Jacking my prices

[Anonymous]

Well I've decided in the wake of the hurricane and natural gas prices I'm jacking my prices up. In my neck of the woods you'd be shocked at my low prices anyway:

Tops, going from 1.25 to 1.50

Dryers, dropping from 10mins to 9mins.

Yes, those (original numbers) are the going rate around here!

I figure screw it if people gripe. Gas stations raise prices without a second thought when *their* supply costs go up, so I'm doing the same.

Woo-hoo !!

- John

[laundryboy]

Dryers at 9min, your nuts. What are your cost per therm. I'm looking at my bill I recieved today that's at 1.13/therm. My dryers are at 6min/quarter!!

[amartlock]

I agree that dryers need to be at 6 mins but what are you to do when the local market dictates 10 mins. There are a dozen or so mats in my town and all are at 10 mins. I wish I could figure a way to get everyone to go down.

[TotoMongo]

There are a dozen or so mats in my town and all are at 10 mins. I wish I could figure a way to get everyone to go down.

Try leading the pack Amartlock. Even if marginal, you may find your experience gratifying. The only way everyone can go down in prices is if one person leads the charge.

Good luck! ;]

[Anonymous]

I happen to know my competitor well, and we sort of 'agreed' today that we both need to head south on dryer times. I should probably be bold and jump to 8 minutes instead of 9; folks could drive a few miles for cheaper, but to a rather seedy area.

I'm also going to raise all my washers by a quarter. It dawned on my today that toploader customers are typically not frontloader customers, and vise-versa, so why not impact *all* customers with a wash price increase uniformly.

Can't wait to be counting more quarters :)

- John

[laundryboy]

More quarters, yes - but higher expense bills. Remeber when making purchasing decisions that energy efficience equipment have a higher cost up front, one-time. Bite the bullit once and enjoy the reduced consumption (costs) throughout the future.

About the dryer pricing, newer efficient dryers can be priced accordingly. I have newer dryers that kick-ass. They could be priced better than the cometition and I would still make more per turn. Yet, I give less time per quarter AND use less utilities than the competition. I have a MUCH better margin because I charge more and my costs are less.

Watch your competition closely for the little things that they can not afford to do as they do NOT keep up with utility expences, particularly natural gas.

[Anonymous]

I know everyone's costs are different, but what's your margin at 10 or 9 minutes per quarter, given today's gas prices? Can you afford not to go to 8, 7 or even 6?

If you and your competitor can discuss and agree on heading south on minutes/quarter, why not totally re-align your pricing to reflect today's reality and go to 6 right now and be done with it? With gas at $3.00/gallon, how far do I have to drive before I spend in gas the $.75 I'll save on dryer time?

Do it now!!!!!!

[amartlock]

I've got 13 ADC stacks and 6 SQ stacks. My distributor tells me that roughly 50% of my gas costs can be attributed to the dryers and 50% to the heating of water for washers (20 tops, 14 25#, 8 35#). Is this a good estimate?

Also, what % of my electricity costs should be attributed to dryers vs. washers.

I'm trying to get a rough cost per min for my dryers so I need to allocate the gas and electricity bill. If I can prove that my dryers at 10 mins per $.25 are not profitable or not profitable enough, then perhaps I can show the calcs to other owners in the area and convince them we should be dropping times.

[Anonymous]

I talked to my 'buddy' today. We're both going to jump from 10 to 8 minutes, and bump all our wash prices up by a quarter.

How nice to have someone that understands the business and wants to *raise* prices, rather than compete with nonsense like free dry and super cheap washers.

Much smarter to share customers and each make a tidy profit :)

[Anonymous]

Today while my daughter was at the neighboring dentist, increased my 4 superload-II's to $2.75, my 3 SC27's to $3.00.

Tonight my tops go up to $1.50. Once my dryer vents get cleaned out next week, the dryers go to 8 minutes.

Then I hide from my store for a few days so no customers kill me :)

Anyone know how to reprogram an SC25EP machine with the computer board? I'm waiting for the answer on the premium section, thought maybe some non-premium person might know the answer in the meantime.

- John

[billyb]

where i'm from, the norm for dryers is .25cents for 5 mins, even 4 mins. today i checked out a mat for sale, 25 cents for 3 1/2 mins.

[fluffy]

I'm all for making more money, but I've never really understood the dryer / gas price issue that's always discussed. From my last bill, my gas costs $1.14/ therm (taxes included). If I take 50% of my gas bill towards running the dryers (the exact % can be easily calculated - it just depends upon figuring your hot water useage...I did it once and it came out close enough to 50% for me to use as a ballpark) -- I get a utility expense for dryers of 15%. So it seems it costs me about 5 cents for every dryer turn.

I have my dryers priced at 25 cents for 9 minutes.

[voslaundromats]

My dryers have been set at 6 min. per 25 cents for almost a year now. My customers all seem to understand that my costs are going up too. I figure if the gas stations can raise prices on a daily basis, we should be able ta get by with it once a year. One note, though.......I do have the luxury of being the only mat in town, so that is too my advantage on price increases.

[dzender]

Dryers at 9min, your nuts. What are your cost per therm. I'm looking at my bill I recieved today that's at 1.13/therm. My dryers are at 6min/quarter!!


LAUNDRYBOY...

I am just a few hours south of you. My September gas bill was at $1.27 per therm (721 CCF X 1.024 = 738 therms) $935.89/738 = $1.27 per therm.

Working the equation backwards and figuring my cost per minute for 30# stack SQ (73,000 Btu/hr/per pocket) and 75# SQ (165,000 Btu/hr)...

73,000 Btu X $1.27 per therm / 6,000,000 = $.015 per minute
165,000 Btu X $1.27 per therm / 6,000,000 = $.035 per minute

Cost per quarter based upon 7 minute dry time:
30# stack = $.11
75# = $.25

Quite honestly, I am happy with roughly 50% income to expense ratio on the dry side. I just replaced my 20 year old 400,000 Btu boiler with two Raypak 199,000 Btu staged boilers. By my calculations, this upgrade should reduce my gas usage by 1/3 to 1/2 of current usage. I am anxious to see my next bill.

When I see you guys going nuts over minutes per quarter, I think I am going to take the opposite approach. When all these guys around me with 15+ year old equipment start lowering their hot water temps and reducing minutes per quarter, I am going to go for the flip side and crank hot water up to 140 from 120 degrees and give a few extra minutes on the dry side. Advertise and market the hell of it and still be miles ahead.

[Anonymous]

LAUNDRYBOY...

I am just a few hours south of you. My September gas bill was at $1.27 per therm (721 CCF X 1.024 = 738 therms) $935.89/738 = $1.27 per therm.

Working the equation backwards and figuring my cost per minute for 30# stack SQ (73,000 Btu/hr/per pocket) and 75# SQ (165,000 Btu/hr)...

73,000 Btu X $1.27 per therm / 6,000,000 = $.015 per minute
165,000 Btu X $1.27 per therm / 6,000,000 = $.035 per minute

Cost per quarter based upon 7 minute dry time:
30# stack = $.11
75# = $.25



Am I the only one that hates therms and BTU's? I'm an electrical engineer for darn sake, and I still have no clue on these conversions. Where does the 6 million factor come from? I presume 60 minutes times 100,000, for some reason.

In any case thanks for an actual analysis, I always wondered how to get back to what the dryers were costing vs. what they were bringing in. If I plug in my 8 minute value for my stacks, and presuming the same cost per therm, my dryers are costing me 12cents per minute. And I agree, I can certainly live with that kind of a profit margin.

- John

[Aromaz]

All your other expenses have to be paid. You have to get the most profit possible out of each quarter. Inflation will certainly rear it's ugly head this winter. Insurance, cam rents, anything delivered by truck or produced with natural gas will go up. Another hurricane is heading for the gulf. Oh, by the way, today natural gas is trading at an all time high.

[Maywood2]

If I plug in my 8 minute value for my stacks, and presuming the same cost per therm, my dryers are costing me 12cents per minute. And I agree, I can certainly live with that kind of a profit margin.


er, don't you mean your dryers are costing you 12 cents per QUARTER (8 minutes X $0.015 gas cost per minute)?
(Not backing out the cool-down minutes, and not adding the electricity cost.)

I never understood why some laundries seem to want to cut down their customer's dryer usage times (installing high-G-force washers, etc), if they make a profit on each minute the dryers are running. (Assuming that the customers aren't unhappy with the time it takes them to dry their clothes.)
I had never done the math before, but if he's right, 50% margin even at 8 minutes is pretty good. (Not sure what the price per therm will go to in coming months, of course...)

[Anonymous]

Good catch, yes of course 12 cents per quarter, not minute. Yikes!

I've also wondered about the high-g force comments. My only thought is that it gets people through the dry cycle quicker, freeing up dryer space for the next person and avoiding capacity problems? That and customer satisfaction I suppose.

Without those two issues, seems like you'd want low-g force washers, and clogged dryer vents to prolong dry time :)

- John

[ajay]

what about taxes ? Don't we need to consider that in calculation - after all it's doesn't matter what the gas cost what matter is what we pay for it(which includes taxes, delivery fee)

[laundryboy]

In many of the threads, the issue of cost has come up. To calculate YOUR cost, you should figure your TOTAL bill divided by usage. This incluses tax, title, delivery, fuel recovery, management fees, federal surcharge, local surcharge, supervisory fee, documentation, mission to mars fee, .....

[PeterH]

New laundry went in by my house. 10 pockets of dryers with 20 washers, nearly all of them Continental Auroras. From what I have seen, while it takes a shorter time for the dryers to run, the dryers are always running because people are waiting on them, even tho' the wait time is minimal.