Laundromat in town of 2000???

[Sipper]

I currently own a carwash and am now looking into the possibility of opening a Laundromat in a small town of 2000 that is growing but very slowly. Closest Laundromat is 12 minutes in the next town. The existing Laundromat has been closed for Approximately 2 years and is/was the only one in town. Most people I talked to complained that it was always dirty, and poorly kept up. I have read back through many posts and am learning a lot already. My question is. Is a town of 2000 large enough to support a Laundromat and how large should the facility be as far as building, & number of machines? Financing is not an issue; I am just looking to see if it is a good return on investment

[azkid]

Here's my two cents - I would say "it depends"!

How close are you to other towns? I assume it's not a suburb, but a free-standing town. How many car washes in town by the way? I'm assuming you do fine with that business...is is self-service? The laundry is similar in some ways. It's a little disturbing that people have been without a laundry for a few years, so perhaps they do wash elsewhere or there just isn't a need. You'd have to size the market yourself based upon demographics, but if I decided to do it I would make it a small mat - 1000 sq ft or so (perhaps you could carve out some space at the car wash).

[Sipper]

Azkid
Thanks so much for your response /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Yes it is a stand-alone town, closest towns are 6 miles 5,000 16 miles 75,000 there are 2 carwashes in town, mine does fairly well. The other one is quite run down and will eventually close. The old Laundromat is still there just boarded up. I am guessing it’s about 800 square feet. I think I could get it for a pretty good price, all the services would be there the money would have to be spent on remodeling (the building is only made up of common block, very ugly) and equipment. Any idea on what it might cost to equip a mat like this? I’m not scared to do it right, but obviously do not want to throw my money away either.

[Burley]

I agree with the size......1000 square feet. It is hard for the rest of us to guess at the cost to equip this location since there are so many unknowns for us. Do you need all new equipment? Are the utilities up to par? The real question is.......what is the market in this town? Order a demographics report and take a shot at estimating how many renters or families under $30,000 (annual income) would use the service.

All of us have struggled with these questions at one time or another. Good luck!

[azkid]

I agree with Burley's comments...but if you're looking for a SWAG costing estimate, I'd say in your situation you could get it done for $100 per sq foot. I'd want to make sure to put in at least several large capacity machines.

[Sipper]

I am looking into the services but by looking at it, I feel there will be no problem, as well as the fact the laundry mat was already there. I also double-checked the building it is 1000 square feet. Still having trouble contacting the owner, I hope he is willing to shed a little more light on the subject. I do think all new equipment will be necessary, as what was in there was real old and run down. I am currently working with the town to get some sort of demographics report. I’m in Ontario Canada. so not sure if the information is as available. I do want to have some larger capacity machines as well in hopes of drawing in extra business. At the risk of sounding dumb what does “SWAG” stand for.

[millenniumplus]

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