an extra day or two on the road, you could still aggressively deduct your expenses, because you reasonably believe that all of your travel costs on such a trip should be considered as a legitimate business expense. Even your wife and kids work in and around the laundry. Who can say they don’t? Not the IRS.

Of course you should keep all of your receipts for meeting registration, travel, hotel bills and perhaps a meeting handout or two to prove you actually attended the event, and took part.

If you deduct tokens, slugs or phony bills you’ve gotten, it may bend tax rules. Yet, you’re entitled to something back. It’s too small an amount for the tax guys to argue over. During one audit, an operator brought in a quart jar of slugs as proof. It was allowed.

Do you belong to service clubs, or are you active in your community’s affairs? You can claim dues and donations to church, school and civic groups as justifi ed as a means of promoting your laundry and to bring in more business. These are


such small amounts, that most operators don’t even keep track, but over the course of a year, they add up.

What about the leftover clothing that has been forgotten and left by customers. All laun-dries will end up with a few such loads each year. Most operators either dump the clothes, use them for rags or give them to the Salvation Army, Hospice or some other tax deductible group.

These garments have value and are an opportunity for a deduction. Get a receipt for what you estimate it would cost to replace the clothes. Use that receipt to save a little on your tax bill. It might not be completely kosher, but auditors who know little of the business won’t deny the deduc-tion. Be aggressive.

Don’t forget that any city business license or permit fees you have to pay for is just as deductible as your rent, insurance, gas and electric bills.

Keep track of refunds you have to make so that these may be deducted too. While this won’t seem to add up to much for a good laundry, it does add up over the year. Keep out of order cards as proof.

Some operators claim mileage for travel to and from their laundry. This works best if the business is out of the way of the direct route between your home and regular job. In the case of mileage, it’s almost a requirement to maintain a log to record mileage driven for business.

When you need to make runs specifi cally to get parts or supplies, it should be deductible as well. Add that mileage up over the course of a year and deduct it. It could end up saving you a lot on your taxes.

Some laundry operators purchase almost everything they buy through their business and deduct almost everything they could buy as a business expense, even though some items

might end up being for home use. Paint, tools, cleaning sup-plies, paper towels and T.P. being typical deductions. Was the paint for your kid’s bedroom or was it for painting the customer area of your laundry? How can an auditor

tell which it was? Were the light bulbs for the laundry lavatory or your

bathroom?

In dealing with taxes, it’s always smart to get profes-

sional advice. Check with your tax advisor about each step you take, but let them know that you want to be aggressive about not

having to pay taxes.

One operator the News talked with offered us this good advice. “It’s OK to be aggressive about taking deductions, as long as you don’t get greedy. If what you claim makes sense and it is reasonable, you won’t attract an audit. If any of it seems to be out of balance, you can expect to get a call from the tax people soon.”

Be aggressive, but don’t get too greedy is a motto that seems like good advice to follow. But always check with your tax advisor fi rst.


Painful Lesson No. 12 — Go for Options, Options and More Options!

In almost all of my articles that touched on leases and landlords I repeatedly remind laundry owners and others that options heavily favor the tenant and are detrimental to the landlord. In any event, 90% of landlords and property managers will readily give the tenant options to renew, yet they rarely offer the tenant a long fi rm term.

For example, a very common lease term offered by most landlords is a 10-year fi rst term with two 5-year options. Another common lease term is a 5-year fi rm term with 3 fi ve-year options. In either case, the options put the tenant in control of the future, while the landlord has no idea as to whether or not the tenant will stay for the full 20-year term. With the protection of the options, the laundry owner can stay or go, as he chooses, and the landlord can’t say or do anything about it. This makes the landlord’s property worth far less than if he had fi rm terms instead of options and knew what lies ahead.

Theoretically, the ideal coin laundry lease is a 1-year fi rm term with 19 one-year options, with option rents predetermined. This gives the tenant the opportunity to stay if he’s doing well or leave, if he is not. He is in complete control of all option years well into the future. I use this 19-option concept only to illustrate the importance of options. It is almost a certainty that no landlord would accept 1-year options, but it makes my point.

This concept is especially true for an investor working with a “fi xer.” If the completed remodel suc-ceeds and does well, the laundry owner can continue with the remodel paying off as expected.

On the other hand, if the laundry investor made some bad decisions and the remodeled fi xer does not pay off as expected, the laundry owner can decline all future options and limit his loss. If the lease and the rent are a factor, the laundry owner is in a strong position with the landlord, and has the possibility of renegotiating the lease.

Painful Lesson No. 13 — Never Finance 100% of a Laundry Purchase

In Paragraph No. 7 of this article I mentioned that I would have more advice pertaining to 100% fi nancing. Just one word tells the story… Don’t!

Why? The main reason is that few coin laundries are strong enough to successfully support 100% fi nancing.

The following example illustrates the risk involved when a laundry purchase is 100% fi nanced. The numbers are from an actual transaction:

1) Monthly gross revenue: $18,000 2) Monthly net income: $8,000

Beware of the Junker..Continued from Page 11


3) Purchase price: $480,000 4) Down payment: $168,000 5) Loan #1 amount: $312,000 6) Loan #1 terms: 7 years - 6.5% interest 7) Loan #1 payment $4,633 per month 8) Loan #2 amount: $168,000 (loan for down payment) 9) Loan #2 terms: 4 years - 7% (See Important Note below) 10) Loan #2 payment: $4,023 per month 11) Total both loan amounts: $480,000 (100% fi nanced) 12) Total payments #1 & #2: $8,656 per month 13) Net loss per month: ($565) monthly loss 14) Annual loss: ($6,780) annual net loss

Important Note: Since the down payment loan ($168,000) is a second (equity loan) that is subordinate to the fi rst loan ($312,000), the term of the equity loan is shorter and the interest rate is higher.

As you can see, the above laundry with 100% fi nanced is doomed. I’m not saying that the above laundry is not a candidate for a complete remodel. I would need a lot more information to know. If bought at the right price, with normal terms and conditions, this laundry may make complete sense. Let’s now take this same laundry and buy it with normal terms and conditions ($480,000 - $168,000 down - 6% interest - 7 year loan).

1) Monthly gross revenue: $18,000 2) Monthly net income: $8,000 3) Purchase price: $480,000 4) Down payment: $168,000 5) Loan amount: $312,000 6) Loan terms: 7 years - 6% interest 7) Loan payment $4,558 per month 8) Net before loan payment: $8,000 per month 9) Net after loan payment: $3,442 per month 10) Annual net: $41,304 per year 11) Annual R.O.I. 25% Annual Return on Investment

As you can see, this laundry is doomed with 100% fi nancing, but it is a good buy at the same price of $480,000 when bought with normal terms and conditions. The purchase price of $480,000 is with the assumption that the laundry is in good condition and requires no addi-tional cash investment for equipment or cosmetic improvements.


EPILOGUE - Part IConsidering the importance and complexity of recognizing the difference between a “fi xer” and a “junker,” it can be a diffi cult decision. In that regard, if you’re not sure, I strongly sug-gest the following advice:

“When in doubt — do without!”

Part 2 – Enough pain! Where’s the good stuff?!

(There is some good stuff, right?) Yes — there is lots and lots of “good stuff.” However, as I stated at the beginning of Part I, keep in mind that the information here is not meant to make your decisions. It is designed to provide you with the information you need to make your own buying decisions.

As in Part I, the entries are randomly chosen in no particular order.

Money-Maker No. 1 — Busy Lower to Middle Income Commercial Area

The most favorable area for building a coin or card laundry customer base is a commercially busy, lower to middle income neighborhood with many apartment complexes, multiple housing units and rental houses. Some apartment complexes have their own laundry rooms, but they are inadequate and inconvenient for apartment tenants. Apartment laundry rooms are not serious competition to commercial coin or card laundries. Apartment laundry rooms are typically much more expensive for apartment tenants than are coin or card laundries.

Money-Maker No. 2 — Type of Shopping Center

There are fi ve types of shopping centers available to self-service laundries in most commercial areas. For coin laundries, some centers are better than others. In order of favorability, fol-lowing are typical shopping centers suitable for coin or card laundries:

(1) Convenience centers such as 7-11 or Circle K centers, etc. (2) Major centers with big name chain stores such as Vons, Ralphs, CVS, Best Buy, etc. (3) Strip centers (smaller centers with two or more tenants) without a big name “anchor”

tenant. (4) Free-standing buildings (laundry stands alone). (5) Sidewalk storefront locations, generally with no parking or rear lot parking.

Of these fi ve types of shopping centers, the only one that I strongly dismiss as unsuitable for laundries is the sidewalk storefront location (with limited or no parking available to custom-ers).

Money-Maker No. 3 — Location Within the Center

The least favorable placement of a coin or card laundry is in the inside corner (“elbow”) of an “L-shaped” center or the last business in the row of a perpendicular strip center. Both of these


locations have limited visibility from passing foot and vehicle traffi c. These placements create a safety risk and customer insecurity.

Money-Maker No. 4 — Window Exposure

Closely related to No. 2 above, favorable window exposure promotes safety, exhibits customer activity, shows the equipment mix available to potential customers and, in general, creates a bright, open environment.

Money-Maker No. 5 — Size in Square Feet

Though there are exceptions, the ideal size for a traditional coin or card laundry is approximately 3,000 to 4,000 square feet. Laundries smaller than 3,000 can be vulnerable to a variety of risks, such as heavy competition or limited revenue potential, while those larger than 4,000 square feet risk being overly built, thus reaching a level of counter-productivity by approaching the point of diminishing returns.

Money-Maker No. 6 — Distance from Home or Work

Typically, a laundry should be no more than a half-hour from home or work. Ideally, the route should be of light traffi c or offer a surface street alternative. This issue can have many excep-tions that make it worthwhile to consider buying a fi xer that is beyond the target area, even though it is outside the half-hour rule.

Money-Maker No. 7 — Confi guration

The interior confi guration is important for three reasons. First is the convenience factor. The layout should enable customers to conveniently transfer clothing from the laundry cart to the washers, from the washers to the dryers, and from the dryers to the folding tables.

Secondly, the rows of washers should be perpendicular to window exposure in order to have visual access to all parts of the laundry. In years past, some laundries were built with the rows of washers parallel to the windows, thus creating many hidden areas between rows of washers, as well as creating potential insecurity.

Thirdly, the confi guration should be such that the change machines or Value Transfer Machines (VTM) are located near the front of the laundry, easily within view from the outside, thereby eliminating much of the criminal vulnerability of change machines and VTMs.

It is also strategically wise to place frontloaders close to the front windows to be seen from the street. Large-capacity frontload washers are very popular with customers, and showcasing the larger washers to drive-by potential patrons will undoubtedly contribute to your customer base.


Money-Maker No. 8 — Age and Condition of Equipment

This is important, but not for the obvious reasons. Traditional wisdom would have us believe that the age and condition of equipment is vital to the purchase of a “fi xer” laundry. Not so. If all or most of the favorable characteristics identify a laundry as a candidate for a promising fi xer, the age, brand and condition of the equipment are meaningless. Sooner or later the machines are going to be replaced with the equipment that suits the investor’s purpose. The condition of the equipment is never a decision-making factor.

Though it is not a reason to buy or not buy a fi xer laundry, the age, brand and condition of the equipment are vital factors that heavily impact the price you pay for the laundry. If all or most of the other fi xer qualifi cations are favorable, so much the better. Clearly the present owner does not see in the laundry what you see, and in accepting a purchase price, he will not expect much, if anything, for the deteriorated equipment.

My advice: Look beyond the obvious and make your decision based upon everything but the equipment.

Money-Maker No. 9 — Age and Condition of Water Heating System and Plumbing

Considering that the subject laundry is a fi xer, the chances are that the water heating system is old and possibly in need of replacement or repair. If the plumbing is not copper, that will be an additional expense. If the water heating system needs replacement, expect to pay $5,000 to $10,000 for a complete state-of-the-art system.

Money-Maker No. 10 — Buy it Before it’s For Sale

This may sound stupid, but it isn’t. If you look up the dictionary defi nition of the word “oxy-moron,” you will discover that it has nothing to do with one’s level of intelligence (i.e., moron) and is not at all insulting. No. It is a statement of fact that appears to contradict itself to the point of sounding foolish or absurd. For example, “he turned up missing” is an oxymoron (he cannot have turned up if he is missing) or “it is a well known secret.” (If it is well known, it isn’t a secret). These are typical oxymorons.

Be assured that there is a reason why I brought up the word “oxymoron.” The act of buying a fi xer laundry before it’s for sale sounds like an oxymoron, when in reality it is sound advice if you happen to fi nd yourself in the position of negotiating the purchase of the fi xer. If it was not for sale on the open market, you have no competition that could drive the price upward, as prospective buyers try to out-bid each other.

The challenge here is fi nding a fi xer, then locating the owner to discuss the possibility of a purchase. Since the laundry appears to be neglected or deteriorated, the owner may be eager to rid himself of what he believes is an unprofi table laundry. This is where you come in.


About Phil Moses: Phil Moses was a coin laundry broker, consultant and expert witness with 40 years of expe-rience in the coin laundry industry. He attended the University of Pittsburgh and Bethany College in West Virginia. Phil wrote three books on business subjects and many articles in coin laundry trade publications.

There are no profound tricks or techniques for fi nding a fi xer that is not for sale. All that is required is good, old fashioned shoe-leather.

You start by drawing a complete circle around the areas in which you would like to fi nd a fi xer. Make a list of all of the laundries within the circle. Then go to each laundry and locate the own-ers, one by one. You may get lucky and fi nd the owner on the premises, but that is not likely. Owners don’t usually spend much time in the laundry, since it does not require excessive owner participation. If you do not fi nd the owner on the premises, here are eight effective sources for fi nding and contacting laundry owners:

(1) Look for the “Emergency” phone numbers posted inside the laundry. (2) If on the premises, ask the attendant or janitor for the owner’s phone number. (3) Request the phone number from neighboring business owners or employees. (4) Leave a note in the refund box for the owner to call you “regarding a business mat-

ter.” (5) Put a detailed message in an envelope addressed to “Owner” and slide it under the

backroom door. (6) Look for the business license or health permit posted on the laundry wall or bulletin

board. (7) Check with the City Clerk’s offi ce for business ownership records. (8) Check the County Assessor’s offi ce for public records for personal property tax assess-

ment.

Once you fi nd an owner willing to discuss the possible sale of his laundry, you have two choices: 1) You can rely on your own negotiating skills and your knowledge of coin laundries in general, or 2) You can engage the services of a coin laundry agent and consultant.

If you choose to rely on your own negotiating skills and knowledge of self-service laundries, you’re pretty much on your own. I can’t provide much guidance to prospective laundry buyers who choose to go it alone, since there is such a wide variance of buyer skills and knowledge. This defi nitely is not a “one size fi ts all” situation.

If you choose to work with a coin laundry agent, he or she is bound by law to protect your interests in such matters. The only advice I offer is that coin laundry purchase transactions are unique when compared to other business purchases. Working with a knowledgeable agent is much safer than going it alone.


Out of all of the customers that enter your coin laundry business, some are bound to already be in a bad mood and therefore unreasonable to deal with. They might have had a serious personal problem arise that has been eating at them for days. The least little thing can set them off, and a coin laundry is fi lled with lots of least little things. The water isn’t hot enough, the washers fi ll too slowly and the dryers take too many coins to dry. So it happens. Yet it takes place so seldom that most coin laundry operators never really gain suffi cient experience in handling angry customers. Following are a few examples, and some suggestions on treating irate laundry users. Two customers argue over who gets a dryer fi rst. They get loud and belligerent and the owner must intercede. How does he do it without alienating either customer? A customer starts complaining loudly over the cost for drying and tries to agitate others doing laundry. Another can not see how the cost for a wash could be so high. Can an owner or laundry employee calm situations like that quickly and quietly? Most laundry users that become irate expect to get anger in return. They want to have an argument with somebody, and the owner of the laundry will do just fi ne, thank you. This can be a lose, lose situation for any business. You get too wishy washy and you feel like a loser. Get too tough and you lose valuable clientele. The best way to defuse that anger is to speak quietly, accommodate and correct any complaint that is reasonable. Don’t argue with customers. The key to success in handling complaints is to listen politely, giving the customer a chance to vent and explain. Then quietly express your point of view. Who knows, the customer may actually have a point. If their point is valid, offer to make it better and apologize quickly for any misunderstanding and the problem.

Dropping in a few extra quarters in a washer or dryer costs the laundry very little. However, losing a customer permanently could cost the business hundreds of dollars over time. People that are primed to argue are usually easily calmed down by courteous, respectful treatment and a calm demeanor. A smile does no harm, but an angry look does harm. No wise business person tries to put down a customer that has the choice of doing business elsewhere. The owner’s talk should be fi lled with lots of please and thank you’s when dealing with laundry clientele. Any laundry user that does six loads a week for fi fty weeks in a year represents more than $500 in annual income. Many customers come to the laundry twice a week, what are they worth to an owner? An owner that has trouble with a customer may win the argument, but at what price? Train yourself and your employees on how to act when faced with customers that are not pleased when they think bad things are happening to them in your coin laundry. The customer may have made a mistake, or the machine malfunctioned, or the water isn’t hot enough to please the machine user. One of the best techniques to quiet things down is to say, “I’m sorry you are having this problem,” and mean it. Whatever the problem is, just say, “Let’s see what we can do to set things right.” A customer’s anger is usually defused by such a helpful attitude. Then get into a quiet discussion about what the complaint really is. No one gains when the argument is met with a high volume voice and it’s somehow your fault attitude. Be respectfully fi rm but polite. If it’s a matter of dropping in a few coins to make the angry customer happy, do it. Remember, while customers are not always right, they are almost always someone you want to keep coming back to do future business.

Some simple tips for:

Confronting and Calming an Irate CustomerConfronting and Calming an Irate Customer


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Documents

Februarythe coin machine from Coin Op Laundry just after 6 a.m. Thursday. The burglar didn’t just take the coin machine: He took the money in the vending machine and all the snacks