Originally posted – Sep 24, 2013
Avenue Coin Laundry in Libertyville, Ill., opened its doors for the first time this past July. However, store owner Ron Parsons is hardly new to the self-service laundry industry.
“In 1979, I bought a place called the Carousel Coin Laundry, which is only about a half-mile away from this store,” Parsons explained. “And I ran it for about 14 years. When I sold it, I was going to build another laundromat in a commercial space that I owned, but a comic book store came in and rented it from me instead.”
Parsons and his son, Dean, are long-time real estate investors – owning both commercial properties and apartment buildings.
So, they decided to build Avenue Coin Laundry after experiencing a vacancy in one of the strip centers they own.
“Because of the economic times, this space was empty for about three or four years at the plaza,” Parsons said. “And, with my experience in the past, I thought it was a good time to build a laundromat.
“Over the years, I’ve had the itch to design and build another laundromat,” he continued. “When I owned my laundromat in the past, I found that, when times are bad, laundromats do well. Plus, they’re cash businesses that require only small square footage and relatively inexpensive labor, and feature a product that cannot be stolen.”
Parsons’ shopping center takes up 12,000 square feet on the ground level, in addition to a 6,000-square-foot basement level below. Of this total space, Avenue Coin Laundry encompasses just 1,650 square feet.
“My old store was 2,805 square feet, but this laundromat, because of the new equipment these days, actually has more poundage capacity than my old laundry,” Parsons explained. “In the old store, I didn’t have stack dryers; in fact, they hadn’t even invented them. Laundries today are going with larger capacity machines. The toploader is a dinosaur.”
Despite his industry background, Parsons knew he needed to get up to speed on today’s self-service laundry business.
“I put in two years of research,” he admitted. “I spied on every laundromat around here – and I walked in the door and introduced myself to the owners of stores that were farther out and were not a threat.
“I researched all of the prices, the mix of machines and the square footage. I’d go in to do a bedspread, and I’d count the ceiling tiles to see how big the store was. I’d check how many minutes they offered on their dryers.
“Once you understand what your competition is, you know where you’re going to be.”
Renovating Parsons’ vacant commercial space – which had been a video store – and turning it into the new Avenue Coin Laundry took about five and a half months.
“I think every inch inside of a laundromat should be useful,” he said. “You’ve got to make a floor plan that is easy for the customer to see and to get around in. I can’t tell you how many hours I spent at the drawing board.
“I tried to make this store nicer than most laundromats – as well as making it an even nicer and more attractive place than my customers’ own laundry rooms at their homes. I keep the walls of my laundry clear of signs and other clutter, but I still offer clear directions so that customers can walk in the door and see where everything is. Otherwise, some potential customers can become overwhelmed.”
Parsons is especially proud of Avenue Coin Laundry’s flooring, which consists of 12- by 24-inch rectangular porcelain tile. In addition, these same tiles cover the bottom three feet of the store’s walls all the way around, and are also featured in the restroom.
“I get compliments on it all the time,” he said. “I had to pay a little extra, but when customers come in and say, ‘Wow!’ it’s worth it.
“It’s not shiny porcelain; it’s a medium surface, so I don’t have problems with people slipping, but it still makes it nice for sweeping, mopping and keeping clean. And I’ve got the tightest possible spacing in between the tiles, so I don’t have that ‘thump, thump, thump’ from the laundry carts. If you spread the tiles out too much, it’ll sound like a cobblestone street. Again, you’ve got to put a lot of thought into your store.”
And, for Parsons, every detail and every square inch count.
“I haven’t wasted any space,” he boasted. “I even spent an extra $100 to sink my fire extinguisher into the wall, rather than having it sticking out where somebody can bump into it.”
Avenue Coin Laundry is surrounded by other thriving destination businesses, such as a Domino’s Pizza location, a sandwich shop, a comic book store, a Dairy Queen and a Jiffy Lube.
“There’s good traffic around here,” Parsons noted. “I’m on a major road, with a stoplight. A lot of people will avoid certain convenient locations if they can’t turn left. So, the best things I’ve got going for my business are the stoplight right out in front – and my 56 parking spaces.”
In addition, there is a school across the street from the laundry, which means that scores of parents drive past in store every day when they drop off and pick up their kids.
“I’ve got a good mix of everything here,” said Parsons, regarding his customer base. “I have everything from single professionals to families.”
And Parsons has been promoting his new laundry business with everything from banners in front of the store to a website.
“I’m a dinosaur, but it does look like the website helps,” he acknowledged.
Of course, owning the shopping center in which his store is located also helps, mainly in that it has enabled him to set vend prices a bit lower than he might otherwise be able to, Parsons explained.
“Nothing is permanent,” he said. “I’m going to ease it on up. I will be raising my prices, but I have no set plan. [Owning the property] is very helpful. I don’t have the pressure of the rent that has to be met every month.”
And, as a coin-operated store, Avenue Coin Laundry – which is open 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily – offers its customers the option of paying in quarters or dollar coins.
“I’m strictly coin-operated, and one thing I’ve done here that may be growing in popularity is to bring in the U.S. dollar coin,” Parsons said. “It’s working out very well. The only problem is that I’ve had to put up a lot of signage distinguishing between to two different sides of my changer; customers will put their money in there without looking at the machine, and they’ll sit there and look at these dollar coins, thinking they’re tokens.
“But it’s a very small problem. Once they’ve used it once, they love it; after all, when you’re using a machine that vends for $7, that’s 28 quarters.”
Parsons – who recently hired the store’s first part-time attendant – added that he plans to start a wash-dry-fold service in the coming months, as well as perhaps seek out some commercial accounts.
“My strength is my experience,” Parsons said. “I have seen other laundromats where an inexperienced owner goes in, and sometimes there are mistakes made. People need to do a lot of research and talk to people.
“If somebody is building a new laundromat, I think they should put a lot of thought into it,” he added. “It isn’t one of these things where you can retire from your company and just build a laundromat. Some prospective laundry owners think they can build a store and then just come in and pull out the coins. It’s not like that. You have to be here to take care of the customers and to keep those machines clean.
“And, if you’re going to buy an existing laundromat, you need to do even more research. People cannot come into this business without putting a lot of thought into it. However, once you’re in the business and if you do a good job at it, it can be a very rewarding business.
“It was good to me before, and I think it’s going to be good to me again.”
#BusinessBio #StoreOperations #Article #PlanetLaundry #Public
