Jason’s Laundromat in Uniondale, N.Y., first opened its doors in July 2011. However, if co-owners Eddie Yacoub and Randy Shami had their way, the store would have been serving the community a lot sooner than that.
For some time, Yacoub had identified the Uniondale location as a perfect site for a coin laundry. And, in 2005, he purchased the 17,000-square-foot lot, which for 40 years had been home to a nursery business boasting four greenhouses.
“I know the neighborhood,” he explained. “I know the area. I can tell if a site is going to be a good location or a bad location. This is something that is God-given to me – I can see a location and have a vision.”
Unfortunately, for a long time, city leaders and neighbors didn’t share Yacoub’s vision and weren’t so sure they wanted a laundromat in their community.
At city meetings, residents spoke out against a laundry, basing their negative opinions on what they saw at other coin laundries – dirty stores that were havens for people to loiter in and around.
“Bad laundromats make it bad for everybody,” Yacoub said. “There are some laundromats where the owners don’t care; people hang out there, drinking, selling drugs. So, that’s the perception this community had of laundromats in the beginning.”
In 2007, Yacoub and Shami faced strong opposition during their first zoning board hearing to decide whether or not Jason’s Laundromat would be allowed to open in Uniondale.
“More than 50 people from community associations and the neighborhood came out against us in front of the zoning board,” Yacoub recalled. “So, we lost that time. And, when you get denied, you’ve got to start all over again.”
Back at the drawing board, Yacoub made some major tweaks to the store’s plan.
Originally, the laundromat was designed to be 5,600 square feet, with the remaining 11,400 square feet designated as parking lot space.
“The neighbors figured they would wake up with a parking lot next to their houses, music playing and people hanging out,” Yacoub said.
With the second plan, because the lot was split between residential property and commercial property, Yacoub decided to go slightly smaller with the coin laundry (4,700 square feet) and the parking lot, while actually building a house on the residential portion of the lot to act as a buffer between his business and the neighborhood.
This restructuring of the plan, along with other concessions made to the community and its residents, finally got the laundromat approved in 2010.
“During the process, they asked us for so many things – fences, flowers, gates. And we did all of it,” Yacoub said. “We did whatever we promised. We keep it family oriented. Our store is clean, has fresh flowers, landscaping and ample lighting to create a safe environment.
“Now, when we go to community meetings, the same people who went against us welcome us and thank us for keeping our property clean. I now have friends at every meeting I go to. They know how I run my business. People love it, and they have a different idea about laundromats.”
After receiving the city’s long-awaited approval, Yacoub, who has been operating self-service laundries since 1986, set about to making Jason’s the culmination of all he’s learned about the business.
In fact, the store employs some unique features, such as using a well instead of city water service to supply the store. And, while some laundry owners may dial back their water levels to reduce expenses, at Jason’s all of the washers are set to their highest fill levels. Yacoub insists that this seemingly small change is not lost on his customers; they see the difference and appreciate the value they are getting.
Yacoub safeguarded his operations by having city water service hooked up as well. This move ensures that if the store’s well pump were to go out, the store can be switched over to city water and customers can continue to be served with no interruptions.
Building from the ground up also enabled Yacoub to make additional tweaks to the operation, such as six-inch drain lines versus the standard four-inch lines, as well as configuring the drains to make sure that any problems with one bank of washers won’t take down all of the store’s washers.
“There’s not another store built like this one,” said Yacoub, who named the store after his youngest son. “The key for new laundromats is the plumbing system. If you have 20 machines on a platform and they’re all spinning and draining at the same time on a busy weekend, where is this water going to go? Four inches will not take it all. That’s why the machines back up. The washers will be spinning and spinning, but the water isn’t going anywhere. Two inches can make a ton of difference.
“When you have a machine that’s spinning at high speed and the water isn’t going anywhere, that also puts a lot of stress on the bearing system in that machine,” he continued. “That’s what causes the bearings to fail, and bearing jobs are not cheap.”
Beyond water and drainage issues, Jason’s Laundromat – which is open from 6 a.m. to midnight during the week and 5 a.m. to midnight on the weekends – delivers a quality customer experience with a clean, bright environment, complemented by design touches such as crown molding. Jason’s customers will find free coffee, WiFi, seven 60-inch televisions, snack and ice cream vending, and even van service for those who need a ride.
In addition, the store’s wash-dry-fold service has performed well, producing three times what the service generated for Yacoub at other past locations.
“This is the most wash-dry-fold business I’ve ever had,” he said, adding that he believes doing little things like putting shirts and pants on hangers displays Jason’s commitment to quality.
Yacoub – who employs one full-time attendant and three part-time workers – noted that he has a competitor in his marketplace, but he’s never been one to worry much about what other laundry owners do.
“Going back eight years, when I had another store, a new laundromat opened up about a quarter-mile away,” he recalled. “It was a big store, and they were offering free dry for their grand opening. So, on the same day they held their grand opening, I raised all of my washers by 25 cents. I kept my laundromat clean. I kept my machines running. I kept the service up. And I didn’t lose one customer.
“I do the same things here. I never look at what my competition is doing. I never look at what kind of specials they have. I never try to compete with them. I don’t worry about outside my store. All I care about is what’s inside. And I have a lot of loyal customers. Ninety-nine percent of my customers are very happy and passing the word to friends, family, everyone.”
Clearly, it’s been Yacoub’s single-minded focus on his business – as well as on his customers – that has led to the long-term success of his coin laundries over the years.
“I’ve never bought used equipment in my life,” he noted. “Of course, when buying new equipment, the salesman is going to tell you what this machine or that machine is going to do for me – how it will benefit me. But I tell them that I don’t want to hear about it; instead, tell me and show me how your machine is going to benefit my customers. Forget about me, because when something benefits my customer, it’s going to end up benefitting me.”
