CHICAGO — Have you received your economic stimulus check yet? More importantly, have you decided what to do with the money? Laundry owners seem to be taking a conservative route with the money. Slightly more than half of the respondents (53.%) have firm spending plans for their economic stimulus check, according to the latest Wire survey. However, the majority of respondents don’t plan on any leisure-type spending. Thirty-seven percent of respondents plan to pay personal bills with the money, while 30% will put the money in the bank. Twenty-two percent say the money will go toward their laundry.Only 7% say the money is targeted at themselves, their family or their vacation fund.While 22% say the whole check will go toward their laundry, 30% say a portion of their check will be used for their store. Most respondents (81.5%) also believe that small-business owners should receive some type of stimulus check. Eleven percent oppose this idea, and 8% are undecided about the need for a separate small-business stimulus check.If operators can dream a bit about an additional check, we certainly shouldn’t deny them the opportunity to spend this extra money. What would you do with money that could only be spent on your laundry? Thirty-seven percent say they would spruce up their store (painting, lighting, new floor, etc.). Twenty-six percent would add a piece of equipment to their store, and 15% would take care of some repairs.One person had an interesting suggestion: “Compensate the owner of the business for all the thankless, hard work that he does to keep the business in operation.”Since operators were asked whether the government should offer additional checks, we also gave them the chance to offer some more advice to the government. Thirty-seven percent of respondents believe their taxes should be a bit lower. What’s surprising is that the three other choices (“My taxes are fair,” “My taxes should be a lot lower,” and “My taxes are totally unfair”) all garnered about the same number of responses (18%).
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