Dryer Pricing

[Anonymous]

With energy pricing again accelerating its time to be sure your dryers are priced to keep up with costs. What are you charging today?

If you don't use US$ or don't price by the quarter please calculate the cents per minute you charge an pick the closest equivalent value.

As an example I have a card system and charge 28 cents for 7 minutes which comes out to 4 cents per minute - so I picked 6 minutes per quarter which is close to my per minute charge.

Include total time the customer sees, including cool down.

IF YOU HAVE MULTIPLE STORES:
=========================
If you have multiple stores please enter one store and PM me with the details on the other stores and I will manually enter the data. Thus, this poll will be per store not per owner.

[anonymous]

Would the amount of time per quarter not be an accurate reflection on value per quarter; consider two major factors in value one to the customer and the other to the owner.

They are dryer performance and economy. Newer dryers would benefit both customer and owner. If my dryers would dry clothes quicker I would charge more coin/minute or less minutes/coin. Customers would notice the quicker dry time and wouldn't worry so much with cost, and they would never realize the mat is making not only more money on the time but on the economic benefits of the dryer.

To get an accurate poll you would need to include dryer make & model as well as the time/coin.

[pete f]

I have 1 store @ 6 mins, 2 stores at 7.5 mins, they are differenet markets. I see 8 to 7.5 is more common, the last gas crunch 10/12 was more common. So far my gas bills have not been "killer" and I am soft about the whole economic situation right now, around me, meaning when my customers start making more money I will extract it from them, right now I do not see a reason. I am higher, and never was the cheapest, but my price hikes have slowed a little. I am mulling over my next price increases after the war. And of course still mulling over a price decrease at the one small store.

[Duane]

Is this include cool down, just heating, or both?

[Anonymous]

ReignMaker - in a perfect world it would be great to balance all this out. I would love to see a definitive answer to the question what dryer is cheapest to operate (owner perspective) and which one dries the best (customer perspective). Unfortunately no one puts together such an analysis. Furher, a lot has to do with the installation and mainenance as well. If you starve dryers for make-up air - which MANY mats do, they will burn more gas and not dry very well. Same goes for if you don't keep lint screens clean.

Further, evey market is different as to costs and competition. All things being equal one would expect dryers to cost more in an area where rents ran $30/sqft than in one where they ran $5/sqft. Same goes for energy costs. Market competition is a key point as well, if all your competitors vend for 12 minutes, you would be hard pressed to be able to vend at 6 minutes. Similarly, if all your competitors vended at 7 minutes, you would have to evaluate if it made any business sense to vend at 15 minutes.

There is no right answer for every location. The purpose of this poll is just to see what people are doing, and maybe make those that are at the low end in revenue per minute think and see if they should make adjustments.

[soaps]

I've been at 8min/Q for 3 years now. Unfortunately, it took the energy crisis to get most mat owners to raise prices and in my town, some didn't even raise prices back then. I would really love to raise my prices again to 6 min but my market wouldn't allow. I had a new store open a block away 2.5 years ago; it just went bankrupt. Now another guy bought out that store. This is the 3rd store in that location. Always cheaper than I am. You'd think they'd put 2+2 together.

[Andy]

I too have a competitor dump nearly $800k into a mat about 2 miles from me. He told me last summer he was losing $3k to $4k per month. He asked me if I wanted to buy for what he had into it (yeah right). He has now officially listed the place for sale. Which is good news and bad at the same time. If he sells the thing for anything over $400k the new owner is likely to lose and may resort to a pricing competition-that will hurt the rest of us. Of coures this may bring in a marginal amount of new business for the new owner but not enough to make it work. Two years down the road he will do the same-sell and the process will start over. In the mean time the rest of the operators will lose. The distributors need to get a clue. I don't mind competition, however selling pie in the sky dreams to the uninitiated is in my view is a crime. They in fact are paid consultants with an obvious conflict of interest.

[RAM]

i just got my pse&g bill $0.79/therm x 3550 therms=$2804.50 +$847.20 for delivery=$3651.70 total gas bill only
electric $802.74
dryer price $0.25/8min
time to increse washer and dryer prices

[Anonymous]

That was the point of this poll, to make people think about increasing before the rude awakening that is coming to a laundromat you own - soon.

[Andy]

Ouch! $0.79, I've never seen prices that high. The highest I have paid is $0.64 per therm.

[CharlieS]

I was the first in my town to go to 7 minutes per quarter. My TD3030s dry faster and hotter than my competitors. I told my customers, "Don't worry about the time, worry about the quarters. Let me know if you are spending more". They don't come back and complain afterwards. In fact, many tell me that they are saving sigificant amounts since they started using my mat, and I have the highest prices in town.

Efficiency and equipment do make a difference. I have 2 4' x8' louvered openings providing makeup air to 15 stacks and 2 50 pounders. I know that nearly all of my competition has inadequate makeup air. Yes, that is 64 square feet of makeup air opening, which less the louvers works out to about 48 square feet of air opening. We took out the bug screens, because they became too clogged.

This met the recommendations of Wasco, which called for 2 cubic feet per stack of unobstructed air. They said to reduce the opening by half to account for screens and louvers. My other store has about 24 square feet of opening for 12 stacks, but with a screen. I think it is slightly starved and plan to remove the screens there as well.

ADC says to give 1.5 square feet per stack, and don't worry about the screens. I meet that criteria at the other store, but don't think its adequate.

Charlie

[Kitty]

Who's raising what to combat the increase in gas prices? Dryers washers both or absorb?

[Andy]

I went to 7 min per $0.25 and up a quarter on all front loaders. for example 50#=$4.25.

[SudsMan]

I just got my gas bill. Went from $0.64 per therm to $0.75 in one month! I'm going from 9 minutes to 7 minutes for a quarter on dryers and from $1.25 to $1.50 for top loaders and from $2.50 to $3.00 for 30# Wascos. I'm now the high price leader and will remain so. I'll get some griping but I'll show a graph of the increased costs and most folks will stay with me. We run a VERY clean place, well lit, bright, nice attendants, etc. and that's what sells every time.

[William]

Welcome to my world - .98441 per therm on the first 130 therms, 1.05032 on the next 958 therms, then an addtional .0161 on the remaining therms. That is why I am 6 minutes per quarter on my 30#, 5 minutes on my 50#!

[Lar Hylobates]

Now you're going to make me look.

I was paying about 1.25 to 1.50 per therm last year or the year before. I'm already 2 minutes less than my competition, so I guess I was proactive about 6 months ago???

[Tini Bubbles]

I just went to 6 Min' per 30 Lb, and 3.50 for the tripples.
My doubles are still at 2.00
Tini

My other store that is Unatended is 10 min dry,with two minuite cool down. He, He! , heck, I might go down to 9 Min.
1.50 for doubles. and 2.25 for tripples. Oh well, just the area and people.
Tini

[SudsMan]

Latest gas bill went from 77 cents to 87 cents per therm. And the curve still has a positive slope. I may be facing dropping dryer times from 7 minutes (implemented on 3/10) to 6 minutes.

[Tini Bubbles]

I just checked most recent gas bill.
.78 Per therm. Bend me over man, cause I see it comming!.
What a yank Eh!.
Tini

[Tini Bubbles]

CharlieS,
In my opion, it doesn't matter how much make up air you have if it can't exit the building as fast as it comes in. Plus dryer configuration, ribbed tubbing, harsh bends, no vaines in 60 degree elbows. size of pipe should always be bigger if possible.
8" to 10 for an exit.
BTU also is a huge factor.
Your TD 30/30 would work better or worse in a differant climat and store all to gether.
My huebsch blow everyone out of the water do to the nature of the beast. But My ADC have phase 2 computers in them so I can dick around with setting for cost savings. this is the wrong answer, I will run these ADC on standard settings and turn them into flame throwers Like my Huebsch. No cool down at all exept for P/P, this is always 2 min' cool down.
Hence, my ADC will become the next flame throwers in the city.
Customers want hot, not cool down or low temps.
Tini two cents



Originally posted by CharlieS
I was the first in my town to go to 7 minutes per quarter. My TD3030s dry faster and hotter than my competitors. I told my customers, "Don't worry about the time, worry about the quarters. Let me know if you are spending more". They don't come back and complain afterwards. In fact, many tell me that they are saving sigificant amounts since they started using my mat, and I have the highest prices in town.

Efficiency and equipment do make a difference. I have 2 4' x8' louvered openings providing makeup air to 15 stacks and 2 50 pounders. I know that nearly all of my competition has inadequate makeup air. Yes, that is 64 square feet of makeup air opening, which less the louvers works out to about 48 square feet of air opening. We took out the bug screens, because they became too clogged.

This met the recommendations of Wasco, which called for 2 cubic feet per stack of unobstructed air. They said to reduce the opening by half to account for screens and louvers. My other store has about 24 square feet of opening for 12 stacks, but with a screen. I think it is slightly starved and plan to remove the screens there as well.

ADC says to give 1.5 square feet per stack, and don't worry about the screens. I meet that criteria at the other store, but don't think its adequate.

Charlie

[brucefla]

just got my gas bill

OUCH!

from .69/therm to .96/therm!!!!

I just signed with a bulk purchaser and looked at the spread over the last 4 years, I should make out OK

the other alternative was to lock in at .79/therm for a year. I didnt feel comfortable with that