WDF Questions....?

[ZX7TREV]

Price Per Pound / Average Pounds per Load?? Trying to back into some numbers for a coin laundry we are looking to purchase........It may be different by locale but any information would be helpful. (Laundry is located in a retirement community) Not sure if that matters.

Thanks,

[azkid]

I'm confused, don't you know the price per pound that they charge if this is a laundry you are interested in purchasing??

I wouldn't imagine the drop off loads are very large in a retirement environment...make your math easy and say $1 a load and 10 pds on average.

[azkid]

you know what I meant...$1 per pound and 10 pds per load as guesses

[millenniumplus]

Price per pound various city to city and state to state.
Check to see what your local competitors are doin to
get some ideas and go from there. We charge a 10lb
minimum for any weight under 10 pounds.

[thelaundrydoctor]

How's this, I find that my average customer bringes me between 15 to 20 pounds per week. So a couple will bring in 30 t0 40 pounds. once sepersted in to three collors that may may only be a couple pounds per load if you are not washinfg orders to gether, ( some operators never combine loads ) I do, after all every profeshional cleaner combines orders.

[cleanrite]

And every one gets their own clothes back? Are you saying you combine other customers clothes with a smaller load? How do you track who's is who's

[millenniumplus]

Mixing one customer's clothes with another customer's clothes is dicey, very dicey. We
don't do that. DryCleaners can do that because the clothes are individually tagged. We
do wash two (or more) comforters together. We are able to do that because there is a
description of each comforter on the individual customers invoice. As stated in a previous
post, one can mix the various color clothes (white, light & dark) together from the same
invoice. If we mix various color clothes from the same order we: (1) be sure to use cold
water, (2) ensure we have previous wdf experience washing that customers clothes, (3)
don't use clorox bleach, and (4) if the customers signs the invoice approving washing all
clothes together. So far this has worked for us.

[thelaundrydoctor]

As I mentioned many people woun't do this, however, here an example that I come across frequently. We are a few blocks from the Target Center in downtown Minneapolis, frequently when a traveling band is in town they will need laundry done. Thay will have a runner come over with 8 to 20 bags of laundry all weighing between 5 and 15 pounds. Each bag belonges to a diffrent person. Im not going to tag each item because it takes to long. So we use a nylon mesh bag and we seperate the orders and bag them in color coded bags. I.E. Band customer one would use Yellow so we would seperate whites, lights and darks placing them in Yellow mesh bags. The paperwork is then accordinly marked and we move on to band member 2 wuo might get blue, and so on. then i can use my 50# washers to do the wash. After the order is washed I regroup the orders and dry then together, I.E. Band customer one in yellow would be all placed in one dryer and the bags empted. Then to ensure we dont mess up an switch one order with another we attach the ticket for that order to the dryer, and the ticket folowrs the order to the folding tabel, and is then packed with the finished order.

With my weekly customers usaly Ill just do the whites like this, because I do a mutipal step process on whites that takes one and one-half hour to wash.

P.S. If you decide to use bags DONOT!! over load them. At the most put 5# in one. this will allow the garments to move more freely and most importantly it will not create a out of balance situation in your washer that will damage bearings and frame while in the extract mode.

[theo90]

Here is my thoughts. ...

As a customer if i found out that my clothes or even my bedding was washed with a strangers, I would freak out and would lose my business.

As a newbie mat owner and need the money....i may do it!!

lol...lol...lol

[thelaundrydoctor]

You have a point, and, you probably shouldn't tell your customers what your process is just like the professional cleaner down the street is not going to tell you they wash your garments with other peoples, or the hotel that you stay at isn't going to tell you there process of cleaning they use on sheets and towels. If you have a problem with the issue of sanitation, what is not taken care of in the wash will be sanitized in the dryer. nursing homes and hospitals want you to run your wash water at 160 degrees, because, you achieve a total pathogen kill a 151 degrees and one minute of exposure. Well, the same thing happens again in your dryer. I can't remember the table completely but the exposure time goes up as the temp. goes down. I think it is 5 minutes @ 140 degrees, et.
Any way what your not achieving chemically and thermally in the wash you are going to achieve in the dryer.