Who's Luckier? Small town owners or High volume City folks?

[Sunflower]

So I've been scouring these boards for months...

It looks like there are a lot of folks in places w/over 3,000 people here.

I'm just wondering if any of you veterans have thoughts on the profits of small town mats verses high volume city mats. It seems like the city mats are in a constant state of price war and threat of customer stealing from other mats. The small towns have less volume but can charge more because of a little monopoly factor. Small towns seem to have lower town, water, impact and sometimes electric prices.

Who's in the better situation?

[Winston]

Let me preface this by saying that I have never taken an economics or business course, but have been in a service business of one kind or another for 30 years. My theory is that any business over the LONG RUN will be "just barely worth it". If you make huge profits you will soon be subjected to significant competition. If you aren't making a profit you will eventually get out or go bankrupt. I think this applies to big cities as well as small towns. An example of this theory at work is the airline industry. Every airline is always on the brink of bankruptcy, in bankruptcy or emerging from bankruptcy. If you work hard, make reasonable decisions and have a little luck the business will be worth doing, but just barely. Just as a stock price reflects everything that is known about the stock, all possible factors (rent, price, utility costs, competition, customer base, etc.) are at work allowing a laundromat owner to have his or her head just (comfortably) above water over the long haul.

[Silent Roo]

As a dealer I can tell you the guys in the small towns 2000-15000 are not making enough to replace their equipment and make a living for the most part. Even if you can charge $1. more a load it will not make up for volume. I can point to 100's of Laundries in my region who are in small towns who would sell if they could find ANYONE to buy. However the mats in the most oversaturated markets are hard to come by because they make money.

What I find more often than not is in small towns you can not charge more ! People already have the mentality that they can save money driving to The BIg town for Groceries, Target stuff and other things that can not live with out. If you are more than .25 cents over people will tend to stay away. Also in a small town a price rise can be the end of your business. Many small town laundries are priced under what you find in the big city.

There are advantages. I just have finished a laundry in a town of 2000 the city owns the building and will not charge rent for 5 years. There will be no heat or AC cost ever and water hook up was free. Last year I set up a Laundry in a town of 5000 Rent will be $300 for 1500 Sq ft. We turned around and rented 500 SQ feet to a tanning salon for $300.

[Sunflower]

There are a lot of people living off the grid in my town. That must be helping our numbers. Also, there are a lot of folks who are low on water as well as travelers. All in my favor I guess.