Mini-marts And Misc Sales

A number of individual owners and chain operators have dedicated a part of their premises to set up a small store to sell snacks, sodas, laundry supplies and other items normally found in mini-marts. Some of these stores are so busy that they need to be staffed separately from their coin laundry business. Rental of carpet cleaning machines and sales of cleaning mixtures is not rare in an attended laundry location. Doesn’t take much space or time and the attendant is there already. In lottery states, it is quite common to find laundry stores selling lottery tickets. Some will also vend such things as phone cards, have copy and fax service, and provide post office box rentals by the month. Some coin laundries are a collection point for phone and utility bills. This is done for a fee from the utilities as a service to those who pay bills in cash or live some distance away from regular company offices. Although the earned fee is small, utility bills draw a class of people who are ideal coin laundry customers. Especially in the Southwest, water vending machines have proven to be a popular money maker in laundries. They appeal to Hispanic customers, who originate from areas where the reliability and healthfulness of local water systems is questionable. There, the water systems have a reputation of being impure, so people buy bottled water for drinking. It’s a habit they keep after immigrating. Folks who migrate from these areas are also considered among the best coin laundry customers there are, so anything that will help attract them to a laundry is smart business. Far less popular in the Southwest are tanning beds. These may be an asset in less sunny climates. They do seem to be much more common in the Midwest and Northeast. In areas near or adjacent to military bases, some laundries have raised cash flow by having chevron and patch sewing. Some also offer the full range of laundry and pressing service. A “military wrinkle” is that a few laundry owners offer to buy uniforms and boots of those being discharged and leaving the service. The purpose is to resell the items to those remaining on active duty. It saves young military personnel money and makes some nice cash for the owner. Other clothing sales can make an impact. A laundry made the change from traditional dryers to stacks, with the same number of dryer openings, creating a space for other activities. The owner began to sell used baby clothes, and it took off to more than equal the income of her laundry itself. Another baby related business that works well in some coin laundries is diaper service. Although disposable diapers are common, there are still a sizable number of families that like the cloth diaper.