I just couldn't wait.

[Duane]

Been up and running for 4 months and have been doing very well. But, I didn't know how well I was doing compared to the other 5 stores in town.

So......

I decided to stop in at the city utilities and asked them for the 2002 average water usage for the other 5 stores. With a smile the clerk said "Okay"..

For the first 3 months in biz, I had 18% of the total water usage (my 3 months average to their 12 month average) and since it was an average I really can't see how much I am hitting their bottom line from the date I opened the doors.

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The rest of the message deleted because you guys make me nervous.

;o)
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[Kitty]

Duane,

Be very thankful that you have gotten such a great start, you are one of the lucky ones. Your market sounds promising, Im sure you are very happy. I am guessing you entered a market that offered very little before you? Is your competition aged and proven unwilling to provide good services? Those markets are perfect, and good for you for finding one if that is the case. The location is the toughest part of finding a mat that will prove successful. I hope you have great success in your location, but let me give you a hint of advice. Enjoy the rewards of your mat, but by all means continue to cry poor and complain everyday about the hassles. Keep other competition as far away as possible. :)

[Duane]

kitty,

My three main competitors probably hasn't bought equipment in at least 15-20 years and 15-20% of their current equipment is out of order. No one really had anything to offer and they all had a piece of the pie. but each piece of pie was to small to thrive, just enought to survive.

It took me a year to negotioate the lease on my mat and to find another location this close to the university would be very difficult. The last lot to be sold next to the university was nearly $1 million so to buy something to rebuild would be out of the question.

Your advice has been taken. I do complain all the time about the work and yes I act like it is tough on the wallet. But I had to tell someone!!!!!!

I got to go now and clean the mat, pay bills and listen to customers problems.... ;o)

Duane.

[Kitty]

Sounds like you have found a great market and you are lucky. I have no sympathy for the owners who let their mats run down. But some 15 year old equipment is not bad if they had kept them up.....


My advice to you Duane, was to complain about the work, the hassles and the miminmal return of your efforts and your money. Never want anyone know how you do, or how you do it. Many people think they can open a mat and take all the biz from other competitiors, but, only those competitors that have not bothered to appreciate their stores or their customers will lose the most. The pie is small in most markets don't give reasons for another guy to tap into it. :) Great luck!!! Your current count seems like you will do very well, and be profitable vvery quickly, if your not already. Enjoy your hard work!

[Chase13]

I agree with Kitty. Never let anyone know how you do, or how you do it. You never know who may be lurking around waiting to jump in on your action.

Chase13

P.S. Be careful about what you place on the forum because you have your website listed. I do not believe anyone on the board would directly enter your area, but you never know if a neighborhood wolf is reading your posts.

Congrats on your success and continued growth in the future.

[Jim F.]

I agree with both Chase and Kitty. I saw an example of this in my own life just a few weeks ago.

I was trying to aquire a third store. There is a location a few miles from one of my existing stores and it was really run down. I already had most of the customers from that town coming to me because of my new equipment, clean store and no out of order on anything (What a concept :) )

About the 1st of Dec I heard that other store was closed. I went there and sure enough it was. I started calling the property managers and discussed taking it over. All the equipment was in there and the owner had just disappeared. The managers could not get a hold of the old owner for weeks and weeks. I said I didn't want the equipment, just the lease. Old owner was way behind in rent and property managers had assumed utilities to keep them from being shut off. Sort of a golden opportunity.

One day this older fella comes in from that town to wash at my nice laundry. He is talking my ear off about this closed store and asking what needed to be done to fix the equipment there. I said I didn't know, even though I did. It was almost all Gen 4 Wascomat stuff, which probably needed lots of parts, but could be fixed. I kept my mouth shut and just said you can't run a laundry for years and never fix anything, then fix it all up and expect the customers to flock back. I knew I had most of them and I probably won't loose them. Many have told me directly that the only way they would go back there is if I ran it.

Anyways the story ends this way. Property managers give the guy until the end of January to get the act together, or he is out on his bum. He shows up a week ago and they are fixing everything. The older fella who was asking me all the questions is there doing all the repairs. It is a super comical operation. I'm not too disappointed about it, but I do have to laugh a little.

I don't know if I would call him a wolf, maybe more like a fox with dentures.

[Fred50]

Jim,

I've got one for you. I'm outside my store under construction a few weeks back and this guy walks up to me. He tells me that his roommate is looking for a laundromat and he lives across the street (pointing in a general direction). He asks questions that no casual laundry customer would ever ask. This guy must have thought that he was sooooo smooth. Did I fail to mention that he had a Maytag Water Heater hat on?

He wanted to know if it was corporate owned, if it would be hands on managed, who would be maintaining it, etc.

Good thing that I gave him my pat answer to "When are you going to open?". Standard answer - two weeks.

This is obviously a very competitive business, so be careful out there!!

[Fred50]

One more thing - the mat that closed down up the road this month was a Maytag shop. Coincidence - I think not!

[Jim F.]

Mark,

It is just amazing isn't it.

I didn't mention that I tried to buy this store a year ago. I 'heard' that the owner was trying to get out due to financial problems. I had already had a run in with him. I was running some flyers in the local papers, you know the kind that insert in the paper and fall out all over the floor. Well one day he calls our store saying my flyers are on the floor of his mat. He blew a gasket to say the least :) He called and basically threatened my wife that we had put them there and said if he saw them again he "was gonna' come down there". I went in there and saw several copies of the paper and told him they fell out on the floor. I told him he better watch his mouth.

Anyway I called him and asked if he wanted to sell. He said he did and suggested he needed 70K. I just about choked and asked how he got that figure. He said he owned 40K on the equip., and other stuff. I said I didn't want any of it since I had used equip. which I was replacing. His was only good for starting an artificial reef somewhere. I told him to call me back when he was serious. The next week he calls me and says he does owe the money on equip. but there was nothing in writing and he could tell this person to take a hike. He then offered to sell me just the business for 30K. I said someone loans you 40K and there is nothing in writing? I told him to get lost then for the last time.

[buddy]

Duane, You are the lucky one. However, new equipments and new Laundromat does not neccessarily mean that customers are going to leave existing Mats and flock to the new ones.

Initially when it is new, people want to try it out. I have all 12 yrs old Wasco Gen4 and my MAT has been in existence for 12 years.

Couple years ago a brand new Mega MAT opened up about half mile from me and initially I lost about 20-30% of my customers. Few weeks later they all came back. They hate the new machines in new MAT and they hate the prices. Everyone of them tell me they stopped going there and will never go there. I stopped by at this new MAT few weeks ago on Monday. My place was mobbed at around 7:00pm on Monday. I walked into the new Mega Mat and there were three customers. I had every Washer and Dryer running at that time.

People complain that his washers does not have enough water and cycles are too short. The clothes don't clean very well. They also complain that his new Dryers don't dry clothes as well and they have to keep feeding the quarters. He gives them 7 minutes for a quarter and I give them 10 minutes. He probably doesn't have rinse cycle and may be he eliminated couple other cycles. He has Huebsch washers and speed queen dryers.

I also noticed that he had about 6 dryers out of service, which is nothing for him considering he has 40 of them. He has small convenince store in there and I noticed stale coffee in the coffee pots and two spanish attendants yapping away at each other not giving damn about anyone.

[pete f]

As Buddy has said, not all new mats make it. The guy across the street from me has been open about the same amount of time you have and he is on track for about $1500 a week, not a great return on a $3000+ rent and a cost of $465,000. You may have hit gold in them hills, I would guard the mine carefully.. I am glad to hear you have done this at an unattended mat with a card system, I am looking that way on my next mat, which will be a remodel from an exsiting dump. As far as buying out comp, just give them a call.