THE MOMOs OF NYC

[TotoMongo]

Searching for a mat affords me the opportunity to learn about the business and about people in general.

Today, I walked into a store and spoke to the owner. The mat is located in an mid to upper income area of NYC. He was rockin and rollin: 1 washer, 4 folders. The area can support at least 0.70/lb. How do I know this? Other stores in the same area charge 0.65, 0.70 and 0.75 per lb.

What does this MOMO charge? 0.50

I also dropped into another mat in a nearby mid-income town thats only open for service. It too was very busy. Looking past the counter, I saw 2 large washers deep in the store. It may have been two of four. The per pound charge: 0.60. Not that it carries much weight but I was told these MOMOs are mixing people's clothes and washing them together.

I dont have anything against charging what the demand will accept - even if it was 0.30 cents - but some people insist on shooting the whole industry in the foot.

Toto - Our industry should have MOMO awards. You know, like Hollywood.

[Jim]

It similar to the "Free Dry" concept......there will always be morons in business...it dosn't take brains to have money...

This also brings up a question for you....since you want to get into the mat biz...

Why couldn't you do the same thing as the last mat service you were at and save money...

You could go out and buy 2 or 4 washers and some dryers saving you thousands on buying a mat (and a lot of time searching for one) and pick an area that you like and rent a store front...

Sounds like it could be a win win for you.

[Anonymous]

Just a thought on this issue. May be a slightly different business model which leads to the difference in approach and pricing.

I'm in the (attended) Coin Laundry business. My machines are for the use of my walk-in clients, whenever they walk in. My attendants are there to 1) help my walk-in clients and 2) keep the place clean.

Only when I have the machines and attendant time available can I provide Wash Dry & Fold service. I price the service high enough ($.95/lb. now; $1.05/lb as of 5/1) so that providing the service doesn't interfere with my primary business focus; my walk-in clients.

Now if my primary business were Wash Dry & Fold, I'd set my business up differently; smaller space, fewer machines, no customer amenities, minimum wage labor with good supervision, etc. I'd price my service in a way that allowed me to schedule my jobs so that my machines, and employees, worked continuously throughout the day. Wherever possible, I'd drive out inefficiencies which means, yes, I'd mix customer orders to get the most laundry processed out of every turn.

Here at my place, I push my employees to wash, dry & fold 30 lbs of laundry per hour, but that's with all the customer interruptions. In the setup Toto describes, with 1 employee doing the washing and four folders, I'm guessing what, a 50% improvement in productivity.....or 45 lbs/employee/hr?

So, if my $.50/lb pricing lets me fully schedule 5 employees for 8 hours/day, 7 days/week, my annual gross is about $325,000.

Since this isn't my model, not sure how the net shakes out....but worth thinking about.

Toto, by the way, a mat owner here in town recently did what Jim mentions. He shut down (landlord issues), sold off everything except 4-6 of his machines and has re-opened in a new (smaller) storefront. He had a big commercial base he took with him and will be developing dropoff Dry Cleaning and Wash Dry & Fold in his new location. I bet he'll be charging less than $1.05/lb.......

[Anonymous]

Did any of you heard of such sort of laundry cleaning?
In Romania are plenty of some sort of Toto's MOMOs and all of those use the title "Eco Clean". Many of those small shops are even Chemical and Ecological Cleaning.
There have one or two big machines and I saw that they mix peoples clothes put them in those machine than dry them and fold and the clients can pick them up afte 24 hours.
I don't see why it is "Ecological".
Is it someting I missed here or it is nothig but a biiig lie.

Teodor

[ajay]

The dry cleaners have been "dry cleaning" people's close intermixing them for years - hence the reason for them to put tags on every garment. There's no reason why washing laundry can't be done the same way as long as you're successful at keeping close separate. I understand customers might have problems, but what they don't know can't hurt them.

ajay

[MSKLAUNDRY.]

With all due respect AJAY when was the last time you Dry Cleaned a item of clothes that were pee/shitted on. I wouldn't want my stuff mixed in with someone else's child's soiled stuff, would you. Especially when at most laundries the hot water temps are not up to germ killing temps.

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by MSKLAUNDRY
With all due respect AJAY when was the last time you Dry Cleaned a item of clothes that were pee/shitted on. I wouldn't want my stuff mixed in with someone else's child's soiled stuff, would you. Especially when at most laundries the hot water temps are not up to germ killing temps.

Isn't it the same wen you wash yor clothes in that washer where some sick person washed his "infected" clothes just before you?
What can we do in that case?

[skidrow]

Never in a million years would we mix. That is final.

[RAM]

What you pay(0.50/lbs)that what you get.

[PeterH]

Never mix, hot water is 140 degrees, .80/lb for drop off (soon to be .90/lb), and what the heck is a MOMO?

[TotoMongo]

Dont worry about it, PeterH. You arent one.

I just dont understand people sometimes. What could they possibly be thinking when one launderer is charging 0.50/lb and anotehr nearby charges 0.70?

As to the mixing people's clothes, I think it is a question of ethics. When a customer gives you his bag of laundry do you think they are aware that it will be washed with other people's clothes? I think there is an implied agreement that the clothes will be washed separately and the best care will be taken.

On the flip side, how many customers do you think you would have if you put up a sign that said: we wash people's clothes together in a batch in cold to warm water?

Toto

[pete f]

How about charging "O" for w/d/f, at least the labor part. I am planning on having an attendant, at least part time at my new store. I also plan to offer w/d/f, "pre- paid", as in the customer buys a card and puts money on it, the attandent will use that card to do the customers' laundry, writing down on a slip where the money went. The customer picks up thier clothes and card, and hopefully give the attendant a tip. The customers' card will be used to buy soap, bleach, softener, etc as requested also, thru my vending machines.
The attendant NEVER handle my money, no money or cash is laying around, all w/d/f is pre paid. What is the downfall??
If it is to successfull than maybe I will have certain machines marked up just for w/d/f. The attandant will be sitting around anyway, why not keep him/her busy and give a chance to earn extra money in tips?

[MichaelCa]

Jim, i REALLY like your idea! That's a concept that could really work here (a dense urban area).

Pete, you're card/no-cash-for-attendant idea is brilliant. I like the pre-paid part too.
One thing: Customers understanding is that Soap etc. is INCLUDED in price - what is your strategy there ?

Overall, some great concepts there folks;

now, will someone explain to me what "MOMO" stands for ??

i gots to know :)

[Anonymous]

Pete, your idea is only semi-plausible if you plan on doing very little WDF. If you plan on doing a lot you are giving away the store. WDF can be the most profitable part of the business, why not make money? You will incur the cost of bags and hangers, the liability of potentially loosing or damaging clothing and get none of the reward. Sure you can tell us that the attendant will be liable for damage but that will do you no good when the customer comes after you or starts badmouthin your establishment. Either do WDF as a business or don't do it at all. You would be better off having no controlls what-so-ever and potentially have the attendant skim some of the money than to charge nothing for the service element. WDF can easily generate 2-5 times the "cost" of washing the clothing depending on the ratio of per pound pricing to machine costs. Think this one out a little more.

[Gary C]

Sorry Pete I gotta agree with Kirby on this one. I will also add why deal with an employee if your not going to max out the potental profit. I also see customers complaining that their card was used for someone elses laundry while it was not in their own hands.

Gary

[pete f]

I do plan to do little w/d/f, and I always make good money on coin, so I don't care about the w/d/f side of it.

The customer will have to buy everything, including soap, from me. I make the same amount of money no matter how the clothes get washed. I think keeping track of what gets spent off the card is very easy to do. For liability problems ruining clothes, life is a risk anyway. I remember as a kid my mom to us to the PX at the base every week to buy grocerys. The bag boys worked for free, but got tips taking the stuff out to peoples' cars. I always wanted to get a job there, it seemd they made good money. If I can employ someone at rock bottom wage and they can make extra by working extra, which makes me money, then seems like a win win. I am still pondering this set up, and will probably try it to some extent once opened. It might be possible to get someone to work for tips if it is really sucesfull.

[Anonymous]

O.K., I'm with PeterH what is a MOMO?I'm SURE this ISN'T racial term..so what is it?

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by pete f
I make the same amount of money no matter how the clothes get washed.

Now you lost me, how can you say you make the same amount of money no matter how the clothing gets washed? For arguements sake lets say you vend a double washer at say $2.00 and your dryers are perhaps 7 minutes for a quarter. If a customer comes in with 30 pounds of clothing (colored and whites) and uses two washers you probably gross $6.00 on that customer. If that same customer came in and had you do it for them at a lowball price of say 75 cents a pound then you would have gross sales of $22.50. Of that money $6.00 is your incremental cost to run the washers with your normal profit built in. Lets say you spend another $1.50 on soap and plastics bags, the balance of the money or $15.00 is pure incremental profit. Even if you decided to somehow split that money with the attendant you still have made a hell of a lot more money on that customer than if they did it themselfs.

IF I AM MISSING SOMETHING PLEASE EXPLAIN IT TO ME?

[TotoMongo]

In my head, MOMOs are brainless boobs.

[pete f]

Kirby, I really do not want to run a w/d/f business, and in the area this mat is going into, I don't think it would have a very big customer base anyway. This is a good way to give the w/d/f business to the attendant and still keep a decent profit. If it turns into more than 30 pounds a day maybe I will get excited about it, buy a $600 scales, have the beauro of weights and measures verify it, buy soap, bleach, softener, stain remover, hangers etc in bulk, and leave change at the store and have tickets and everything.

[mike]

pete f,

"If you build it, they will come."

[pete f]

After answering some of those lease questions on the Newbie side, I barley even mind having spent 3x what I was quoted for a roof, waiting 5 months, to which is now only trusses, of which 6 need to be replaced because they were made wrong, on my building I OWN I am trying to put a mat in.. It is going to be the building from hell. To date I have had someone drop off a 900# old safe, a piece of crap 24' I/O boat, without a trailer and misc car parts in my lot. That does not include the weekly pickups cleaning the trash around the lot, ie, beer cans, malt bottles, wine bottles, etc. I would put out a trash can but I am afraid they would steal it, like they stole all the lumber and equipment we had on site, inside the building, which got broke into, to put the roof up a few weeks ago. Challenging at best.
Naturally the city wants me to drop a big landscape job, professionally blueprinted, before they will even look at at my mat plans on equipment. I won't bother you with the details of that. If this had not been an existing mat a many years ago my interest would have wained by now,,,,still I got 2 calls last week from people who looked up my number off tax records and wanted to buy the place, before it was even finished....


Originally posted by mike
pete f,

"If you build it, they will come."

[mike]

Sounds like you're working with Canadian contractors and trades !

[Gary C]

If it's that bad of a neighborhood why not sell it if you can profit by it.

Gary