Just Like Home

By Bob Nieman | Sep 30, 2009

For some eco-friendly inspiration, look no further than Eco Laundry located in Tempe, Ariz. Store owners Tina and Goran Staletovic have created a green and modern laundromat that demonstrates what’s good for the earth can be good for business, too.

“Going green is a way of living,” Tina shared. “At home, our family makes a conscious effort to recycle, shop locally and use green products, so it was important for us to extend that thinking and philosophy into our business.”

Being new to running a coin laundry business doesn’t mean Tina and Goran are new to running a small business. After years of operating several local businesses, the couple was excited about taking on this new venture.

“We’ve always been attracted to self-employment and when the opportunity presented itself to open Eco Laundry, we looked at each other and immediately knew it was the right thing to do,” said Tina, who holds a business degree from nearby Arizona State University.

The Staletovics actually own the self-service laundry, as well as the small strip center in which it is located. In fact, the laundry’s former owner was their tenant for the last four years.

“He decided that he didn’t want to stick to our lease terms and decided to go off on his own, so there was an opportunity there for us [to take over as the store’s operators],” Tina explained. “Location-wise, it’s great. That’s what gave us this idea.”

The entire strip mall is only 6,000 square feet, of which 2,000 square feet is taken up by a check-cashing business – with the laundry utilizing the rest of the space.

“That building was tailored specifically for a laundromat, so all of the plumbing and other considerations were designed for a laundry business,” Tina explained.

The store had originally been a SpinCycle location, built from the ground up. However, over the last decade, ownership had changed hands a number of times and the store had fallen into a sad state of disrepair.

Therefore, giving the nearly 4,000-square-foot facility an “eco-makeover” was no easy task. In fact, it took a total overhaul. Although the space had previously been a laundromat, there was nothing worth salvaging. Plus, the Staletovics wanted the store to reflect their own personal style, which is clean and modern.

The entire renovation process took six weeks.

“It was miracle for us to get that store up and running and looking the way it does in six weeks,” Tina marveled. “But we didn’t have a choice. It was so rundown. It had not been maintained, and when maintenance isn’t done in a laundromat, things fall apart. We had to invest to get it back up to par for a laundromat.

“There was a lot of rusting, because the machines were leaking everywhere,” she added. “It was very expensive to renovate. But we decided from here on out, we’re going to re-do everything the right way, and whoever ends up owning this laundromat is going to be very strictly controlled by us, as the owners of the building. This last owner got away with murder, because we inherited him [when we purchased the strip center].”

The redesign included ceiling tiles made from recycled materials, a cement floor (to replace the old linoleum flooring), stainless steel countertops and upgraded machinery to save energy and water.

“It was three-phase electricity, and we switched to one phase, which is more energy efficient,” Tina noted. “That was our first eco-friendly change.”

Creating an environmentally friendly laundromat also means the store boasts a brand new lo-Nox water heater, which greatly reduces the amount of carbon emissions released into the air.

“Our water heater is very eco-friendly,” she explained. “The standards are a lot higher than what is even required in the state of Arizona – much less pollution. That cost us an extra $7,000.”

Additionally, the store recycles hangers, plastic bags, bottles and cans. And, as active participants within the small-business community, Tina and Goran are firm believers in supporting other local green businesses, such as Mountain Green.

“Their laundry products are all plant-based, and it makes us feel good to offer our customers all-natural detergent and dryer sheets,” Tina said. “I’ve always kind of had that green mindset, even before it was the cool thing to do. And with the laundry, the equipment is very eco-friendly, so when we put all of that together, it just clicked one day – we thought, ‘This is going to be an eco-friendly laundromat.’

“We didn’t realize this at the get-go, but as we saw the different companies and what they were offering in the way of water savings and energy efficiency, it all clicked that this was the way we should go.

“And, of course, everything is going in that direction, so why not? It helps everyone open their eyes as to what they can do. In fact, I’ve had customer come in and say they don’t mind paying a little more just because we’re eco-friendly.”

Since opening in February, reducing Eco Laundry’s carbon footprint has indeed helped create a growing customer base. They also provide popular features such as plasma televisions, free WiFi access, vended drinks and snacks, and free coffee, as well as wash-dry-fold and drop-off drycleaning services. They are always looking at ways to make the laundry experience more pleasant, comfortable and convenient for their customers.

What’s more, Eco Laundry is situated in a prime location on a busy corner, across the street of the ASU campus and at the heart of the bustling college experience.

“The drive-by traffic and word-of-mouth promotion bring in new faces every day,” Tina said. “We’re also surrounded by apartment complexes and, with the college nearby, every single day is a busy one.”

The university’s seven dormitory buildings surround Eco Laundry, as do approximately 15,000 apartment units, according to Staletovic.

“We are on a very busy street,” she said. “All up and down the street are ASU dorms and ASU student living.”

During the school year, college students represent about 50 percent of the store’s customer base, with the additional clientele coming from the area’s apartment complexes, as well as from homeowners looking to either quickly catch up on their laundry chores or to wash comforters and other large items that their home machines simply can’t handle.

“We also have a very upscale neighborhood nearby,” Tina explained. “A lot of those people don’t have time to do laundry and they will bring it to us to do. We’re not the closest laundry to them, but we’re the nicest so they make the drive.

“With wash-dry-fold, I avoid doing that too much on the weekends, because I don’t want my drop-off business to be taking up the machines for my walk-in customers. I discourage it on the weekends. I don’t want to infringe on my main customers.”

With five other self-service laundries within a two-mile radius, the Staletovics are doing what they can to promote Eco Laundry, especially to the college students. This includes running spots on the TV monitors as the school’s recreation center, regularly passing out flyers throughout the campus and advertising in the college newspaper.

“However, the biggest advertising we can get in this business is word of mouth,” Tina said. “So, our biggest priority is to make everybody happy and to offer a clean facility. Laundry is a miserable chore for people to do, so we give them a nice place to do it.

“Eco Laundry is very homey and very comfortable,” she added. “We chose nice, neutral colors – nothing too bright, like oranges or yellows. And our cabinets are cherry wood. Everything is very warm and tasteful, like home.”

Eco Laundry is attended from opening at 7 a.m. until last wash at 10:30 p.m. And the entire staff – which includes Tina and Goran, as well as two full-time attendants, two part-time employees and sometimes even daughters Natalija, 13, and Anastasija, 10 – lives by three rules: cleanliness, friendliness and helpfulness.

Tina estimated that she spends between 40 to 50 hours per week at the store.

“I observe a lot when I’m there,” Tina noted. “You have to be there, you have to know what’s going on in your place. No employee will tell you in enough detail like you were there.

“The idea was to make Eco Laundry the next best place other than home for our customers to do their laundry,” she concluded. “Goran and I wanted to make it very welcoming, not your typical laundromat – and I believe we’ve accomplished that.”

(Special thanks to Dawn Nagle and the entire team at Wascomat for their contributions to this article.)