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July 12, 2012
Survey: Coin Laundry Biz is No Fun During Summer, Many Owners Say

CHICAGO — Changing customer habits during summer influence store hours, attendant scheduling

CHICAGO — Is it fun in the sun or the dog days of summer in your store this time of year? Nearly half of the store owners who took this month’s AmericanCoinOp.com Wire survey say that summer is worse than most seasons (36.8%) or is the worst season (10.5%) in terms of business.

Approximately 16% say that summer business is the same as other seasons, while 26.3% think it’s the best season and 10.5% think it’s better than most seasons.

Fewer than 22% of respondents run specials or promotions specifically during summer. They offer things like cash raffles, gift-card drawings, and fluff-and-fold or dry cleaning specials.

“I do a two-for-one comforter special because they are easy to do,” says one owner, “and it helps a lot of people get a job done that they normally would wait until busy winter months to do.”

More than half of respondents (52.6%) say that customer habits, such as when they do their laundry and how often, tend to change during the summer and this affects their store’s hours, attendant scheduling, etc.

With most children on summer break, that means more opportunities to tag along with Mom or Dad to the Laundromat. But 52.6% of respondents don’t think there are more child-related issues—screaming, running throughout the store, etc.—during summer than other times of the year. Roughly 42% believe there are more child-related issues in the summer, and 5.3% aren’t sure.

What’s the worst thing about running a self-service laundry during the summer? Paying higher utility bills, trying to keep their store comfortable, fielding more customer complaints, and having fewer customers were some of the more common responses to the survey question.

While the Wire survey presents a snapshot of readers’ viewpoints at a particular moment, it should not be considered scientific.

Subscribers to Wire e-mails—distributed twice weekly—are invited to take the industry survey anonymously online each month. All self-service laundry owners and operators are encouraged to participate, as a greater number of responses will help to better define operator opinions and industry trends.

To sign up for the Wire, click the “Subscriptions” button at the top right-hand corner of this page and follow the instructions.

August 8, 2011
Distributors Remain Optimistic (Part 1 of 2)

CHICAGO — Upon studying the results of this year’s American Coin-Op distributor survey, there are reasons to be optimistic about the state of the self-service laundry industry.

Nearly half of respondents said business was better in 2010 than it was in 2009. Better yet, nearly two-thirds of respondents predict that 2011 business will be better than 2010.

Every distributor listed in the American Coin-Op Distributors Directory prior to June 1 was invited to participate in the unscientific survey.

2010 BUSINESS

Last year was a bounce-back year for many distributors, based on the survey results. Forty-six percent of respondents said business (sales of newly constructed stores plus replacement business) was better in 2010 than 2009. Approximately 21% said business was worse in 2010 than 2009, and 32.1% said business was comparable in both years.

In the 2010 survey covering 2009 business, only 15.6% said business was better in 2009 than 2008, while 49% said business was worse in ’09 than ’08.

For those experiencing a change in business in 2010, the No. 1 reason, by far, was the economy. But it’s interesting that it was cited either as a positive or a negative, depending on the respondent.

Those who thrived saw investors who were inspired by upticks in the economy, or who chose to look into the coin laundry business after losing their jobs.

Distributors whose business suffered in 2010 lamented over changing demographics, tight lending/lack of financing, and potential investors unwilling to spend. One businessman partly blamed his company’s downturn on the BP oil spill.

REPLACEMENT BUSINESS

Replacement-business figures also showed signs of improvement from our report one year ago. In replacement business only, 39.3% of respondents said business was up last year compared to 2009. That’s compared to 20% who saw their replacement business increase from 2008 to 2009.

Roughly 29% saw replacement business fall in 2010, and 32.1% said their level of replacement business was unchanged from 2009.

The figures in this category have proven to fluctuate over the last several years. In the 2009 survey for 2008 business, 40% of respondents saw replacement business rise, and only 29% saw business dip.

NEW-LAUNDRY CONSTRUCTION

American Coin-Op asked distributors how many new laundries they built and/or to whom they supplied equipment in 2010. Fifty-six percent of respondents built or supplied equipment to three or fewer new laundries. In the 2010 survey for 2009 business, this figure was 62%.

How many new laundries are distributors dealing with in some fashion? Here are the most popular answers from this year’s survey:

  1. 2
  2. 0
  3. 1
  4. 4
  5. 5

Distributors were also asked if their 2010 new-construction total was more, less or the same when compared to 2009. Nearly 41% said new construction was up in 2010 (by comparison, that figure was only 14% in the 2010 survey for 2009 business), 37% percent said new construction was down, and 22.2% said new construction was the same in 2010 and 2009.

EQUIPMENT MIX

How to equip a store is a critical decision for an owner. Generating revenue is vital to an operation’s success, but overcrowding with equipment can be a detriment.

Fifty-four percent of the new stores had at least one top loader, down just a bit from last year’s figure (62%). (It should be noted that a handful of respondents chose to skip the top-loader question when taking our online survey, so the figure may be even a bit lower than 54%. It’s possible some respondents didn’t install any top loaders, and skipped the question as a result.)

More specifically, here are the most popular numbers of top loaders put into new stores in 2010:

  1. 0
  2. 6
  3. 5
  4. 10
  5. 12

Newly constructed laundries in 2010 have 3.8 top loaders. (This figure factors in the stores with no top loaders.)

Here are the most common numbers of front loaders installed in newly constructed laundries last year:

  1. 40
  2. 30
  3. 15
  4. 12
  5. 37

Newly constructed laundries in 2010 have an average of 26.9 front loaders. This is down only slightly compared to last year’s figure (27.3).

The average newly constructed laundry in 2010 has 32.1 dryer pockets. That’s compared to 32.6 dryer pockets in 2009.

Wednesday: Does size matter …

July 12, 2011
Survey: Educational Sessions Big Draw for Self-Service Laundry Operators

CHICAGO — The Clean Show’s educational sessions were a big draw for the self-service laundry owners and operators who attended the Las Vegas event, based on June’s unscientific Wire survey, as nearly a quarter of respondents said they attended four or more sessions.

Roughly 71% of attendees sat in on at least one session. The breakdown was one session, 11.8%; two, 23.5%; three, 11.8%; and four or more, 23.5%.

Approximately 64% of respondents said they attended Clean ’11, and 63.4% of them reported being “somewhat satisfied” (46.7%) or “fully satisfied” (26.7%) with their experience as a whole. Roughly 27% were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied.

These attendees sought information about a variety of products and services. Among the exhibit categories that respondents sought out during the four-day show, washers, dryers and payment systems were mentioned most often.

Roughly 73% of respondents said they are more likely to do business with a certain manufacturer, distributor or supplier because of their trip to Clean. Twenty percent said they aren’t sure, and 6.7% answered no.

Most respondents attended Clean on Tuesday (72.2%) and Monday (66.7%). Attendance started to drop off on Wednesday (44.4%), and only a small group (11.1%) visited the convention center on Thursday, the final show day.

The 2013 Clean Show in New Orleans will open on a Friday and run through the weekend. Many respondents applauded the show committee’s decision to shorten the biennial event to three days but indicated that they hoped the educational sessions would not suffer. In fact, some respondents lobbied for three or four hours of sessions per day instead of the traditional one or two.

Respondents who didn’t attend Clean in Las Vegas most often cited budgetary constraints or scheduling conflicts as the reasons. One person said they had just opened a brand-new store and didn’t have need of equipment.

While the American Coin-Op Wire survey presents a snapshot of readers’ viewpoints at a particular moment, it should not be considered scientific.

Subscribers to Wire e-mails—distributed twice weekly—are invited to participate in a brief industry survey each month. The survey is conducted online via a partner website. Readers are encouraged to participate, as a greater number of responses will help to better define operator opinions and industry trends.

To sign up for the Wire, click the “Subscribe” button at the top right-hand corner of this page and follow the instructions.

April 13, 2010
Survey: Operators Not Sold on Marketing

August 18, 2009
Summertime Blues: Survey Shows Summer Means Slow Business for Laundries

September 16, 2008
Most Operators Seek Industry Education, Survey Shows

September 4, 2007
Survey: Most Operators Pleased with Drop-Off Service

August 16, 2007
More Customers Can Be Drawn, Survey Shows