CHICAGO — There’s no magic formula when it comes to choosing a self-service laundry’s operational model—attended or unattended—but there are certain factors that can influence the call.
“When you deal with an attended store vs. an unattended store, an unattended store does not have an individual, an employee, at the store to greet customers when they’re walking into the store, to answer any questions, maybe to be crisis management should a situation come up,” says Mike Enz from distributor Laundry One; Enz was the guest on an American Coin-Op Podcast episode on the topic.
“You’re completely on your own should you have a question. There may be a phone number on the wall for you to call, whether the owner or a cleaning person, and ask a question.”
It’s pretty easy to determine whether a laundromat is attended or unattended based on the “overall freshness” of the location, according to Enz.
There are a couple different types of attended stores, he continues.
“You have the attended location where the employee is just there to sit behind a counter, read a book and answer the occasional question they have to field from a customer about how to operate a particular piece of equipment,” Enz says.
“But then you have another attendant that … the owner uses as an additional profit center. They’re there to help customers, to maintain customers. They are there to greet the person with a smile and say, ‘Hey, how can I help you?’”
In the Midwest markets where Enz’s company operates, he estimates 60-70% of laundries operate unattended.
“We certainly have seen the trends and mode of operation ebb and flow over time,” says CLA CEO Brian Wallace of his national trade association’s annual surveys on store operations in the American Coin-Op article, “Making the Unattended Laundromat Business Model Work for You,” based on a CLA webinar.
“Most recently, the last four or five years, it’s 40% to 50% fully attended. The unattended, or self-service only, would be in that 15-20% (range) most years, with the balance being … partially attended, where you’ve got somebody there, just not during all hours of operation.”
The manner in which a laundromat is operated can have a lot to do with its area demographics, says Enz.
“When you get into more urban areas, you’ll find that they’re probably a little bit more attended because maybe the volume of the location is going to be a little bit greater. Or you’re going to find that there’s a larger concern for vandalism in a location.
“Then, in some of the rural areas, you’ll find the stores are probably smaller. They probably don’t have the revenue to justify having an employee in there.”
“My rule is that if your laundry is making $15,000 gross a month or less, it probably should be unattended,” says multi-store owner Brian Brunckhorst. “You don’t really have enough money in there to afford even a part-time attendant, you know. So you hire an independent contractor and have it unattended.
“If you’re between $15,000 and, say, $25,000, maybe partly attended, and anything over $25,000, it’s busy enough, machines are getting dirty—cleanliness is important—so you know, maybe that’s when you go fully attended.”
Coming in Part 2 on Thursday: Factors of influence, and beyond the self-service variety
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Bruce Beggs at [email protected].