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I am the proprietor of a laundromat business in Miami. We serve a variety of customers from local to businesses. We have your normal washers you find up front that we bought in bulk from Kenmore for customers to use on coin operated as well as dryers. However we also have massive industrial washers for businesses. For industrial washes we use the Kenmore Elite 41072 a behemoth of a washing machine with a 5.2 cubic foot drum inside. The sucker can wash 8 pounds of clothes in under 30 minutes flat. It also does an amazing job at removing stains from clothes which was one of the big selling points to most of our contracted businesses. Businesses that contract with us receive a bulk discount, which works out well for both of us in the long run. We've done everything from hotels, restaurants, and even more unique cases. One of the more recent clients we signed a contract with is a notable pornography business located in the US. My laundromat is one of the newer in the Miami area (only several years old) Our motto is, "Clean clothes and fun while you wait!" We focus on making our customers comfortable while doing laundry and offer free wi-fi along with a snack area where they are able to sit down at several tables and browse the internet or enjoy a drink / snack while they wait. We also have a selection of magazines and ways to kill the boredom. We're also thinking of constructing a small play area for guests who have children so their kids can be kept occupied while doing their loads. A television or two is also in consideration, but right now most people seem to be happy with the wi-fi area. So far the feedback as been positive and business has been going well. We're located in a very populated rental area where a lot of the condos / apartments do not have built in washer driers. We're also considering offer laundry services at a higher rate to customers similar to what Peapod does with groceries but with people's laundry. One of the biggest concerns and costs I've found so far with running a laundry business is water. I cannot stress how much water costs can bite you in the butt. Energy star and water efficient machines are a MUST. We're talking easily 3,000 gallons on a light day and if we get business from a hotel or other businesses it can get up to 70-80,000. That's A LOT of water. That alone is a huge price factor, maintaining the machines as well as hooking up new machines can range anywhere from $200 to several thousand dollars depending on the machine. Each hookup to the sewer has be connected professionally and approved by the city. Not to mention all the legal fees and licensing involved. The whole project has been rather costly, but after several years we're finally starting to see a decent profit turned. If you have any questions please feel free to ask. I'll be glad to fill you in.
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Oct 28, 2014 03:44
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 10:48 |
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YourHealthyColon posted:what drugs do you sell. Weed obviously, but what else. My establishment is clean. We do not solicit any illegal substances. whoflungpoop posted:Who's the weirdest customer you've had? Well I wouldn't call them customers but we occasionally get a mentally ill gentlemen we refer to by Frank. He isn't exactly a bad guy but he thinks that the government has aliens monitoring us. We usually give him some water and a some healthier food from our vending machine and send him on his way. He doesn't come by too often but I try to treat him nicely when he does. For some reason he always wears this ungodly heavy leather jacket no matter the heat. That's why I try to make sure we always give him some bottled water so he doesn't dehydrate. frajaq posted:How did you/do you deal with competition in your area of others laundromats? What we're currently doing is trying to make the laundromat more comfortable. Including Wi-fi was a BIG pull in. People love being able to browse the net and relax while doing their laundry. Snacks and the kid play area we're working on is definitely going to bring in more people too. You can always tell when a parent comes in with kids they really wish they had some way to keep them occupied while trying to load laundry and just relax. Also we cater to both the English speaking and Spanish speaking community. Hablamos Espaņol!
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Oct 28, 2014 04:06
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Xun posted:how do you feel about porn I treat them like any other client. Honestly their stuff is a lot less worse than the hotels we get in terms of bodily fluids. You wouldn't believe how nasty some of the hotel bedding and towels we get are. I have all outside laundry handled very carefully. I make my workers wear thick rubber gloves while handling it just in case there is any mess and I have a lot of antiseptic soap for after handling. I've never had an issue with them as they pay on time and are often very friendly. It isn't like the actors come in here and do their loads. Although they might, but we treat them like any other customer if they did. In all sincerity hotels give the biggest loads to do and often the messiest. They really run the washing machines through the ringer, but so far the heavy load Kenmore's have held out pretty well. I asked my friend who is a plumber actually about male bodily fluids and pipes as I had heard rumors they can gum them up and cause problems. He assured me the washing machines wouldn't have any issue and so far so good.
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Oct 28, 2014 04:57
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Throwdini posted:Do you think you'll have the opportunity to expand to a second location at some point? Would you like to? Currently I'm happy with just one. Setting up a laundromat was a nightmare and a half. There is a lot that goes into it. For the place alone you're looking at about 200-300k for a small one. We have a bigger one and we lucked out getting it at a reasonable price. That doesn't fact in the cost of installing machines, buying machines, soap dispensers, fees, staff hiring, etc... It can be profitable but it also is nerve wrecking as it is a lot of money to run up front for a non existing place. Plexiwatt posted:what is martinizing and how the gently caress does dry cleaning work I have no idea what martinizing is but I think it is a line of dry cleaners. As we don't personally handle dry cleaning I can't really help you with that. But I believe it involves not using water to clean garments.
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Oct 28, 2014 06:23
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Throwdini posted:What do you do with clothes people leave behind at the place? Got any socks you can spare? haha Left behind clothes go into a lost and found bin and they sit there for a month or so. Whatever clothes we have left behind usually goes to Purple Heart / Goodwill if it isn't claimed in that period of time. Obviously personal garments like underpants we just throw out... I remember one time a part timer showed me a g-string he found left behind and I had to inform him it was a man's g-string and he looked rather unsettled by that.
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Oct 28, 2014 07:15
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Ms. Happiness posted:How did you get in the business? What did you do beforehand? Before I got in the business I was and still am a software programmer. The business itself didn't pay the bills for the first year or so. I went into the laundry business with my older brother who is a lawyer when his daughter started college. It kind of started as a funny discussion about how much laundromats near campuses rip people off with increased rates. This definitely isn't a business you jump into without the right financial means and loan backings. It is surprisingly costly for setup. some texas redneck posted:My uncle actually bought a laundromat a few years back, and has been doing decent with it. But there's several things he's always worried about. We actually are in the process of switching over from coin to card operated as it leaves less of a monetary trail. As for vandalism we hire part time workers to work at the laundry 24/7 as a help desk. The area we're in is fairly upscale so robbery hasn't been a issue yet, but we make it clear we have security cameras and that the employee on hand doesn't have access to the money and only carries like 25 dollars at most. This said we do use an armored truck, better safe than sorry. We use brinks and it has been a decent service so far. One thing I have been considering is getting in some pinball / arcade cabinets but space can be an issue. And yes dryers are generally cheaper than the larger machines just because that water factors in so much. I never realized how costly doing a small load of laundry can be until we started this endeavor. As for maintenance we have a contract with Kenmore that sends out a local contractor through them if machines break down and we have enough that generally even during busy times we have one or two open. The worst vandalism I think we've had is some soap gang signs being written on the windows which we washed off immediately. I'm considering hiring two full time managers to run the place so I don't have to pop in as often. Although I feel it still is important to make sure you're involved and your presence is known because if you care about your business and employees they're likely to care more too. Saltin posted:Yeah but do you sell them? haha sorry to inform you I'm not Walter White. Liar posted:Do you make enough from the laundromat that you don't need a job otherwise? Is the place a serious money-maker, or more just a retirement plan? The money is finally getting decent, but I don't know if I plan to keep in this in the long run. I may let my brother buy my share out. Honestly I'd say don't quit your day job as it feels honestly like a crap shoot unless you can find the right area. Like I mentioned above I still program freelance on the side. Luvcow posted:Ya came to ask this. Wondering if it's a rewarding career and if you feel fulfilled with your job and whatever you do in your free time? Its nice to always see something you put a lot of effort into succeed but to me laundromat owner hasn't been a life long dream. My free time is honestly not as much as it used to be. But I spend it pretty much like your average goon. Although definitely monitoring and checking up on the laundromat is something I'd rather not do, but I know I have to. My brother and I take every other 2 weeks in managing it. tonberrytoby posted:Do you get a lot of people joking about money laundering or hiding meth-labs in your cellar? Once and a while we hear some comparisons to breaking bad but we inform them sadly it isn't that Glorious or adventurous. Mostly just in joking. I've never had any offers and we don't really have a basement that would probably be suited for it. I think I'd call the cops if anyone came in offering that. I almost forgot to answer the auditing question above. We try and keep decent records and Brinks has a coin processor they use. As far as being worried about auditing not really. As long as the government gets their cut they seem to leave us alone. My brother used to deal in taxes and dealing with the IRS so he has a lot of experience in that area. Honestly our biggest concern is just making sure our employees are part time (excluding truck drivers / mega washers). As we really don't want to pay for health insurance. I know that sounds cruel but the front isn't exactly the hardest job in the world. Our truck drivers though we do cover and have to insure automotive / health wise. The guys work their butts off loading and unloading clothes as well as operating the mega washers. Like I mentioned that's the contracted out washers. So basically we treat anything from the hotels / porn industry as potential bio hazard stuff so we have them wear gloves and make sure it gets cleaned to hell and back again. Seriously though while the porn industry has had some funny outfits and other things come in (we've had a lot of lacy garments you have to wash with care so they actually go in a smaller washer.) The most disgusting stuff generally comes from hotels. I've had workers tell me they've had sheets that look like someone basically had a huge period on them. We do our best to get them out. Basically we request that if the hotel sees bloody sheets they want us to try and clean that they put them in a separate pile / bag as we have special detergent we use to get blood out. The American Dream posted:Smart move getting wifi. There's a chain in my city that while the places are exceptionally clean. Like in the 2 hours id be there I'd always see someone do a sweep and mop. But they never had any wifi for some reason so I don't go there anymore. Everyone loves the wi-fi we get a lot of college students so they generally come in and sit there for hours on their laptops watching netflix.
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Oct 28, 2014 22:30
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whoflungpoop posted:How do your employees feel about it? Have any of your employees ever voiced objections to servicing organizations in the porn industry? I mean morally or ethically, not just "ew biohazard?" Or is it just another day in the shop that's not as gross as hotel linens? Most of my employees are college kids so they seem to either not care or claim they've seen porn stars who come in to do laundry loads. (We give discount coupons occasionally to our contract based customers for their staff. So it wouldn't surprise me.) I have seen some younger women who look like they've had surgery done on their breasts, but I never inquire. I just always treat them like I'd treat anyone else. Friendly and grateful to have a customer. Plus I haven't seen any of the company we're contracted with's work before. I really don't frequent that section of the internet very much anymore. If anyone had an issue with it I'd suggest they find a different job. We pay above min wage to college students to basically sit around and make sure people don't vandalize and help customers with questions out. Its rather easy to study here too as we have wi-fi and for the most part you just have to say hello to people and ask them if they need anything. The full time staff seems to treat it like any other job so they're just happy to be insured and have bosses that treat them with some level of respect. They don't have any easy job and I certainly wouldn't want to do it. Deadclown posted:Stephen King wrote his first novel while working in a laundromat. Are you planning on doing the same and what genre will it be? Well I do a lot of writing and programming code on my laptop when I'm there. So the closet thing I guess I'd be writing would be some kind of app / code that may develop sentience and rebel against its masters. So, some kind of sci-fi horror app that decides it is going to order Chinese food when you asked for Jamaican. Terrifying. Throwdini posted:Will you try to accept bitcoin? It's really not that hard. Haha unfortunately we only accept US currency at the current time and have no plans to expand to bitcoin. As I'm pretty sure my employees would not accept that as a paycheck either.
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Oct 29, 2014 00:27
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BiggerBoat posted:I had an idea a long time ago to open a combination laundromat/pool hall/arcade/bar where you could do your wash and then go in the other room and shoot some stick, have a drink, watch the game or what have you. This way you're not bored waiting for you wash and you don't have to risk leaving it. Honestly I thought about this a bit too. Not the whole ball and wax like you want with a pool hall, but some kind of workout and laundry center. Like exercise while you do your laundry. But the space you'd need the equipment you'd need and the overhead costs are insane. Like washers are not cheap. Also you'd need to get a liquor license which would be expensive. I think its a clever idea but you double your risk because now you're trying to run two businesses in one. Not to mention you'd have to find the space to rent that would fit for you, zone regulations... etc.... Or you'd have to build it from scratch. You can run a few arcade machines easily in a laundromat without issue or maybe even a pool table. But if you try to run a bar as well you're really setting yourself up for potential fail in both areas. If even one doesn't succeed you either have to pour more resources into fixing it, or you have to cut it off then you have a lot of excess space not being used that you're paying for. I'd love to see it pulled off but you know what they say about putting all your eggs in one basket.
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Oct 29, 2014 01:16
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MC Hawking posted:Do you have an accountant or do you try to keep all your calculating done in house? I work for a very small business and the owner is super close to the chest about the finances so I'm perpetually wondering if we're profitable. Have any of the part timers shown any aptitude in management or interest? While I can't speak for your owner most of the book keeping is done by me and my brother. Brinks will sort and tell us how much money we have out of the coin operated machines, and frankly we're at the point where we're switching to digital cards because that can all be tracked easier and its less hassle than having coins counted. The only money management the part timers have is the $25 we keep on hand. That's used if a machine eats someone's money or breaks and we need to refund a customer. They mark down what machine and the time. I haven't really had any of the part timers show any interested in management, but really like I said they don't handle that much currency. My brother's wife is in savings and loans so she tends to double check our records and expenses to see if we fudged anything or if anything looks off. So it saves us a little money on having to hire an accountant. I suppose if his wife didn't want to handle it anymore and one of our part timers was going into accounting we may try to get an internship worked out for them. But, even then I'd still want to double check their work to make sure the counts are accurate. E: Speaking from personal experience your owner may be afraid to show the funds because maybe hes making more and you might want a better pay raise. Or because he's barely making ends meat. The best way to tell for sure is if you try and cash your paycheck and problems happen. Honestly though I hope hes making more because at least then you know you've got some form of job security.
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Oct 29, 2014 01:41
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Big Bad Voodoo Lou posted:You mentioned being in an upscale area of Miami. What part of town are you in? (I'm from South Miami/Kendall originally, so I was just curious.) We're in the Brickell / Key Biscayne area Throwdini posted:I'm being a little cheeky here, but I gotta ask you if stuff like this: A little, but not really. The stuff they're printing right now seems limited. Not to mention the coloring / style seems fairly bland. Would be cool to see the stuff! But I'd imagine it will still start to smell after a while. It might actually make things easier on us too! Less water used, cheaper all around for customers. Meaning we can keep profiting at lower rates. Choco1980 posted:This is interesting to me because I spent over 6 years working at a laundromat/dry cleaners. I was the counter monkey, spending about half the operating hours there. Glad to hear your boss is still doing well and I hope you've moved onto better things. Your boss definitely is bigger scale than us from the sounds of it for sure. It does really seem that TVs arcades and snack machines are common in a lot of places. I'm guessing others are starting to adopt to wi-fi as well. Also thanks for filling me in on the dry cleaning. I kinda figured it was something like that but didn't realize what a chemical nightmare it could be 
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Oct 29, 2014 06:06
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swickles posted:I live near there! So, uhhh.....goon discount? Haha we'll have to see when we switch over to prepaid cards Maybe I can hook you up with a few free washes. The Gay Bean posted:There's a combo bar/coffee shop/restaurant/laundromat in San Francisco called Brainwash that seems to do really well. Not disagreeing with any of the good reasons not to do such a thing, just providing an example of such a thing done well. I wouldn't doubt it isn't possible, but like we've stated its just a big risk. I think some kind of gym / laundromat could work as a healthy way to keep in shape while you get your laundry done, but even then I just think do you really want to be sweaty after working out and get your clean clothes? Would have to include showers etc...
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Oct 30, 2014 02:23
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 10:48 |
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Choco1980 posted:For the record, on the one hand I feel totally betrayed in the loyal order of laundromats (See the sticky thread in GBS for more info), on the other, props to the OP for being able to construct a convincing story. Lol that's a pretty good scare. Also just remember: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn_PSJsl0LQ In all sincerity I have a lot more respect for people who run laundromats now. It isn't an easy thing to get into. I did a lot of research about getting into and all the costs and ways to draw people into your laundromats. I guess it is the same for any business, but holy cow you guys go through a TON of water. E: Unless any actual laundromat owners want to take over the thread I'm going to close it. I hope this has been somewhat informative. Al Borland fucked around with this message at 21:15 on Oct 30, 2014 |
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Oct 30, 2014 07:46
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It's ten at night, pitch black outside, with nobody in the store, and I'd already turned off the tvs, so it's dead silent. Apparently my life had just become a slasher movie. I have to do it, I have to reach inside the machine and make sure the agitator isn't jammed on something. 
Luckily it wasn't, and when I closed it, the machine kicked back into life. Eventually I would realize that someone had been dying their clothes in the machine (something that is clearly stated as being against the rules) and dashed out before I caught them. But I tell you, at the time when I opened that machine and saw it filled with blood-red water, I was one weird noise away from running right out of the building and saying "gently caress it" to finishing my duties.