Wash and Fold Increase

[TLR]

We have been talking about a trend of people not having time to do their laundry and taking advantage of Wash and Fold. Well - the numbers are in - my Wash and Fold increased 46% over 2005. Year 2004 and 2005 were about even. I really began marketing heavy in March of 06 with coupons. Letting these people know there is an alternative to washing it themself is the key to taking advantage of this trend.
We accept credit cards and cash for W&F. Professionals and students like the credit card for payment. Costs me about $41 per month plus transaction fees - but it is well worth it. Probably 75% of my wash and fold is paid for by credit card.


Anyone else taking adavantage of this trend?

TLR

[Andy]

We are flat on drop off year over year. We charge $0.90 per pound.

How much do you charge?

[TLR]

.85 per pound

Are you advertising? Are you paying attendants a percentage?

TLR

[Gatorlenny]

.95/lb and we had a 30% increase vs last year, so we are very pleased. Yes, we are looking hard at taking credit cards and atm cards. Will that alone increase business? Thats a good question. We tried to break it down and dead cost per year would take over 1000 lbs of of clothes to cover the machine and the fees. By the time you figure out all the other costs, we don't think it will make any more money offering the credit card/atm service. So what does it offer? Convenience for your customer. You just have to figure out if its worth it to you to do that. BUT if you look at the costs of offering pick up and delivery, the credit card/atm machine is cheap, cheap, cheap!

[TLR]

Credit Cards depends on your WDF customer. Students like to charge their parents credit card - construction workers can sometimes use their company expense account card.
I am hoping to attract a higher standard of living customer with credit cards as payments.
You have to look at your WDF business - year to year - to notice any trend. It will not happen overnite or over months.

TLR

[Gatorlenny]

Looks like we are gonna bith the bullet next week and go for credit card and atm transactions. Again we feel this is a convenience for our customers, but we try to keep in mind all we offer is service, so why not be the best at it.

Now wading through all the different options fees and so forth has been no fun, but it looks like we will go with Quickbooks Terminal service, which is essentially a swipe machine and a pin pad for atm transactions. The cool part of it for us is we can download the transactions into our quickbooks each day. I expect to have it implemented late next week or the following week due to Monday being a holiday, but progress is being made:)