Small Town Laundry

[mamakris]

So much information and still not enough. And so many questions! We too have been thinking about opening a laundry and have read and read about how much, how many, how this and how that, but no one here that I could find really ever mentioned if theirs were in small towns, big towns or what. We are in a small town in Okla. Less than 5000 population. There is one coin op laundry here and I wouldn't was my dogs bed there. It is awful! That is how we came up with the idea of putting in another one but would like to know how others do in a small towns. Can anyone out there let us know?
Thanks
Kris

[batwing]

Like any service business, you must know if there is a need for the services. You say there is one coin-op in your one horse town and that it is not worthy of laundering your dogs bedding, but are other people using the store? What do the demographics indicate? Are there a large population of renters without machines? There are alot of questions to be answered and CLA can help you with more. Additionally, if the existing store looks slow, but you find there is a need for these services, you might offer to take the business off their hands. This would save you $$ instead of a new build and you could remodel and create a pleasant environment suitable for your dog and people. Good Luck!!

[petefritz]

In small towns there may no be enough biz for 2 mats. I would try to buy the other out. Tell them you are going to open a new mat and want to know if they are interested in selling.

[mamakris]

Problam with purchasing the one that is here, is that it is attached to a Packaging store and a quick shop, all in one building, a rather run down one on top of that, the laundry part doesn't even have a seperate electric meter, we called and checked. There is no parking and it has a lot of draw backs and I really think we could pull customers from it. Was just wondering if anyone out there owns a laundry in a smaller community. The community about 45 miles from here has a really nice laundry, a Maytag Home Laundry, and the sizes of towns are about the same, we are going to call and see about what their utilities are and any other info we can get from them. Thanks to all who has answered our post. We really appreciate any and all info.
Kris

[Ronald]

I am buying a mat in a small town (6,500) it has 2 mats one that has just had a make over all new machines and new higher prices and then there is the mat i am buying it is in bad shape with 5 or 6 washers down and 6 dryers not working and has not been cleaned in years. but it is doing real good business for the shape it is in a week of TLC and a few new machines it will be a real money maker. Good luck as others have said try to buy the old mat never know what a steal of a deal you might get!!