CHICAGO — With the New Year almost upon us, this is a natural opportunity to reflect on 2020 and the Top 10 stories (based on page views) posted on AmericanCoinOp.com during the year.
(In instances where the Top 10 story was part of a larger series, we have provided additional links so you can easily read the entire article.)
Here is the first half of our Top 10 for 2020, starting with No. 10:
10. Crane Payment Innovations Acquires Cummins Allison
Malvern, Pennsylvania-based Crane, which provides banknote and coin validation, cashless payment systems, and asset management software, reported in February that it had acquired Cummins Allison, an Illinois-based provider of coin, currency and check handling solutions, as well as ATM machines. Terms of the deal were not announced.
Cummins Allison had been privately owned by the Jones family since 1942. Chairman and CEO William J. Jones said the deal brought together “two great American companies with tremendous expertise in payment and currency processing.”
9. Wisconsin Laundry Donates $2,235 to Breast Health Fund
As one of the first 2020 stories posted, this January article noted Oshkosh Express Laundry Center’s $2,235 donation to Aurora Health Care Foundation’s Oshkosh Pink Possible Breast Health Fund.
The laundry donated the proceeds from sales of Pink Possible shopping bags, as well as 5% of its October total sales, to the cause, according to Manager Kristi Williams. “We feel it’s important to contribute to Pink Possible because so many members of our community suffer from breast cancer each year,” she added.
8. Doing Laundry in a Small Footprint, Part 1 - Conclusion
Tiny houses, cabins and campers are all the rage, authors Jared Mueller and Andy Goodale wrote in this June post. Along that same line, small-scale laundries often make sense and, if done correctly, can be as profitable as large-scale operations.
The two-part article examined aspects like store sizing and capacity, layout, décor, visibility and cleanliness. And the authors noted that with the pandemic likely causing some businesses to close, dry cleaners lend themselves well to being converted to laundries because of their size and for being known in the community as a place to clean clothes and other textiles.
7. Goin' with Cohen: Picking Up and Ramping Up, Part 1 – Conclusion
Before the pandemic limited his travel, columnist Laurance Cohen visited Cincinnati, Ohio, and Dave Menz, owner of the Queen City Laundry chain. Menz’s four stores dot eastern Cincy but his customer base encompasses an entire metro area and stretches into northern Kentucky thanks to a strategy employed at his 5,200-square-foot Mount Washington outpost.
It’s there that Menz, General Manager Marlene Adams and a team of pros “go get ’em.” The operator told Cohen that pickup and delivery rings up 70% of sales at the branch with some 30,000 pounds of wash a month.
Orders are shuttled through the back door but handled up front. Queen City’s self-service floor gives way each night to a third-shift moneymaker that Menz said generates approximately $600,000 of the chain’s $1.5 million in annual sales.
6. Laundries Brace as Pandemic-Related Restrictions Tighten
This post appeared just a few days after President Trump declared a national emergency due to the coronavirus pandemic. At the time, the United States was just starting to learn what the phrase “social distancing” meant and how the spread of the virus would impact lives and businesses.
The impact on laundry operations through the first weekend of the emergency was minimal, based on the responses received to a special “Your Views” survey sent to the American Coin-Op audience. Few respondents had made significant operational changes at that time but many had augmented store cleaning procedures and made additional supplies purchases.
Check back Thursday for the top five stories that appeared on AmericanCoinOp.com this year!
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Bruce Beggs at [email protected].