Between 103rd and 106th Streets on Third Avenue at noon, a man walks with his laundry bag flung across his shoulders. The streets are full of interaction between the residents and the local business people. At the corner of 105th Street, he enters a small store to drop off his laundry.
The place isn’t particularly attractive in looks, and the space is not big enough to attract a significant number of customers, no matter what the time or date, yet Carlton Laundromat has managed to be around for a couple of years. It is run by a Mexican family who has worked hard to differentiate themselves from other laundromats by focusing on results rather than looks, by giving the customer a sense of trust and familiarity.
Carlton is open Monday through Sunday from 7 am to 9 pm, and operated by four women. Leticia Valderamas has been working at the laundromat from day one and she has seen the customer loyalty rise at a satisfying rate. “When we first started, we were worried about creating a clientele,” she said.
“We worried that the space and the location would scare away potential customers, but we soon realized that was not where the biggest opportunity was.
According to the Coin Laundry Association (CLA), laundromats generate almost $5 billion in revenue. Most of the laundromats, in areas filled with residents who pay rent, generally do well. This is true of the Carlton Laundromat, which is surrounded by many residential apartments. The next closest laundromat for residents in the block is located on Second Avenue and 104th Street, about an eight to nine minute walk away. This eliminates a big problem in regards to attracting clientele.
There are several factors that prevent such a small business from prospering. For starters, many of the residential businesses in the area have their own self-service laundromats. In addition, many local residents have small washers in their apartments and do their own laundry, and, of course, there are always other competing laundromats. So how does Carlton Laundromat keep up with this competition?
Eli Escobar, one of the workers at Carlton, believes that, “Our success is based on a couple of economic factors. The first is that there isn’t another laundromat around for a good distance, so as long as we give good customer service, people will keep coming back to us because they don’t really have anywhere else to go.” Carlton Laundromat has about 20 driers and 10 washers; the store reasons that 10 great working washers are better than 25 inadequate ones.
Carlton laundromat, makes its biggest profit on the basis of drop-offs rather than customers coming in and doing their laundry themselves. “What other Laundromats around here don’t realize is that people look to spend less and less time in a laundromat. They would rather pay a few more dollars and have their clothes well tended.” When they realized this, they completely changed their approach and started making changes to give customers an incentive to drop off rather than come and do their own laundry
The laundry bags are weighted and the customer is looked up through the system for efficiency
“The secret lies in the fact that people do not have time to go in and spend two hours to wash and fold their clothes, so instead they want to feel secure and safe,” Leticia said, “by safe and secure I mean that they can pay $15 to $25 every two weeks and know that their clothes wont be damaged, or that their socks won’t return with missing pairs or their white clothes dyed in every color of the rainbow.”
Over 60 percent of Carlton’s income comes from drop offs. Customer information is stored in a computer to quickly access it when they drop off their laundry, and the clothes are weighed and charged by the pound.
“We sort of figured out how to maximize the economics of the area,” Leticia said confidently. “Originally, households that have a full family would usually come in and do the laundry themselves, while couples or people who live with roommates, or by themselves will just drop it off and pay by the pound,” She said, “ Now more and more households drop their clothes off.”
Drop offs by a single customer on an early morning
The group of four women work diligently everyday and sometimes wish they had a little bit more space to operate because of the big pile of drop-offs. In addition, customers sometimes come in, and, “ demand that their clothes be ready in a few hours,” said Eli, “something that for the personnel we have and the space, is nearly impossible.”
All in all, they believe that the focus on drop offs has given them an advantage over the competition. “Running this place is not easy, but we feel like we dominate this area’s clientele the way we dominate these dirty clothes, and that’s all that matters,” said Leticia with a smile on her face.
