Utility Cost

[lisalaundrylady]

My mat is in the Philadelphia area & our gas prices have just taken a major leap. Is anyone else out there experiencing obscene hikes in utilities? What are you doing about it?

[Howard]

Drinking heavily!

Not too much that can be done, gas is high and will stay that way for quite a while. I'm thinking or charging more, cutting dry times, or dropping dryer temperatures - all of which will go over like a lead ballon with customers. I'd like to hear what others are doing.

[petefritz]

belly up to the bar, have a hangover gas headache!
You got no choice but to lower dry time, or raise washer price. Do not lower temp, it pisses off customers and will create bottlenecks on busy days because of the extra time needed to dry at lower temps. Call other l'mats in your area, see what they plan to do, sure, I hear it is illeagal, some price fixing act from the 40's, but does the goverment really care you are getting high gas bills jammed up your butt? They ain't going to give you the difference. I am posting news items about NG problems, along with price charts to show just how much gas has gone up. If everybody goes up, and they have to, as the guy down the street has the same problem you do, then customers won't revolt much. There may be some that go to other l'mats, but then those mats will have some customers coming to you. Is a little circle of business. Try to educate the customer so they understand it is not going in your pocket, and for the last few months you been taking it on the chin.
really dryers need to be around 6 mins to make what you were making a year ago.
If prices come down, and they will little by little, you need that extra for all the water and sewer and rent price increases you absorbed.

[Howard]

Can you post some of those articles here, or reference the url's for them.

Thanks

[Larry]

I have a small laundry in Modesto CA and the gas prices have been knocking people's socks off. In November, my gas bill was $870 and December's jumped to $1200. I will get January's bill soon...(I'm sure some of you would like to trade bills but it's a small store. I have to reduce my dryer time to 8 minutes/.25 and by doing so I will probably be OK but we'll see. It's time to consider options. One headache is the very large laundry equipment manufacturer (or maybe their distributor) who claims to be out of the parts I need to make my drying time shorter. Maximus bummer...

[Tim]

I own a laundry here in southern California where gas prices have gone through the roof. I was charging 25 cents for 10 minutes and that has been dropped to 6.5 minutes and will drop again if gas prices continue to go up. In addition, I raised my toploaders a quarter and ALL my frontloaders 50 cents. I believe that my customers have gas bills too and they understand what is going on. I posted gas prices along with notes describing exactly why all the increases are needed. So far, not ONE complaint and my numbers have not declined at all. BE HONEST, but realize you are not doing this for community service. You are doing this to MAKE A PROFIT!!!! GOOD LUCK!!

Don't lower your dryer time or temp. We went from 10 minutes to 7.5 minutes in the early 80's and the customers screamed and yelled.
We have tripled our top loader prices in the same time period and no one ever complains.
In FL we have documented that a little over half of our gas goes towards heating your water for our washers.
If you raise all your washers a quarter it should easily pay for any increases in your gas bill plus you can give yourself a raise.
Good luck

[petefritz]

I have a chart of NG that shows price since Jan '96. The chart is steady till summer of this year when it has gone up 300%. It is in .gif format and printable. Shows gas going from 3.00 to 10.00 in Jan, since has fallen to 7.00. This is NY henry hub delivery, but you get the idea. Search "Natural gas" for stories about people having a hard time heating home, etc. I agree with Reynolds, should ALSO raise washer prices too. Gas might get back to 3.00, 4.00 level by the end of next year, it has fallen the last few days to "only" double of last year, meaning a 50% increase in your gas bill if it does not go down further. Here we get billed for the gas, then the pipline delivery fee, local taxes, etc, so about 1/2 the bill is really gas. If you sit thru all that lost profit, at least 15% is your cash flow it will take time to recoup it. Dryers should be about 4-5 min to make the same money you were making last year on them, but people will have fits if you crank them down that low!
My email is fritzp11@yahoo.com
Pete

[Marianne]

I left the times the same but doubled the price. Then I put up big signs telling people that it now takes two quarters to do what one quarter used to do. I also urged them to use the extractor to regain almost half of the price increase. So far people seem just as happy to throw in another handfull of quarters.

[Howard]

I woke up at 5:30am this morning, went to my PC, logged into my store, and raised washer prices an average of 6% this morning. Hope that helps!

[petefritz]

Howard, I hope you brushed your teeth first <G>
I did 1 mat so far, replacing cams. I got it down to less then 2 mins.. I am having signs changed for another, from 6 1/2 to 6 mins, then I will reprogram the old fashoined way, machine by machine. I have 1 mat on propane, which has not shot thru the roof like NG, but may go to 1.50 tops soon anyway, as I sat thru propane hikes last year.
The one mat I raised so far, I only lowered the single 105000 btu ( 7 1/2 to 6 1/2 min) dryers so far, when I was in the other day they were all full, while the stacks 8/min were empty.
People know which dryers they like I guess, it is not all about money all the time.

[TKLaundry]

We are looking at raising prices to try to deal with utility costs as well, For those of you who have raised dryer prices what kind of impact is it having on weekend bottlenecks? As it is on weekends here we could use another dozen dryers, I'm reluctant to do anything that will increase the time a customer's clothes stay in the dryers now.