Water Bills Doubled

[canon]

Originally Posted by Adamski

Canon,

Are your mats air conditioned with swamp coolers or real air conditioners? I cannot imagine trying to use real air conditioning to cool an unattended laundromat. Maybe your laundromats are real small and there isn't much that can go wrong - air circulation wise.

Yes i have real air conditioners. My mats range from 1200 sq ft to 2500 sq ft. It cost me the same as yours. Your bill isn't going to double because a few dryers are left open. I don't know how anybody can attract customers without ac in the warm months. You know how hot a mat can get with all the dryers going? I wouldn't use it.

[DaveLevenson]

My part-time-attended store of about 1,800 sq ft is air conditioned. The A/C is on a timer that turns it on about 10:00am and off at about 9:00pm. For about three months each year, the A/C adds about $350/month to my electric bill. My closest competitor has no A/C. All Summer, his front door is wide open and a large fan stands near it. It's probably over 90 degrees in his store when his dryers are turning. I have a nice blue sign in my window advertising my air conditioning. I get more business in the Summer than in Winter, and I think this is because I have a comfortable store. Like my customers, I can be comfortable when I'm working in the store.

I spend an extra $350/month for three months, or about $1,050/year on A/C. If I spread this cost over the year, it comes to $87.50/month. This is less than 1% of a year's revenue.

[BCW]

It's a funny business. Tough times for the past 3.5 yrs. I just raised prices this A.M., after I collected and did my own laundry. Then I made my deposit and returned to post the bills and graphs and explanation verbage. The place has been busy today. I just drove by on my way back from dinner and the place is at full capacity. It was over 90 today and the humidity is full blast.

You don't necessarily need a/c to have customers. I probably only need it for 2 to 3 weeks all together over a summer. There are things I have done to make it comfy on the normal summer days. Tinted windows and exhaust fans and ceiling fans keep the place very comfortable on most days.

It would be a nice luxury to provide if times were better in the midwest, but they aren't. Maybe someday, but the economy has a long way to go before I would consider it in a town of 6,000 pop.



Tom

[MrMachine]

I agree with Duane that if you raise your prices you can blame your Utilities.

However, there's only so much we can raise, even if our competition is low.
Many people today are living week to week. They simply don't have any money, and if you go too high, you'll lose them in other ways....They'll wash in their bathtubs, cram more into less machines, use their mom's machines at home, or do "the sniff test" and decide to wear their laundry another day.

The newbies who look at our industry and thing "People HAVE to do laundry", really don't understand what's going on here.

I think our best strategy in these terrible economic times for survival is to cut our expenses in every way feasible so we can lower our costs and keep our prices lower than everyone else.

[BCW]

Originally Posted by MrMachine

I agree with Duane that if you raise your prices you can blame your Utilities.

However, there's only so much we can raise, even if our competition is low.
Many people today are living week to week. They simply don't have any money, and if you go too high, you'll lose them in other ways....They'll wash in their bathtubs, cram more into less machines, use their mom's machines at home, or do "the sniff test" and decide to wear their laundry another day.

The newbies who look at our industry and thing "People HAVE to do laundry", really don't understand what's going on here.

I think our best strategy in these terrible economic times for survival is to cut our expenses in every way feasible so we can lower our costs and keep our prices lower than everyone else.

Paul, I agree. I see it the same way you do. I have raised prices because I have no choice. We will see how it all turns out.

On the other hand look at how much everything else has gone up in price. Our industry is no different or immune to rising costs. People have to get that through their head. Posting my actual water bills year over year might help to make them "get it".

[chad]

Guys we have to become better and smart operators. You know now my customers get the best of all worlds. They get to come to a clean store, get great service, and will get free dry and $5. We just have to start to compete better. The sad part is, we can all make better margins but it's not that our customers are cheap it's our competitors that are creating this type of environment. Right now it's summer time for us here in so cal business drops anywhere from 15-30%. This is where we see most owners start to want to sell or really start to hurt.

[chslaundry]

Originally Posted by chad

Guys we have to become better and smart operators.

i'm thiiiiiiis close to installing a free XBox setup for the summer at our mats (we already have free WiFi and allow some parents to use our store iPad). our Pac-Man nets maybe $100/month, which i'd gladly sacrifice to de-stress our customers who have no choice but to tow children to the mat for 2 hours.

[aromaz]

I've been paying 2.9 cents per gal for 18 months. destroyed my bottom line. was paying .9 cents. amost a 300% increase.

[rbh]

Now I feel better, I've found someone paying more than my 2.7 cents!

How are the vend prices in your store/market with that type of water rate?

[jpb]

My local water company was just sold to a much larger county owned water utility. Final bill from old company was $1400 - about average for this time of year. Just received bill from new utility - $4890! They claim that there is a lot of deferred maintenance and all of the pipes have to be replaced so they have to charge higher rates.

I will be raising prices tomorrow.

I will need to go up $2.00 per machine just to stay even!

I don't think that $5.00 for a toploader will be very popular.