How to turn away Dry only customers

[Kari]

Today over 50% of the people that showed up at my store were there only to dry. Not one or two loads but people were showing up with truck and cars full of clothes to DRY ONLY. With gas prices going up we can not afford it.

Many people here in Florida like to hang the cloths to dry so they have washers but no dryers also another problem we are having is the fact that the place down the street has washer capacity but not the dryers so people have been washing at the place down the street and drying at our store. We have not been paying that close of attention but today was scary. Truck after truck was showing up with tons of clothes just to dry!!! Sure I know everyone had the day off and they caught up on the laundry at home and dried everytihng at the mat.

How do you handle this? If they wash at home and dry at my place i can understand that but it ticks me off that they are washing at the place down the street and drying at mine. I do not want to grill everyone who comes in just to dry. This is only a town of 2,000 people so have to be carefull not to upset too many people.

[DaveLevenson]

If your dryer prices are appropriate (i.e. profitable) then dry-only customers should be good business. We get a few dry-only, and a few wash-only customers (they have clotheslines at home). As long as we make a profit from every customer who walks in the front door, it's okay with me.

[Kitty]

It sounds like neither of you have the right combination of wash/dry equipment for your customers?

What is your mix? Sounds like you have less than 1 to 1 mix? Even if Floridians like to hang dry, convenience is what sells. If this is the case you may want to add some washers. Washers are predominately your revenue producers, why leave that to your competitor. Be sure you capitalize on the market/competitor weaknesses and do not leave it to be that it is your competitor capitalizing on your weaknesses.

[Glennus]

i'd take a walk over to the other mat and survey the kind of prices he/she is running. if they're washing AND drying at laundromats, but going to yours just for drying, maybe they're stingy with time per quarter on their dryers, or like kitty said, maybe they dont have enough dryer capacity for whats being washed.

i'd go on a blitz, offering amenities that'd make these customers want to do "one stop shopping" at your place as opposed to this other place.

[Anonymous]

I would give my left one to have people showing up with truckloads of dry only. I have the capacity and it is priced to profit. How can you have this in a town of only 2000?

[Kitty]

I think if I was a wash/dry customer in my area I may wash at one location and dry at the other. As when I was scoping the locations in town this weekend I find it very interesting to see how the competitors were priced in my area.

I would think most stores would have taken advantage of the fact every commodity is increasing and go ahead and raise their dryer prices but I found the market leader in town did not and has not yet but the other competitors did. Better yet, it is odd that the market leader purchased new 50lb dryers about 2 months ago from old gas guzzling loadstars and went from 7.5 minutes on these 50lbers to 9 minutes for the new 50lbsers??? Do that math equation on these? What is the guy thinking?

The competitors 40's are priced .25 higher than the market leader in and the dryers the competition is priced 7 minutes a quarter.... If I was a customer I'd be cherry picking this market... and be very happy to do so....

[Anonymous]

I think if I was a wash/dry customer in my area I may wash at one location and dry at the other. As when I was scoping the locations in town this weekend I find it very interesting to see how the competitors were priced in my area.

I would think most stores would have taken advantage of the fact every commodity is increasing and go ahead and raise their dryer prices but I found the market leader in town did not and has not yet but the other competitors did. Better yet, it is odd that the market leader purchased new 50lb dryers about 2 months ago from old gas guzzling loadstars and went from 7.5 minutes on these 50lbers to 9 minutes for the new 50lbsers??? Do that math equation on these? What is the guy thinking?

The competitors 40's are priced .25 higher than the market leader in and the dryers the competition is priced 7 minutes a quarter.... If I was a customer I'd be cherry picking this market... and be very happy to do so....


No you would not cherry pick if you thought about it! If you were the customer you would go to whatever store was closest. Gas now costs on average $3.25 a gallon, if you get 20 mpg it costs you 16 cents for each mile you drive just in gasoline. Do you really think it makes any sense to drive a few extra miles to get a minute or two more on a dryer?

[Kitty]

Extra play

Lets assume the locations are in NYC and I can walk to both locations so please lets take the factor of driving out of your scenario and think about what I was actually referring to.

My moral of the story was not the thought of me "cherry picking " or even doing laundry because if you have read enough in the threads you know I rarely do any of that household chore. The moral of the story is the fact that the competitors in my market are grossly behind in sensible market pricing. Dry times range in one store at 7 minutes for a quarter while another at 9 minutes for a quarter?

What actually does it mean the customer will go to the closest competitor? Closest to home, closest to moms, closest to work, closest to school, closest to where exactly?

Its all about convenience and where the customer finds the best value and the best bang for his buck!


Kitty

[Laundry_king]

? If they wash at home and dry at my place i can understand that but it ticks me off that they are washing at the place down the street and drying at mine. I do not want to grill everyone who comes in just to dry. This is only a town of 2,000 people so have to be carefully not to upset too many people......the place down the street has washer capacity but not the dryers so people have been washing at the place down the street and drying at our store.

D'oh! your miss the whole point here READ the first post.

It sounds like neither of you have the right combination of wash/dry equipment for your customers?

That is the answer ....D'oh!

Both laundromats are screwy. Someone will open another mat and shut down both of you guys. hmmmmmm cherry dough nut.;)

[Anonymous]

Extra play

Lets assume the locations are in NYC and I can walk to both locations so please lets take the factor of driving out of your scenario and think about what I was actually referring to.

My moral of the story was not the thought of me "cherry picking " or even doing laundry because if you have read enough in the threads you know I rarely do any of that household chore. The moral of the story is the fact that the competitors in my market are grossly behind in sensible market pricing. Dry times range in one store at 7 minutes for a quarter while another at 9 minutes for a quarter?

What actually does it mean the customer will go to the closest competitor? Closest to home, closest to moms, closest to work, closest to school, closest to where exactly?

Its all about convenience and where the customer finds the best value and the best bang for his buck!


Kitty



Thought you were in north or south carolina or something like that, not NYC. If NYC point taken, if a semi-rural area then driving is an issue. Most areas except inner city driving is an issue, and in a city people generally do not like to walk long distances carrying heavy bags of clothing.

[pete f]

If your dryers are not making money than they should be priced to do so. Maybe some of these dry only folks will become wash and dry folks. Lugging wet clothes from mat to mat makes no sense to me to save a couple bucks, as pointed, gas will eat that up quick. I know you hate your comp, but try to turn a sweet cheek to the large number of new potential customers coming in. And price everything to make a profit, that way none of this will bother you.

[Kari]

How can you have this in a town of only 2000?

This is a very poor area and peole can not afford washers and Dryers. or they are living is too small of places for with no hook ups. Many of them have lots of kids. some of my customers have upwards of 7 kids. so even when they do have washers at home they can not keep up with it so they do it at the mat.

There are 900 house holds and 2000 people in our little town but people come from the surounding areas as there are no mats there.

Believe it or not for such a small poor area we do a killer wash dry fold business and it grows each week. I also know that the other Laundromat does a good WDF business as well. I would never have guessed that there would be such demand in this area. But most of our customers are Hispanic men that have no women to do the wash or they are too busy working. Or they just come in to see me. Yes I am that cute : 0 )