The Argument Continues Coin or Card, Who is Right

Shortly after WWII was over, the laundry industry, as we know it, began. Investors saw it as a great opportunity, but there were also problems. From those very early days there have been concerns associated with having actual coins resting in the coin vaults of coin laundries. Coins are still money, and were looked on as proportionally more valuable then than they are now. A few quarters bought much more back then. Wise owners saw a potential for pilferage, vandalism and robbery of coin boxes. All too often laundries suffered thousands worth of damage just so some petty thieves could get away with a few hundred dollars worth of quarters. These same wise owners also had a problem handling coins. Counting, wrapping or bagging surplus coin to take to the bank is very time consuming, and not very productive. Toting large amounts of coin to the bank can be hard on a laundry owner''s back. Openly carting around the rather obvious coin bags can also be an invitation to robbery. Another unproductive function for laundry operators was that in some coin laundries, they did not have sufficient surplus coins to satisfy that laundry''s bill change machine needs. Those owners had to go to the bank to purchase enough coin to keep their changers functioning, plus they wasted extra time taking quarters out of the bank wrappers to put into the change machine. Using coins also places limits on the capacity and ability of a laundry to freely raise their prices. Usually increases had to be made in multiples of a quarter. That offered very little flexibility in vend pricing. If an owner wanted to offer a special price, say for the weekend, it required them to either change the vend price on every coin mechanism, or keep someone there to refund the difference. Either way, it''s time consuming and labor intensive. That''s why it isn''t very often being done. The preceding problems are some of the many reasons why the idea of card operated laundries now has great appeal to experienced laundry owners. With card operation, there are virtually no coins involved in day to day business. There is only cash to be carried to the bank. Lighter loads going to the bank is better. It''s also safer as it''s much easier to disguise carrying bills only than it is going with coin bags. With card operation there is no need to collect individual coin boxes on washers and dryers, saving the laundry operator huge chunks of his or her own personal time. How much time does it take to count the coins before going to the bank? Not having to do it is another time saver. There is little or no vandalism done on washers or dryers that contain no coins. Why go the work of having to break in when nothing of value is there to steal? Card operation has less vandalism expense. There is also a great flexibility in setting prices and offering the clientele special deals when a laundry has card operation. Card operators can raise their prices in penny increments if they want to. It offers owners opportunities for business promotions that are unheard of, or even impossible with coin laundry operation. Best of all, adjusting prices is so simple and easy to do. If it''s so good, why doesn''t everyone go to card operation right now? The most obvious reason is the current high costs for individual card op units and supporting systems. It takes a serious investment to completely change over an existing laundry from coin to cards. They''ll have to reengineer the laundry machines to take card operation. It''s a lot of work, money and time. For example, to change just 30 existing top loaders in a coin laundry, add value transfer units, and rewire will cost $15,000 to $18,000, or more. For an owner to re-equip everything in that same coin laundry could take $30,000 to $50,000. When doing a complete remodel, or starting a new laundry from scratch, these costs don''t seem as difficult to face because there''s an entire life expectancy of the laundry in which the owner can recover the costs. With new machines, the card readers are included already. The Value Transfer units are part of the new laundry design. The immediate future looks bright for card operation, and sales of card operated machines is expected to continue to soar. Like almost any other manufactured item, the more sold, the more of them are made and the more are sold because the prices become more competitive. That volume not only causes the individual cost per unit to fall, but the costs for installation go down as well because it''s not something installers have to learn. That''s exactly what''s happening with card operated laundry technology. Prices have been falling because more and more card units are being made and sold. The lower prices encourages increasing sales, which should give us further lower prices. Laundry operators have historically proven to be a stubborn bunch. We run our equipment for years longer than it''s life expectancy, but as we make changes, we tend to go with the most modern and efficient thing. Today, that''s card operated technology. Card operation will further revolutionize how laundry operators look at their laundry businesses. It will further encourage chains and multi-laundry ownership, because of the ease of control and record keeping and peace of mind knowing employees don''t need to be trusted with access to money. Card op provides that for owners. Most of the new laundries being built today are card operated. It will take years to phase out coins, but it will happen sooner or later in the history of the industry. So, it may not be too many years before people will look at you kind of funny when you speak about the coin laundry business. What did they do, wash coins