JuniperoSerra
07-14-2008, 05:23 AM
Long winded..., please stick with me!
I'm considering buying my first mat. The mat nets about $5.5k/month with the owners acting as attendants 6 hrs/day. It grosses about 12k/month, averages 200hcf of water.
Currently, the place is basically a dump. It's in a completely hispanic neighborhood, and the owners don't speak spanish. Also, I've observed that they sort of avoid eye contact with customers and generally "hide" from them.
About half the washers in the store are broken, with only tape over them to indicate as such. The walls have grafitti, the floor is old and broken up in places, there is no where to sit, nothing to drink, nothing to eat. There is a bathroom, but it's a dump too. All signage is in english, and generally innaccurate. There is no spanish signage, yet 95% of the customer base only speak spanish. The place is relatively clean though. (But for some reason the owners don't know how to paint?, or fix a machine?, strange)
When I go to this laundry there is usually one customer here for every five I see at the place down the street. The place down the street (about 4 blocks away) has good street visibility, which this one does not. The one down the street really is a well managed card store, great lighting, good machine mix, lots of windows, small play area for kids, nice places to sit. It is further though from the apartment complexes that mostly it draws customers from.
My plan: I want to buy this place, have attendants most of the time (after 10 or 11am). They will speak spanish. All signs in the place will be both english and spanish, and the name itself spanish. (I'm bilingual, first language english) Replace flooring, paint over graffitti, add seating, replace all washers except existing large-ish washers. Add street visible signage.
What I am really curious about is those of you who have remodeled in the past, what type of change in your gross have you seen? I'm going to take a big hit to net by putting in paid attendants, if I can't get that back by improving the store, I'm not sure the investment will be worth it.
The other store has a permanent advantage in it's visibility from the street, and it's large windows. This location has no windows basically, and there isn't really a good way to put them in as it's sort of "boxed in" in the complex. Only one door faces the parking lot. (There is plenty of parking though)
I'm considering buying my first mat. The mat nets about $5.5k/month with the owners acting as attendants 6 hrs/day. It grosses about 12k/month, averages 200hcf of water.
Currently, the place is basically a dump. It's in a completely hispanic neighborhood, and the owners don't speak spanish. Also, I've observed that they sort of avoid eye contact with customers and generally "hide" from them.
About half the washers in the store are broken, with only tape over them to indicate as such. The walls have grafitti, the floor is old and broken up in places, there is no where to sit, nothing to drink, nothing to eat. There is a bathroom, but it's a dump too. All signage is in english, and generally innaccurate. There is no spanish signage, yet 95% of the customer base only speak spanish. The place is relatively clean though. (But for some reason the owners don't know how to paint?, or fix a machine?, strange)
When I go to this laundry there is usually one customer here for every five I see at the place down the street. The place down the street (about 4 blocks away) has good street visibility, which this one does not. The one down the street really is a well managed card store, great lighting, good machine mix, lots of windows, small play area for kids, nice places to sit. It is further though from the apartment complexes that mostly it draws customers from.
My plan: I want to buy this place, have attendants most of the time (after 10 or 11am). They will speak spanish. All signs in the place will be both english and spanish, and the name itself spanish. (I'm bilingual, first language english) Replace flooring, paint over graffitti, add seating, replace all washers except existing large-ish washers. Add street visible signage.
What I am really curious about is those of you who have remodeled in the past, what type of change in your gross have you seen? I'm going to take a big hit to net by putting in paid attendants, if I can't get that back by improving the store, I'm not sure the investment will be worth it.
The other store has a permanent advantage in it's visibility from the street, and it's large windows. This location has no windows basically, and there isn't really a good way to put them in as it's sort of "boxed in" in the complex. Only one door faces the parking lot. (There is plenty of parking though)