SPEAKER_00 0:13

Welcome to CCI Drive Time, the podcast for vended laundry distributors. I'm Steve with CCI using your drive time to cover uh laundromat trends, payment systems, and practical topics you can use in the field. On today's episode, I got the opportunity to talk to Carl Hendricks. He is the president and owner of HK Laundry Equipment in Armonc, New York. Carl has been in the industry for over 40 years. He's a wealth of knowledge and just a great example of how to do distribution correctly. So with that, here's Carl Hendricks.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

Carl, it's great to see you. Steve, great to see you. It's great to be here. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Absolutely. You know, uh, we talked a little bit before I hit the record button about, you know, just we've known each other for a long time and uh we've had some great experiences together, and really talking a little bit about the distribution, the evolution of distribution, and you were one of the first people that came to mind when I was thinking about um the people that I wanted to talk to because you've got just a wealth of history then and experience that I think is just really valuable. But before we dive into that, I know I've known you for a long time. You've been in this business a long time, but maybe not everybody listening knows who you are. So why don't you just give us the give us the Carl Hendricks uh backstory, how you got into the business, how long you've been doing it, some of that stuff just to kind of set the tone.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

Sure, absolutely. Well, um my father and his partner got into the business in 1967. Uh in 1980, my father's main mechanic um had a personal tragedy. And so my father made me an offer I couldn't refuse. At that point in time, I was doing research chemistry uh for an environmental company. And uh if you know anything about research chemistry, it pays peanuts. Oh, really? So my father was able to make he bought me, admittedly, and so he made me an offer I couldn't refuse, and that was in 1980, and 46 years later, I'm still here.

SPEAKER_02 2:31

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

So it's it's uh it's been a great run. You know, I love the laundry industry. Um, we actually shared some time on the CLA board together. We did um and again, it one of the things is this is just a great family industry that that that is able to support families and extended families, and it's um I love it. And and as a distributor, I'm also I I drink the Kool-Aid because I've got five laundromats my own. Um, so I I do a little bit of everything.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

Yeah, no, that brings an interesting um perspective, I think, and I really I really like that. There's there's probably a couple of varying opinions about ownership and distribution at the same time. But I I have I'm I'm a real proponent of obviously we own some stores too, so maybe I'm a little biased, but but there's a there's really something there's really something to putting yourself in making the same investment you're asking your investors and customers to make is that in and and you can show some success, you can have the same pain that they've had.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

Oh, it you know, it I have found that you know, on the whole, my having laundromats and being able to bring people to laundromats to open the kimona, show them the book, show them the advantage of a card system, show them, you know, all the the warts and all the benefits from it, you know, is just so huge. And it it starts to get people's eyes open as to just what it's gonna take. And you know, it it it's not it's not a uh a passive income business, it it's an active business, and that's kind of one of the things I've seen just happen just oh over the course of my tenure. Um but it's um on the whole having stores I think is helped me sell a lot more stores and get the customers to really think of not just the laundry, but the whole laundry business and how it's going to integrate with their life.

SPEAKER_00 4:44

Yeah, no, I I I couldn't agree more. Um I've even found, you know, just from our our CCI perspective, you know, we have salespeople that talk about our products, and the fact that, you know, we the the Marcinetti family owns stores, they actually say we own stores when they are talking to it, and it it gives them a sense of um um it puts them in a perspective to their to whoever's buying it says, oh this guy knows kind of the things that I've gone through, they've they've invested in it in the same way, and so it just it just I think it it sets you apart when you have access to that. So that's that's terrific. Um I I wanted to, you know, 46 years, I think you said is is coming up. That's that's impressive.

SPEAKER_01 5:26

Um I wanted to so I'm a dinosaur. You know, when I go to the clean shows now, I look for the old guys, and all I do is I sit I look in the mirror and I say well, uh we need you.

SPEAKER_00 5:42

I uh and and this is is one way, as we said, it for you uh to kind of extract some of this tribal knowledge that's come from all these years. And one of the first things that I I really wanted to see, get your impression is 46 years, and there's a lot of directions you can take with this answer, but you know, where do you see the most, what's the biggest changes that you've seen since you first entered it? You can I don't care if you go into store ownership or distribution, but there's been changes. And I know where what I think that I've seen the changes. I want to know what what are the biggest changes you think that have been the most impactful?

SPEAKER_01 6:18

Well, from an operator's point of view, it's gone from the mom and pop's, you know, to much more the professional business. And it's helped the whole industry. I I think the the operators now are smarter, they're a lot more savvy, they certainly understand, and they're investing a lot more time and money in their stores. And by doing that, they're running much better stores. Um, in the old days, you know, we're counting quarters, and and we were a slave to the store at certain times. You had to be there two or three times a week to take care of you know the um the change and the changers. And nowadays, whenever you start to go with a card-operated store, you don't have that. You you can you can collect once a week, you could collect theoretically once every other week and and go from there. Um so the whole industry on the whole from the operator point side has just been raised up to a much more professional level. When it comes to distribution, we're seeing consolidation in the industry. We're seeing manufacturers who are really worried about their market share, and so that's driving the purchase of distributors. And as a distributor, you know that the value of your business is somewhere between nothing and a gazillion dollars, and it just really depends on on the moment and the day, um, and really what somebody's willing to pay for it. And yeah, it's for a lot of distributors, it they you know, a manufacturer coming to them with some money, they'll jump at it. And and I totally understand.

SPEAKER_00 8:16

Yeah, uh, I think what and it would many again, you you hit it right on the head. Uh not every distributor has had the luxury to have maybe uh sons or daughters that have shown an interest in wanting to continue down this this path, and I don't know what it is. Um, you know, obviously Andy and I maybe we were also, I mean maybe I was brainwashed, maybe we were also provided an uh an offer that we couldn't refuse. I certainly remember when when dad invited me into the laundry concepts side of things, and I think I was just completely burned out with what I was doing, and he was certainly willing to uh to pay me what we was I was making anyway, and it meant other things for me, but he hit me at the right time. So there might have been some strategy in there.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

Those crafty parents. My my father somehow convinced me to pay for the business.

SPEAKER_00 9:11

Good for him.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

But but it it was really interesting because I I I had one of those conversations with my kids about oh, I don't know, uh, eight to ten years ago. And they sat there and I said, you know, this is really kind of the time, you know, are you guys showing interest in this? And they all sat there and said, you know, dad, you you've done a great job. We really appreciate it. You know, we we love all the benefits of the laundry, but you work too hard.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

Oh, that is something.

SPEAKER_01 9:47

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 9:48

Yeah, kind of. It was kind of hard to argue that point a little bit again. And at the same time, you know, I I don't know what it is, maybe it's just something in our in our family's DNA, but you know, my son Max joined the company uh uh about eight, nine months ago, and and shows the same kind of level of interest that I remember having in the industry too. Just eager to learn, wants to understand. And I remember as him growing up as a as a boy, he probably is listening to his dad, his grandfather, his uncle having these conversations, talking about the shows, and just being enamored with this kind of thing, you know what I mean? And it's stuck with him. Now he's 24 years old and he's in it, you know. So we're we're lucky in that way.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

And and and of course, you know, is running a family business every family holiday, whether it's birthdays, Christmases, Hanukkah, bar mitzvahs, whatever, you're talking business.

SPEAKER_00 10:52

It's uh it's a unique relationship.

SPEAKER_01 10:54

You know, and and and and frankly, the relationship that I had with my father was was as tight as it ever could have been because he was not only my dad, but we were business partners.

SPEAKER_02 11:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

And we sh we sat across from each other for 15 years. And it it was it was probably the best experience that that heightened our relationship together. And so I agree.

SPEAKER_00 11:20

Yeah, I'd say I think back and I don't know any other life other than having worked with my my my father for my basically my professional career. And I don't even know if I'd I don't know what the relationship would be like if we didn't have the business to to kind of lean on for when we were, you know, just conversating about everything. But uh that's amazing. That's amazing. Um, I want to circle back to some of your some of the things you said, but also talk a little bit about, you know, you got this change in uh an investor. You know, we've we've we've traditionally been a mom and pop business, and I think there's still a place for that in to some degree, but we've seen the industry maybe elevated significantly through uh bigger thinking investors, whether that's uh you know private equity that's trying to make some big investment in into the industry. Um but I'm I'm I'm curious uh you know how have you have you found yourself approaching the very uh astute investor? How do you approach that versus the guy that really just wants to wants to be an entrepreneur? He's been saving and saving, he wants to own this business. How do you approach those two investors uh and differently? Or maybe you don't, maybe it's the same.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

Um I kind of don't. I mean, you know, why do they want to get into the laundry business? You know, it's a stable, reliable, uh essential business. It's it's a steady income, it's a cash income. You know, all the things that we talk about, you know, there are no checks in the mail, you know, there are no receivables, you know, very little inventory. If you set it up right, you've got little or no labor at all. Um so they're in it really to make money. And so you start to talk about that. I think selling is exactly the same process, it's just how they interpret the ways they plan to uh go through the operation. Yeah, and uh usually when it comes to much more the professionals, the people who are creating systems to create a business, they're actually going and looking at a much higher level. They're almost the whole goal for them is the first stores to build systems, and then once you have the system, then you just cookie-cutter it from there. Um, most of the other people are it's a secondary business. They're busy with something else. It it it's it's they're they're just looking for another stream of income. Yeah, they've got some extra bucks that they've gotten from a windfall or any number of things, and they're they're moving from there, and they're content with one store, and that's what you know that that's how they can optimize it. And just go from there. So it's really more the operation and how they set things up. Are they great? Are they gonna supervise and look down from a higher level, uh a thousand-foot level, or are they gonna be right in the trenches and going from there?

SPEAKER_00 14:29

Working it every day, yeah. Right, right. Um, something that I I hear all the time, uh particularly when we're maybe say we're at distributor meetings, you know, over the years you get a chance to interface with people from different markets and different areas and and and and I love that experience because you know the distributor meetings are so tremendous because we get to share ideas and we're not direct competitors. Right, right. So you can openly talk about it.

SPEAKER_01 14:59

You can open the kona a lot more and and and and share our problems and our successes and and everything else. But I sidetracked you.

SPEAKER_00 15:07

Yeah, no, not at all. But I what I was gonna ask you is right into that, which is I'm I'm curious what you would say makes the investors in your market unique. You know, certainly you've had a chance to speak to distributors like we've talked about, and I think that everybody feels like when they go to those meetings, yeah, that our our market and our customers are a little bit different. I'm curious your your thoughts on do you feel like the customers in your the investors are are are a lot different than the ones in Miami or Chicago?

SPEAKER_01 15:38

Um yes and no. I mean, a lot of it is dictated by we're in a very mature market. So looking directly around us, the shopping center booms that happened during they happened during the 60s and the 70s. Okay. Um and we don't have this continued sprawl anymore with sewers that they extend beyond that. We're a much more older infrastructure. So we're geographically limited by where the sewers stop and the septic fields start. Yeah and so there are plenty of areas where the the sprawl has kind of continued, but we can't put laundromats in there. So we're in a much our average store is maybe 15 to 2,000 square foot tops, and you know, you get a 2,000 square foot store in, you know, uh in a small little hamlet, and that covers, you know, significantly that and the surrounding little hamlets. Yeah, when you start to get into the Bronx, which is not our territory, um, we cover everything north of New York City up to about Albany and all of Connecticut. Um but once you get into the Bronx, you know, you get a much uh much higher density of renters and and population density. And there you literally can put a store every block. Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 17:15

Primarily because they're walking too, but you know, it it's it seems like the geography is really what dictates the investors that are in it. They're gonna be more accustomed to that size store. And I'm and correct me if I'm wrong, is that's because the market just is too thin, like there's the the people are spread out, or the infrastructure just isn't in a place to put in a mega store. Uh maybe it's a combination of both. Um, you know, that that's what drives the investor to be a little bit different. Your customers are different.

SPEAKER_01 17:48

Um yeah, we we are limited by certainly demographics and also, like I said, you know, the limitation of the infrastructure, you know, primarily being sewers. And so that primarily is gonna dictate. I mean, if you take a look at my territory, the aggregate of it, probably two-thirds of it is not accessible for a lawner.

SPEAKER_00 18:15

Okay. Interesting. Well, you take a look in New York City or in Long Island, and 90% of it is gonna change the that I uh that answers my next question with what challenges do you see in your region? That's that's uh right up along there, is that there's some limitations just on what you can possibly do. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

Yeah. I mean, you know, take a look at Houston or Atlanta. I mean, you know, they're sprawling and they're increasing, you know, instead of going vertical, they're going horizontal in in all directions, and so you're gonna end up with these communities, these hubs running around the main city, and those are the areas, especially with uh with a building boom, where you can walk into a 5,000 square foot building and sit there and say, Yeah. Yeah I'll I'll I'll I'll take 5,000 feet and we'll we'll we'll do a water mat. The other thing with us is just the cost of land.

SPEAKER_02 19:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

Um, I was looking at a dynamite location in Greenwich, Connecticut. Um, this is ten years ago, and they were looking at $80 a square. And and I just couldn't get it to work. I mean, I I two-thirds of the revenue would have gone to the landlord. And it just I I you know it was a killer location. I just couldn't make it work.

SPEAKER_00 19:40

Yeah, amazing. Yeah, that's it's uh you're you're so close, but then so far away. Missed it by that. Um, so are you are you seeing then since you're you know that to some degree the geography is uh more limited, so your market's gonna you know be dictated by where there's a sewer versus a septic. So are you seeing then a lot more remodels than people getting a new store? Because at that point, your opportunities if you want to own a store is to maybe buy one that's maybe a little run down and just kind of rehabbing it? Or are you seeing more of that versus the new store development? Um there certainly is that.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

Um again, yeah, one of the things that we always tell all our customers is the single biggest factor that determines the success or a failure of a store is location. Location, location, location. I'd love to think it's the distributor. I'd love to think that it's the ancillary equipment like card systems, but frankly, it's just location. And so you just need to try to find the best location for the area that you're looking for. If there's nothing there, build a store. If one's already there, buy them. Buy it, yeah. You know, make him an offer he can't refuse.

SPEAKER_00 21:02

Yeah, you know, it's that simple. What are your so you've you've built stores for so for so many investors over the years, and um and I know you maintain good relationships with those customers, they end up becoming your best source of new business as as the time progresses. That's that's the that's the hope, anyway. What what are the challenges? What are they coming to you? What challenges are they are they expressing right now with expanding, managing uh anything is really what is the biggest challenge? Because we need to as distributors need to be aware so that we have either an opinion or an answer when we come and talk to them.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

Yeah. Um one of the questions that I always ask people, uh, you know, laundromat owners, is what what's your biggest pain point?

SPEAKER_00 21:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:51

Okay. And and this die is right in with consultative sales. You know, and and and whether I sit at a Lunch table at the clean show or or belly up to the bar at Excellence or whatever, you know, it's it's w what's your biggest pain point? 90% of the people say labor.

SPEAKER_00 22:12

Labor, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:13

And you know, that I can't really help them with. You know, uh other than, you know, again, one of my goals is to try to work on, and especially since I have five stores of my own, kind of working on the automated laundromat.

SPEAKER_02 22:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:31

Um, and we can talk about that at some point in time. Over definitely over a beer.

SPEAKER_00 22:35

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 22:36

But you know, how do you leverage your time? Because that that that's really the most precious commodity out there.

SPEAKER_00 22:44

And I and I have to imagine whether you know you're doing it on purpose or not, is through your own ownership, when someone asks you about labor, you're gonna share the same best practices that you found to work when it comes to hiring, managing, uh, you know, kind of how you pay people and how do you incentivize good behaviors and things like that. So I wouldn't say that you have nothing to offer when they say problem is a labor. It's you probably wish you had a straight answer, but the the the idea that you could, and I would say for somebody who doesn't own laundries, if you're an if you're new in this industry, you can learn from the other store owners that you have conversations with and absorb the the best practices and kind of be uh a library of sorts for these various concerns and challenges.

SPEAKER_01 23:33

Yep, absolutely. And and one of the things I actually try to encourage is to have and start conversations between laundromat owners, even if they their stores are competitive in the same competitive market. Um you know one of the biggest problems that historically we've had with laundromats is basically giving away the washes, underpricing the Venn price. And many a times what I'll do is in my own stores, if I anticipate that I need to do a price increase, what I'll do is I'll actually write my prices down on a piece of paper, go to the next nearest laundromat who's my competitor, introduce myself, try to offer to buy him a cup of coffee, but sit there and say, This is what I'm gonna be raising my prices to. Okay, you can do whatever you want. This is not collusion, this is not anything. This is just sharing information. That's all I'm gonna do. And you decide what you decide what you're gonna do.

SPEAKER_00 24:43

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 24:44

And and if I can get customers where they're coming into, even where I have, let's say, an existing customer, I say a store is gonna go in there anyway. Yeah, let me help to try to put the put you two at potentially adverse parties together so that at least you can start to have a conversation because you're really trying to do the same thing.

SPEAKER_00 25:10

Yeah. Again, vend prices are not a secret. I mean, we can walk in any store and check the vend prices of any store any time, and I would say that's another excellent point that you just made was if I was new in this business and I was trying to figure out how to make build relationships in my in my new market, my new business, and you're visiting and surveying every store that you can possibly walk into, that if you connect with somebody, you can say, you know what, hey, you know, the guy down the road charges 50 cents more for this and that. And it it the elevation of that information or the or the information that you can share with someone to elevate their business, say because the higher the Ven prices are within reason, we want to be fair and and and respectful to the market, but the higher the and the more opportunities those store owners are gonna have to make better investments in their business, remodeling, taking care of their customers the right way, opening another location where there needs to be. So as a as an industry, we need to be promoting healthy margins and healthy Ven prices. I think you hit it right on the head.

SPEAKER_01 26:09

Yeah, I mean, at one point in time I I wrote a whole three-series article in one of the trait mags for you know just how to set prices in lawner mat.

SPEAKER_02 26:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:19

Um there were other articles in the past and that actually talked about characterization of laundromats, whether you're a price leader, whether you're a low price leader, you know, different models and you know it very interesting. And when it when if if you are a price leader, if you are the best operating store in your market, you have a responsibility to set the level. And set the level where you can make money, you can actually have a healthy profit, and also put money together for the reinvestment of new equipment down the road. And if you don't, then you're just uh subsidizing people's wash.

SPEAKER_00 27:05

That's right. Um you've mentioned a few times uh this this idea of consultive selling, you know, being this consultant, and I and I that's not a laundry term, but that's you know, that's a I think it's a healthy way to approach sales in general. And I'd I'd really like to uh learn a little bit more from you about what that means to you, and in particular, like how how do you think that helps you not just be another salesman? What does it mean to you to be a consultative salesperson versus you know, sometimes salesperson doesn't have the best uh reputation? Yep, yep, yep, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:44

Um, consultative sales to me is providing value to the customer that's above and beyond what we would normally do, which is great equipment, great installation, you know, whether it's a turnkey, whether it's uh you know, support after the fact. Um, but really what it is, it's bringing, in my case, you know, 46 years of experience to the table and let them know what I've seen and actually learned through hard docs in operating stores, but also in just seeing in the whole industry in general and how it operates. You know, I don't necessarily have to do single price drawing to know that it's a benefit. And and so, you know, if somebody's leaning along those lines, then I'll certainly expound upon my thoughts on that. Um most of my customers are very receptive to that. They see that that is a value-added service and they'll jump on it. Yeah, others will milk me dry and then go for the bottom price. Yeah, but but as soon as they make a decision, then the information stops. So, you know, it's it's it it's planting seeds.

SPEAKER_00 29:12

Absolutely. You know, something that I've been trying to promote um as you know, obviously we sell payment systems, and there's probably more payment system offerings now than there have ever been in the in my in my 25 years. And you know, it's it's it's obviously become it's a new challenge, but it also shows that there's a lot of interest there. You know, there wouldn't be these options if there weren't more people doing it. Uh but one of the things that I'm you know that I find uh to be a challenge to get across is this idea that uh with so many options, whether it's payment systems or furniture that you put in stores or anything else that you may be putting as ancillary is is don't be a catalog salesperson. Don't just open the book and tell and say point to the one just point to any of these in this book and I'll just get that for you. Uh because uh w whatever they choose, if it doesn't go well, they're gonna point it at you.

unknown 30:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:07

So you might as well have some influence in in some of the decisions they make based on that 46 years or any experience that you can bring to the table.

SPEAKER_01 30:16

Yeah, well, you know, good, bad, or indifferent, people want an opinion. They don't want something wishy-washy. And if you show them a catalog, it's just it's saying, I have no opinion on this. Okay, I'm not committed, I don't think anyone is better than the other, or I don't know the difference. And so I think really you need to come up with an opinion, base it on either your own history or a lot of you know, history from somebody that you truly trust, um, and go from there. You know, if somebody says this is the best, then you can preface it and say, I don't know personally, but I've heard from people that this is the best. And so you know, wishy-washy doesn't work in sales.

SPEAKER_00 31:08

You know, you want to doesn't show confidence, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:11

Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 31:12

Yeah. Um, well, great. Well, so here's here's what I'd love to do. You we talked about you have stores yourself, and you know um, I'm very biased of your decision on payment systems. Uh I know you have uh a laundry card in a number of your locations, and so I'm gonna ask you a little bit about kind of how how the technology, you know, uh having laundry card, how has it changed your your ability to manage, run stores, think about laundries, promote laundries in the future? Give me your take on it.

SPEAKER_01 31:44

Sure. Well, as I tell anyone when we talk about card systems, the happiest day, the happiest day of my life in operating laundromats is when I decommissioned my last bill changer. It truly is because it was transformative. It got me out of having to be at a store at a certain time two or three times a week because the money boxes were filling up. And what I tell people is what's insanity? Doing the same thing over and over and over again and expecting different results. It doesn't happen. So, you know, going and and that's actually one of the reasons why I don't like hybrid. You know, I think it people are worried about turning people off because you know they they they want to provide all forms of payment. And I don't think it's necessary. Um, you know, think of Andy Courtney, who doesn't accept one dollar bills in his laundry card system. He only does five, ten, twenty, fifty, and hundreds. I mean, you know, that's maybe a little ballsy. I don't know if I can go that far.

SPEAKER_00 33:00

Um but you know, it shows but it shows your point, which is have an opinion and and and and and be willing to commit to it, you know what I mean? And so it's uh it's really well said.

SPEAKER_01 33:13

You know, I've uh I've only really had one when we were converting our stores, and they were done 10 to 15 years ago, okay, it shows you again the Jurassic period of this guy. But but I remember one person getting really upset, and I said, Well, you can always send us your card, we'll send you a check. There's a quarter on your card. Are you ever gonna come back here? Nah, I might not. You know, it's like, okay, so I lost a customer who probably wasn't really a long-term dedicated customer anyway. So, you know, but that was the only one instance that in just interfacing and doing five store conversions that I've ever had.

SPEAKER_00 34:01

Um it's such a fear. It's yeah, it's such a fear that store owners have.

SPEAKER_01 34:06

Yeah, I don't think you're you're losing anything by going with an all-card store. And we just recently have gone with the the upgrade for the EMV, and and people love it. You know, everyone is going tapped now. You know, even when you go to the gas pumps, when all of a sudden you've got the tap feature on the gas pump, that was kind of the light bulb moment, and it was like, you know, what are we trying to do here? We're trying to make laundry as easy as possible. So why not make it easy? So convenience our our our latest conversion.

SPEAKER_00 34:44

Well, that's good, and I'm glad to see or glad to hear that you're keeping your eye on the ball in that way and looking for those conveniences because what else are we other than a convenience business?

SPEAKER_01 34:53

So and to follow up on the rest of your question, I mean, you know, like I said, just getting rid of quarters was huge. Um, we find that the float is extremely beneficial. Um, I love the ability of credit card and debit card accept. Uh, that all of a sudden expanded our market a lot. Um, even in my strongly Hispanic stores, you know, when we did 15 years ago, we had maybe a 10% acceptance of credit card. Now we're up to 25%. In some of my other stores, middle class, I'm over 50%. So close, you know, scraping 60%. So, you know, that just shows the trend is going much more towards credit card acceptance. And, you know, as I tell people nowadays, you know, sure, I've got an auditable system.

SPEAKER_02 35:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:46

Okay. So it's not green anymore. It's not, you can't have the sticky fingers. But can you buy a car for green? Right. No. Can you buy a house for green? No. Maybe you can go out to dinner, but even that's changing now. Yeah, right. I I I went to a deli and I started paying for something in cash. And this woman had to void the credit card transaction.

SPEAKER_00 36:15

She had already started it before you even tell me.

SPEAKER_01 36:20

So if you're thinking about changes, there's where the industry's going.

SPEAKER_00 36:24

Yeah, yeah, I was gonna say, you know, think about the changes we've seen, just the customer behavior of expecting the convenience of just tapping my phone, my card, you know, uh those, those that behavior is definitely one of the probably the biggest changes we have certainly observed.

SPEAKER_01 36:43

And and when I've talked to customers who really relish the green, yeah. I sit there and say, this is transformative. Okay, you do this and you don't need two sets of books. You can sleep at night. And how do you pay for this? You just raise your prices by five, ten percent.

SPEAKER_00 37:02

And then I'm sure you share them with story behind you. And then you share them the float advantages that come into it, which all of it, yes, right. Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 37:12

Um, and to to answer the rest of it, uh the we we've done couponing and some other stuff. Um, the the one thing that we use exclusively is uh the wash to win, the loyalty program. Uh, we use it in all our stores, and you know, it it's just great. It it's like you know, somebody hits the lotto. It's I was helping somebody and they're having problems with their card with the exchanger, and we finally got to work, and she got three dollars as a bonus. She was all happy. She said, now I don't have to put money in. I said, Yeah, there you go. Thank you for your business.

SPEAKER_00 37:49

It's amazing. I love it. Yeah, it's fun because one of the things that's big with me when we could design promos, you know, systems like Wash to Win that you reference is we want to make sure the customer is well alerted to the fact that this happened so that not only they recognize that they've gotten a reward, but hopefully some of the people around them that might be just kind of eavesdropping in on the transaction also see these things that maybe they haven't earned one yet, but they recognize that something is coming maybe for them at some point. I was at a car wash.

SPEAKER_01 38:19

Maybe you've got to work on that that that that screen a little bit, make it much more hyper.

SPEAKER_00 38:25

That's right, bigger, broader, bigger sound, all of that. More more on Vegas style. Yeah, Vegas style. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:32

You know, we put pyrotectics on the top, and you know.

SPEAKER_00 38:36

Yes. Lots of great ideas. Um yeah, kind of as we kind of get towards the end of our time, I did I wanted to ask you. Um, and again, this is a tough question, but you know, think think about people getting into this business from a distribution perspective. What kind of what advice would you give someone that's just joined a distributor, maybe a salesperson, joining a distribution company, and obviously they gotta learn the products, they gotta learn all that kind of stuff. But what what advice would you give someone that's getting into this business to sell?

SPEAKER_01 39:09

Um, you know, if they have the wherewithal, I I would tell them to invest in a lawnmat. Okay, you know, you're gonna the best way to sell and be credible is to sit there and say, well, in my store, okay, and because that that automatically adds credibility. You know, no ifs, ands, and buts about it. If if you're brand spanking new to a distributor, I would try to really build relations, trust relations with a really good operator. Basically say, I I want to have the salesman go to that operator and say, I want to get into the business. Can you mentor me? Can you show me, you know, everything that you can, the nuts and bolts of your business? And just by osmosis, it's gonna be like, you know, mentorship 101. Uh, with your dad to you, with my dad to me. It's you're gonna learn uh the good, the bad, the ugly, and and all the huge benefits of a laundromat. And that's you know, that'll give you a tremendous amount of credibility and knowledge just when you start to talk to other people. Yeah, and I was that that that's that would be my recommendation. And with my selling approach as consultative sales, then you know, that's how how do you get knowledge?

SPEAKER_00 40:47

Experience.

SPEAKER_01 40:48

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 40:49

Yeah. And I and I was gonna say too, you know, if even if you don't have the wherewithal to to open a store or buy a store, that's exactly what I would say. Sam and I would even say if you want to make it sweeten the deal for the guy you're going after, say, hey, I'll work a couple shifts in the store for free just to get some FaceTime with the machines, the equipment, the staff, the the just the experience. Because what a perspective that brings. You know, it wouldn't surprise me if there aren't a lot of new salespeople out there, probably never even done laundry in a laundromat.

SPEAKER_01 41:23

I'm I've I've got a cute story for you. You know, obviously getting into family business, you know, as soon as I was 13, I was carrying my father's toolbox. Um, when I was 16, I was running out to laundries, you know, filling changers and everything else. And and my mom basically had, you know, some blankets or something. And she says, you know, can you take these sold laundromat and and wash these? And I I mistakenly, as a 16-year-old, sat there and said, You know, I am a laundry technician. I I don't do laundry. And and as I said, once I got myself off the floor, I said, sure, mom, I I I can do this. Not a problem. Yeah. I'll I'll I'll learn.

SPEAKER_00 42:12

So maybe the first advice is to a new go do laundry in a laundromat. Let's start there.

SPEAKER_01 42:18

Well, you you know, for anyone who is looking to get into the laundry business and they think they have a location, and you know, um, we'll we'll do uh an initial let's say um survey.

SPEAKER_00 42:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:36

Whether it's just on Google or whatever from my knowledge, my database or whatever. If I think it's it's a reasonable location, I'll sit there and say, go to the nearest laundromat, bring your rags, bring your laundry, whatever, do your laundry there. Spend, you know, start it up, start the machines, bring out your little notebook and start writing down. How many washers, how many dryers, what's the Ven price? Talk to the attendant, what are their hours of operation? Do they do pickup and delivery? Yeah, what other special services do they have? Um, what are the hours of the store? And and just really be a sponge. Soak it up, you know, and and just be goofy. Well, I'm new here, you know, whatever. And then when you're all done, throw everything in a garbage bag, wet from the washer, go to the next nearest laundry and dry them. And do the same thing. And then when you're done with that, take them to the third closest laundromat and rewash them.

SPEAKER_02 43:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:40

And literally by the end of the afternoon, you will have a huge database and knowledge of your competitors. And with that information, you can do a little spreadsheet and everything else, but you'll know exactly who the highest price competitor is, who's the lowest price. Okay, you're gonna basically fit different different niche markets for each store, and you're gonna have to formulate where your new store is going to fit in, market-wise and price-wise.

SPEAKER_00 44:16

Yeah, that's that's actually beautiful. And and you are um um you're learning what they do well, you're learning what they maybe don't do so well, and so you can you can make you can make some notes about how you would do things differently at the same time. So just amazing, amazing advice.

SPEAKER_01 44:35

The the other thing is that it also puts the owner or or the prospective buyer skin in the game. Yes. Okay. It it it you know, this isn't just a purchase, they've got to invest a whole afternoon.

SPEAKER_00 44:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:50

Okay. And and then I call them on it. Well, you know, what'd you like about this guy? What didn't you like? And you know, we'll have a conversation. And why did you think that this store is, you know, no competition at all, you know, and go from there.

SPEAKER_00 45:04

Awesome. Well, Carl, that I think that's a great way to end this. I think that uh, you know, again, thank you so much for sharing with uh with me and with the with our listeners. And uh this is uh you know first step. I hope to have other conversations with you down the road and I'd love to have you back on the book. We'll have to do it a little bit later and have some buds. I think that's a great idea. We're gonna have to change it.

SPEAKER_01 45:27

Are you still a bourbon drinker?

SPEAKER_00 45:28

Absolutely, yes. There we go. Not a problem.

SPEAKER_01 45:32

We'll get some single vault and just uh have have a nice uh sip and talk.

SPEAKER_00 45:37

That's right. Carl, thank you so much. Appreciate it. Thank you. And and I I appreciate it. All right, you have a great day.