Anyone Consider Going Into The Laundry "Business"

[launderess]

Saying goes the key to happiness in employment, is to find something one loves doing and make a career at it. So in that light was wondering if anyone ever thought about having a go at saying staring a commercial laundry, laundromat or some such business.

Mind you things aren't what they once were, and judging from all the equipment ending up on eBay and other places, must not be as easy as many believe.

Around our area in NYC, laundromats have been going the way of the Dodo fast. High real estate costs plus low margins means few can stay in business. Those that do are either service laundry only, or mixture of service and self-serve. What hasn't changed is laundry is still a volume business caught between high costs on one side, and maximum amounts customers will spend on the other.

Thoughts?

L.

 

[tuthill]

When i think about it, owning and maintaining some local laundromats would be my dream job. But you like you said the business aspect behind it makes it not the most desireable. Robert, throw coin feeds on all of your machines, and open up Robert's Vintage Laundromat... what say you?? Other collectors should too! LOL

 

[7080swashertalk]

with more and more apartments having in unit machines or in building laundry rooms....?

even homes used to be built (the 50s & 60) where laundry was optional. Now even the smallest tract homes has room for at least a stacked W/D.

Mobile homes were the same way. remember in the 50s and 60s when it was assumed one would have to use the parks Coin machines and there simply was no room in the home for them.
Ah, remember the harvest gold 70s, mobile homes with avacodo GE Bol machines in the bathroom or hallway. the woodtone paneling. ah, Simpler times.

If you started a laundry these days.... maintenance head aches. (think Andy Griffith when he ventured into this, come on)
Who in NYC would have time to run a laundramat. I mean between, looking for new challenges, juggling extra responsibilites at work, and trips to the Hamptons, who has time?

In the rural midwestern states. Um no, those people are jobless and moving to the bigger cities where corporate farms don't dominate, or are dying.

The rust belt region of the country. No. They are still carefully using their mid 70s and 80s machines.

California, Florida, Nevada, and Arizona, people are top busy being Foreclosed upon. (I have seen an unusal amount of front loader for sale on Ebay from California)

Colorado. Eleveation is too high. something about the coins reflecting the sun into the change box and melting the electronics. blahh.. screwing it up. you know dat aint good.

Texas, small ants getting into things. gumming up the motors. plugging the lint traps.

Canada. the pipes freeze. people get mad. swear in French. You can't understand. Canadian coin won't work in U.S. machines. Currency exchange leaves no profit margin. sorry.

Mexico = Meh-hee-coh, long commute from NYC, problems at the border, yadda, yadda, yadda. The workers who need to do laundry are already IN this country. Why bother?

I've rambled. ...but as you can see, it has been thoroughly thought out.

 

[qsd-dan]

LOL!!!! You crack me up 7080swashertalk

I would open a laundry mat if I could still get every single part for older Maytags at the prices before Whirlpool jacked them sky high. Newer machines are just too damn unreliable and parts these days quickly become NLA.

There is a Laundromat sign I recently found by accident in Livermore that I would like to steal though, lol. It's a 45+ year old sign advertising the use of Philco-Bendix machines. I nearly crashed my car when I saw it. I rushed inside and found 4 rows of Speed Queen machines. Somehow, I already knew deep down beforehand that it was too good to be true.

 

[launderess]

Well, "rants" aside, in a carefully chosen market a commercial laundromat or laundry can be had, but again one has to do one's homework.

As for the large urban areas with high wealth, such as Manhattan, studies have shown many persons are working so many hours they welcome GOOD laundry service. On the commercial side, many former businesses that once had OPL such as restaurants, hotels, motels, and such also welcome GOOD commercial laundry service.

Yes, both domestic and commercial interests will choose to use in house laundries, but that is because they do not have access to quality laundry services. From what one at least hears locally, many people choose in house or their own laundry appliances because of poor quality results from commercial laundries and laundromats. Shirts and fine laundry especially are lacking in some areas.

L.

 

[peterh770]

Having 2 coin laundries, the best thing I can say is that running a small business is alot of work, period. It is not all about machines and laundry and counting quarters. There is lots of accounting, lots of employee issues, lots of customer issues, lots of maintenance, both of the machines and of the physical store. While it may be easy, there is alot of time needed and a certain amount of business savvy that you need.

 

[jeffg]

I believe a laundry service isn't any different than most other businesses: if you're good at what you do, and care about your customers you'll already have a leg up on 90% of your competitors.

 

[maytagbear]

There's one market

heretofore unmentioned.

College(University) towns!

Not everyone likes the school provided laundry rooms. Sometimes they are close to inaccessible, other times the machines are vandalised, broken, or otherwise craptastic.

My first part of college (took a few years off in the middle) I used the falling apart GE Filter-Flos in the college laundry rooms. Filter pans were long gone, the alleged low speed button did NOT work, and jerkwads would vandalise peoples' clothes with Kool-Aid powder or bleach, or art paint. That is, if clothes weren't outright stolen. When I could, I would go to the coin-op in the next town over, or bring my things home (and do them myself!)

Second part of college, I commuted, and could do my own wash in my own Maytags!

However, for a college town, a coin-op laundry is a wonderful thing.

There are 4 here in Kent.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[irishwashguy]

I have always thought that it would be fun to have my own la

When I was doing some work in Michigan, I had the privilage of using many laundry mats. I even visited one in Kalamazoo called the Cork Street laundrymat with its very own extractor for 75 cents, which I always used when I could find one and a smoking and a non smoking area; that I thought was kind of silly. i have been noticing in the last six years since i moved in my house that three self service laundry mats have moved out of the neighborhood. One was even 24 hours, although really kind of trashy. The real estate here is still reallly high, much higher than when I moved in. I always thought that it would be fun to have my very own Miele European Laundry. It would fit well here, just the same problem with space getting expensive, water in the city of Portland is really high as well. I would also hook a car wash to a laundrymat, as well as a couple self serve vacuums. People might as well feel like they are killing two birds with one stone. i would call it Spin! or Hawthorne District Eco mat, kind to Earth, kind to you.; boy do I ever daydream about this. Some of those commercial front loaders are 8000 dollars, and there is a lease option. just a thought.

 

[launderess]

Extractors - For the most part are no longer found in NYC laundromats, too many liablity and insurance issues.

European Coin Laundry Equipment - Have always wondered why laundromats in the United States insist on equipment that uses building supplied hot water or a boiler, instead of washers that can heat their own. While many American coin laundry washer/extractor makers do offer machines that can be fitted with steam heating, none seem to do so, then it hit me.

American laundromats use washing machines that for the most part have very fast cycles, the ages it takes for say a coin French laundromat machine to do it's work, would drive many Americans up the wall. Also the laundry would need more washing machines as turn over time would be longer.

As for boiler fed washing machines, most if not all states and local areas have very strict rules on who can operate and fit steam boilers that produce steam over a certian PSI. I for one wouldn't want to be in a laundromat where your average underpaid, and barely English speaking/understanding worker is messing about with a high pressure steam boiler. Let that baby boil dry and you are in for one big KABOOM!

Laundrymat and Car Wash - Very common mix, and works a treat, especially in areas with high car traffic and persons needing laundry done.

Laundromat Equipment - Yes, it is VERY expensive to fit out a laundromat, that is why many people try to purchase an existing business, and slowly upgrade equipment. One can also go the used equipment route and shop eBay or any of the other many used laundry supply vendors. Often one can find contents of entire laundrymats on eBay, from machines to folding tables, everything one needs to start up a mat.

L.

 

[tolivac]

Boilers-if its 15PSI and over you need a high pressure steam license.You need to be licensed in that case if you wish to install or operate the boiler.Nowadays most for building heating and water heating are under 15PSI so a licensed operator isn't needed.Funny-no license is needed for compressed air-it can be just as dangerous as steam-and you can buy and operate an air compressor that runs at 120PSI with no problem-same with SCUBA air tank compressors that can go up to 4000PSI!Any vessel pressurized to even 120 PSI can be a bomb!And tanks pumpted to 2000-4000 PSI LETHAL shrapnel if they let go!And a 2000-4000PSI air stream can cut off human limbs just as high pressure steam does.With any pressurized medium you have to be careful!At my workplace we have several air compressors that go to 120PSI and refrigeration compressors that can go to 250PSI.

 

[mihi]

this is quite an interesting thread. Any business can be successful if done properly and due diligence is followed. Part of due diligence is understanding the particular make-up and desire of the local area customer-base. I really think you have to understand the customers, survey them. How do you do that? I'd visit local laundromats and both use their machines and ask the customers to take a survey and mail it to you. For that, purchase their next load for them.

Also, the Staber company rebuilds laundry equipment on a large scale. They'll back a truck up to your building, take your equipment, rebuild it, and put it back in I'm told (or can arrange all the above to happen). They seem to have a pretty good business model too.

 

[dirtybuck]

If I Opened One...

It would be the FIRST "ADULTS ONLY" laundromat. NO KIDS under the age of 16! And if I spent beau coup dollars on HE machines, then the only thing that would go into them would be HE detergents. If patrons don't like those rules, let them go somewhere else. However, I'm sure that a business like this would still thrive.

 

[whirlcool]

College/University Laundry

Back when I was in college,(69-73) we did not have any laundry facilities in our dorms. And the dorms I was in were pretty new at the time.
The University had a laundry service that was part of your dorm fee. You just took your clothes to this building on campus and they would wash/press all of your clothes. They would also put a mark somewhere on your clothing with indelible ink with a code number for each student. Mine was M-95. While the laundry did a good job and your clothes came back clean, they starched EVERYTHING! Underwear included! They did do a good job ironing. They even ironed your denims for you.
After finding out that starched underwear and towels are not very comfortable, I went to the local coin laundry. They had Frigidaire pumpers. I never had any vandalism with my clothing except for the one time I came back from getting a Coke at the convenience store next to the coin-op only to find the washer that contained my towels in the rinse cycle, and all the towels were gone!

 

[sudsmaster]

I have thought about it a little, until I remember how much I disliked having to lug all the laundry to the laundromat, and deal with stinky washers, dryers with chewing gum in them (still soft and sticky), people who hog tables and carts, etc. And I'm usually shocked when I see how expensive using a laundromat has become. Understandable I guess, when one considers the price of rent, power, water, salaries, and upkeep. But I'd much rather just do my laundry at home and not have to deal with public washers.

There was one laundromat I used to use in Berkeley in the 70's that had an Asteroids game. A quarter per play. I think I dropped more change into that machine than I ever did on washing and drying. If I had been smarter I would have saved my pennies and gotten a portable clothes washer to put in the kitchen in my studio apartment. It already had a combination kitchen sink laundry tub and would have worked quite well.

 

[launderess]

Personally never fancied being a "Pauline Fowler" (runs the local laundrette on EastEnders", but a commercial laundry is another matter. That seems to be where the money is today, especially in places like NYC (especially Manhattan), where opening any sort of laundry or laundrymat is becoming very difficult. Most everything is drop off stores now, and the laundry is picked up and taken elsewhere to be done.

Of course starting a commercial laundry means running with the big dogs. In all laundries the ideal is to have equipment and staff working 24/7 (well you get the idea).Large expensive equipment and staff certianly must have work loads that keep things busy to generate profits.

From what one understands the basics of laundry/dry cleaning business hasn't changed that much; one either does small amounts for vast sums (such as "French" hand laundry), or huge volumes for smaller sums and make one's money on churing work out.

With oil and gas going throgh the roof, cannot imagine what it is doing to the margins of many laundry owners.

L.

 

[tolivac]

At some of the prices of current laundry equipment--think laundramats just might make a comeback-esp the local neighborhood ones with a dry cleaning services.At how some FL washers and their companion dryers are priced-at that point will haul or lug my laundry to the 'mat.there is a LG Stainless Steel FL washer dryer pair that hasn't sold YET-been there since spring at Best Buy.The pair of machines alone is close to $5000 the matching washer and dryer bases are $500 each--for the price of just a base you could buy a pretty good TL washer.Asked the salesman there at BB in the appliance dept-and these have even been on sale--no takers.sale price is $1799 each-but no price break on the bases.

 

[roto204]

*giggle*

Dirtybuck, I had the exact same thought, rather akin to the time that I dreamed-up the idea of "NSC Airways" (No Screaming Children).

I too love the idea of a vintage laundromat--maybe have a computerized control station where the coin feed would be, and a grid of the room, and you'd pick via pushbutton which machine you'd like to use. It'd be energized, and off you go. You could have the original controls under Plexiglas, and use Robert's relay mechanism to guide the cycle via computers.

However, all logistical planning aside, the real issues are that

A) people abuse machines, so you'd be forever fixing them even with attendants and careful monitoring;

B) you have no parts after a while with which to repair machines, and

C) vintage machines (unless you went with an all Norge/1-18 laundromat--can you imagine? You'd have to have a hearing-protection dispenser) don't hold much, and unless you dropped your coin rate to reflect capacity ("The Speed Queen is twenty-five cents a wash; the 1-18 is three dollars" ), you probably wouldn't rake-in the money;

D) time marches on, and your machines will deteriorate someday. (Especially your Kenmores--*evil grin*.)

Neat idea, tough to sustain.