Death of A Laundromat Article

[chad]

Dave the cla makes money in numerous other ways. But we do have an obligation not to fluff up the industry and be real. Plain and simple. No need to censor, we live in a country that we can voice our opinion. I have saved at least a few new buyers throw there hard earned money into a dumpy store that the numbers claimed 4 or 5 TPD.

[MrMachine]

Dave,

Very good analysis and comparison of trade magazines vs TV industry.

I myself never thought that there is an evil plot. I agree....it's simply business.
I'm sure the trade magazines would be happy to publish all kinds of articles about this industry, both positive and negative....if they could.

However, it is important that the truth gets out to Newbies somehow, so this BB is very useful for that. In fact, we are their only hope for them to get the truth.

Larry's article of the Death of a Laundromat is long overdue.
All us old-timers have seen that scenario time and time again.
We owe it to the Newbies that they get a clear understanding of both the risks and reward of our industry. Not just the rewards. That's why some of you may have noticed that I myself tend to post negative. I'm not a negative guy. I just feel that the newbies need to see that there are dangers to this business before they get in.

I feel that we could be saving some unsuspecting newbie their life savings, which is what Larry's article is all about. no?

And Larry, Your article is spot on.
The only difference that I see here in NYC, is that yes, the Newbie loses tons of money and in many cases his life is ruined. But here, there is a long line of NEW Newbies willing to try their luck to buy that failed Mat. The Mats here rarely close down. They simply become a Business Broker's dream, being sold over and over again, while extracting even more newbies' life savings.
That's why I've always said that I'm not competing in a balanced marketplace. I'm really competing against Newbies' life savings.
It's "The Greater Fool Theory" applied to laundromats.

Sometimes I feel like an old gunslinger in the wild west....A continuous stream of new gunslingers are constantly challenging me who think they are "faster" than me.

[Adamski]

Guys,

I received some feedback today that leads me to believe there may be some misunderstanding about how I gathered my facts for the Death of A Laundromat article. So I want to clarify that here.

All references to income and expenses for the subject laundromat were gleaned from private conversations with the principal parties. I was directly involved in those conversations. I had regular contact with the owners of the laundromat. I also had 1 formal meeting with the owners of the laundromat and another formal meeting with Mr Landlord. Either computer files or documents were displayed by those parties at each formal meeting. In summary, I obtained access to confidential business information that I used to fine tune my plan to kill this laundromat. (Yes, I know ... I'm a little devil.)

The military calls this "reconnaissance". It's when you send out a "recon mission" to find the enemy and then determine what kind of ordnance (guns, rockets, bombs, etc) you will need to defeat him. This is the second step in formulating a Plan of Attack.

I also used a Cyber-Attack to help defeat the owner's will to fight. I knew the owner lurked in the background of this BB on a regular basis. After all, what else did he have to do when no customers were in his laundromat? So, anyway, from time to time, I'd post something like:

"There's no shame in declairing Bankruptcy when you cannot take the losses any longer. After all, we're in the deepest recession since the Great Depression. Even long-established businesses have failed during these tough times."

These posts were designed and posted for one specific person but, until now, I was the only one who knew that. The goal of these posts was to make giving up more palatable than continueing to slug it out. Take away your opponent's will to fight and the battle is won.

Like I said before, this article is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Outsiders just don't normally obtain this much information about a competitor. It's a must-read article. Anyone who has not yet requested Death of A Laundromat should do so now by sending me an email at:

laundromatman@comcast.net

[bodman]

+ Larry looking forward to reading the article. We have a newbie building out a 4200 sq mat as I write this. I wish him the best of luck . I think I may copy your article and drop it by the new mat, LOL His mat is nowhere near mine. but it is 1/4 mile from a friend who happens to have been the repair tech for the distributor for many years. On top of that two other distributors had looked at that location and walked away. This will be fun to watch.

[laundrychris]

Larry, remind me to never get on your bad side!

[bodman]

Larry Just got done reading the article. Wish you had included the number of turns his distributor had declared he would do. My distributor taught me to use 2.5 washes a day to determine what my break even should be. If it did not add up I walked away from that store. I have grown to be the owner of 5 successful mat's following his advice.

[rbh]

The problem isn't necessarily with the tpd figure per se....its with the number of machines they jam into the space and apply that tpd number to which makes it unrealistic. Too many distributors lead you to believe more is better, when really it just makes the math work for them!

[Adamski]

Originally Posted by rbh

The problem isn't necessarily with the tpd figure per se....its with the number of machines they jam into the space and apply that tpd number to which makes it unrealistic. Too many distributors lead you to believe more is better, when really it just makes the math work for them!

Ron,

That's right. A distributor will sell the newbie a store full of machines stacked on top of each other (Yes, I'm talking about stacked dryers) and then claim that each of those machines will do x TPDs at x vend price. Sounds good ... at first.

After the store opens, the flaws in the plan become visible. Some potential customers would rather keep using the existing store with the more convenient single pocket dryers. Other potential customers would rather keep going to the existing store with the lower vend prices or the more convenient location. Still others choose to avoid the new store because it's in the rough part of town. The distributor failed to properly weigh these disadvantages and now Mr Newbie Owner is saddled with the responsibility of making everything work out. With his limited experience, tiny cash flow and high overhead, he lowers his vend prices thus immediately compounding his problems.

[Howard]

Originally Posted by DaveLevenson

Larry: thank you for sending a copy of your article. As always, I appreciate your words of wisdom, and continue to learn from them.

This board costs us nothing. The magazine is sent at no charge to every laundromat owner, and, probably, to anybody who ever asked the CLA about laundromats, whether or not a membership results.

This board, and the free magazine of the same name, cost money. Who is paying for them? The advertisers. The advertisers are mostly equipment manufacturers and distributors. If the publication of a negative view of this industry is seen as detrimental to these businesses, they will not support that publication. Even my poodle knows better than to bite the hand that feeds him!

Before we rant and rave against such a policy, let's all remember that most of the entertainment media works the same way. Do you read the newspaper? Do you watch free TV? If so, you are not the customer of the TV network. The advertiser is the customer (because, by definition, it is the customer who pays). If you're watching the program (and the advertising) then you (or your attention) are the product that is being sold to the advertiser. The network that broadcast the program is merely the distributor (of your attention) to its customers (the advertisers).

This is not some evil plot; it is BUSINESS. (Though, in the eyes of our current Commander in Chief, it seems that if it's a BUSINESS, it must be evil.)

Dave, while what you say is technically true - there is another side to the story. Those that advertise in the printed journal or on free TV will only do so based on the number of eyeballs that see what is being paid for by them. If the quality of the programming declines, then the number of eyeballs drops and the value to them drops. It spirals down as no advertiser will pay anything for something that is seen by no one. So, if quality and accuracy falls the ad revenue will drop as well. Thus, there should be some motivation to be honest in what is printed.

[kees]

Larry, please write your second article even if it has to be disseminated one email at a time.