Yankee Equipment Systems‘ St. Patrick’s Day Sales and Education Exhibition broke attendance and sales records for the annual weekend event. Vended laundry owners and potential investors from throughout the New England and upstate New York areas packed the Westin Hotel in Waltham, Mass., to see the latest laundry products, as well as to network with the show’s exhibitors and Yankee Equipment staff members.
Several industry vendors displayed new technology and efficiencies across all facets of the laundromat business.
“The advancements in payment systems and equipment reliability have enabled many store owners to expand and/or modernize their stores,” explained Yankee President Peter Limoncelli. “Also, many single-store owners have become multi-store owners over the last several years, thanks to these improvements. We are fortunate to have so many forward-thinking customers and vendors.”
In keeping with Yankee’s long-standing commitment to education, this year’s event featured three useful and timely seminars. Coin Laundry Association President and CEO Brian Wallace presented “Disrupting Laundry: How Technology is Changing Your Laundromat.” In addition, Ben Zinth of Speed Queen outlined the new technology of the Speed Queen Insights platform. And, lastly, Taylor St Germain of ITR Economics discussed what’s in store for the economy for the remainder of 2019 and beyond during a session called “A Bend in the Road.”
To expand the educational portion of the weekend, Yankee highlighted the LaundryCares Foundation’s early childhood reading initiative by setting up a children’s library on the exhibit floor, complete with furniture and books. In addition, books were collected throughout the event, to be distributed to laundromats within the distributor’s sales territory. The books then will be given away to customers’ children in an effort to get more books into more homes. All in all, more than 500 children’s books were collected during the event.
“Collecting and distributing books to children in need helps promote the importance of reading and can increase vocabulary and performance in the classroom,” noted Yankee Sales Manager Brendan Ristaino, who enlisted the aid of his three children to collect the books. “It also reinforced to our kids the importance of helping others and being involved in one’s community.”
