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Music to Your Ears (Conclusion)

Store’s promotional makeover helps LA coin-op ‘Gain’ customers

LOS ANGELES — Enrique Del Rivero’s greatest challenge as a small-business owner is promoting his coin laundry. “I think I’m terrible at it,” he admits.

So when laundry detergent maker Gain approached him about a promotional remodel, he accepted. “I wanted to do something different than what everybody else has done in the past.”

The Los Lavaderos group of four laundries owned by the Del Rivero family is located in the Silver Lake and Huntington areas of Los Angeles. Enrique Del Rivero opened his first store in 1990 at the age of 21. Since then, he has opened five more stores, sold two of them, married wife Ana Maria Ferrer-Del Rivero and raised two children, Analuisa (Ana) and Enrique Jr.

CH, CH, CH, CHANGES

Enrique Del Rivero says that before the makeover, most of his customers were Hispanic, but his business now draws people of other ethnicities. Videos posted on YouTube and Facebook helped Los Lavaderos gain more widespread interest. Customers also saw that the business was closed for two days for the remodel, so they wanted to check it out after the reopening. Overall, the remodel has drawn additional English-speaking clients.

The community has responded well to the new, fresh look of the laundry, Del Rivero has observed. “It has made us more popular,” he says. The remodel was at the end of April, and May brought in the highest revenues so far in 2014, he adds.

Although traffic usually drops in the summer, there was a 12% increase in sales going from April to May, according to the business owner.

However, it’s not only the look of the store that has given Los Lavaderos an edge over the competition. Out of the 18 to 20 competing Laundromats in the area, “They’re competing on price,” he explains.

“We’re not. … We compete on customer service. We focus on allocating our staff in order for them to provide and be experts on how to do a good wash, how you get a better result, and, of course, how to present equipment and how equipment functions for [the customer’s] needs.”

For two hours per month, Los Lavaderos also opens its doors with Laundry Love to provide free quarters, soap and meals to those who are in need of free laundry services. This initiative, by JustOne, helps the “poor, vulnerable and exploited throughout the U.S.,” according to its website.

Gain has provided Los Lavaderos about 54,000 total units of free laundry soap both for the use of the business as well as for these free-laundry events.

Del Rivero says that customers are grateful for the free products, and they like the results that they see with the Gain products versus soaps they used previously.

“Even when you open the washer, you can feel the smell of the product,” he says. “It smells very good.”

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS

In the future, Del Rivero hopes to own the properties where his laundries reside. Renting becomes expensive, especially over 24 years, he explains. “We’ve been very patient over the years to stay within one area,” he says. “We’d like in the future to maybe purchase our own property.”

This remodel of Los Lavaderos has benefitted all parties involved—not just the Del Rivero family.

“I think it’s a win-win situation for us, the distributors and for the consumers, the end-users, who we serve,” Enrique Del Rivero says.

los lavaderos interior after web

Gain’s promotional makeover incorporating lively graphics and a new color scheme has given Enrique Del Rivero’s store new life. (Photo: Gain/Procter & Gamble)

Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Bruce Beggs at [email protected].