Jordan Berry [00:00:01]:
Welcome to Laundromat News Today. I am your favorite Laundromat news anchor Jordan Berry here with you from news. All things Laundromat related from around the world. Let’s kick things off today with Alliance Laundries stock holdings price down slightly from last week down to 2539 as of the recording of this, down about 5% on the day, but about even over the last month. So holding steady Alliance Laundry again, Alliance is, you know, has recently gone public with an ipo and I just want to keep track of what they’re doing over there because listen, now that they’re public, they have got to get returns for their investors and we are one of the arms of their business where they’re going to have to get those returns from. So let’s keep an eye on their stock ticker price as well as machine pricing and service pricing and all things that are tied up in Alliance Laundry and other other manufacturers who will probably follow suit. So let’s keep an eye on that. A couple things that have been hot topics in the news that we haven’t hit in a little while that I just want to bring back to the forefront.

Jordan Berry [00:01:13]:
Number one is the government shutdown and how that’s impacting small businesses. A lot of the impact on that has to do with lending. So the the SBA actually released a an article and it’s an analysis on the shutdown impact on small business lending. So we’ll link to that. Make sure you’re [email protected] to get the newsletter with links to all the articles. But the main things here that you need to know is that lending is being affected and they actually have a breakdown by state of how many loans were not approved per week. For example, California 212 loans, which translates to a value of about $126 million that are not being lended out to build small businesses per week. And you can kind of go on down the line.

Jordan Berry [00:02:09]:
California was the highest number down at the bottom is West Virginia with four per week at just over $1.4 million. Just in case you were wondering, Hawaii is number 49 with five loans per week and $1.1.56 million that are being missed out on on these loans. So the long story short of this article is, hey, the quicker we can wrap this government shutdown thing up, the better for small businesses. So I don’t know if you have been impacted by the shutdown or by lending restrictions during the shutdown, but I’d be curious to know Shoot me an email jordanmarresource.com if you have been affected. Speaking of being affected, I know a lot of you guys out been, I guess a lot of us have been affected by the, the ICE raids and immigration stuff going on. A lot of laundromats cater to that demographic or that is a demographic that we cater to. And so it’s definitely affected business with, you know, deportations, but probably even more so people staying home for fear of deportation. So I know a lot of you guys have been affected out there.

Jordan Berry [00:03:25]:
It seems to be slowing down a little bit. But listen, it’s, it’s still a struggle and sales have dipped. So if you’re out there struggling, not really knowing what’s going on with your business and why it has dropped over the last few months could be one of the culprits here. So we will keep an eye on the ICE raids and what’s going on with that. But no, there’s, there’s no question about it. It’s definitely affecting our industry right now. So let’s move on here. I mean, this is similar, but New Jersey Department of Labor has just finished up a kind of a war on laundromats, actually a three year war on laundromats.

Jordan Berry [00:04:10]:
And listen, I mean, here’s basically what they’ve been doing is they’ve been trying to crack down on labor laws for laundromats specifically. So people paying under the table and people not giving benefits and things like that that they shouldn’t be giving. They claim that over this three months that they have been able to deliver over $204,000 in back wages to workers. So listen, if you’re in New Jersey, make sure you’re, you know, taking care of your business over there because they have had their eyes on you over the last few years. So you want to check out more about that. This is a government article from the state of New Jersey. So you can read that. Make sure again you’re subscribed to Laundry Resource.

Jordan Berry [00:04:55]:
That way you can get the newsletter every week with all the links to all the articles. Wanted to highlight a North Omaha laundromat that’s offering free dry during the week to support kind of neighbors during difficult times. And also giving out coupons for free drives and stuff like that. Again, awesome to be able to do cool stuff for the community. So be thinking about, don’t get stuck head down, you know, just running your business like a business. Definitely do that. But also look for ways to do good in this world because really, you know, the Things that really matter are how we treat each other in the midst of all this. Right.

Jordan Berry [00:05:33]:
So find something cool to do this week for somebody. Maybe it’s your laundromat or an employee or something like that. That’d be a cool takeaway from today’s news episode. All right, let’s go back to Kathy Ireland Laundry. He’s been in the news quite a bit over the last couple months. They are pushing ahead. If you’re not familiar with that, it’s a franchise for laundry drop off and pick up and delivery. And it is, you know, been kind of taking the industry by storm, at least if you believe all the headlines.

Jordan Berry [00:06:03]:
So they have just topped 100 markets nationwide that they are now operating in. They partner with laundromats, they give you the systems and marketing and things like that and you process the laundry. So it might be worth looking into. And I’ve said this before and I guess I’ll say it again, really, right now there’s, you know, there’s franchises and stuff in our, in our industry. The two that I think have the biggest. This is just my opinion. I’d be interested to hear what your opinion is actually. So shoot me an email [email protected] and tell me.

Jordan Berry [00:06:35]:
But I, the two that I think have the best chance of success and, or impacting our industry and our businesses are Tide Laundry franchises which are, feel like they’re, you know, committing to, you know, handfuls every single week of new locations. And Kathy Iron, Kathy Ireland, they’ve got the brand recognition nationwide to be able to actually make an impact. So I don’t know, keep an eye on it. We’ll see what happens. But what’s interesting about it is that a different article that I was reading about the Kathy Ireland Laundry here, their, their pitch here is, let me just read it to you. More machine turns, more hours of operation and new revenue without requiring additional in store staffing. With millions of washers and dryers across the US sitting unused throughout the day, Laundromat owners now have a simple pathway to higher profitability and increased customer traffic. So that’s their pitch.

Jordan Berry [00:07:42]:
You know, I don’t know where the look, maybe, maybe not. I don’t know. I’m curious what you guys think. Let me know if you’re on YouTube. Throw it in the comments. I’m curious what you think of Kathy Ireland Laundry franchise. All right, let’s kick it over to San Francisco where a man after doing his groceries, went over to Pier 39, sat down to look at the water and he accidentally kicked over his laundry detergent into the water. And turns out he was a man sitting on the dock of the bay watching his tide roll away.

Jordan Berry [00:08:15]:
What? What was that? Today’s joke. That was today’s joke story. Not real, not true. Although maybe plausible. Okay, so there’s another article coming out of the UK which, let’s be honest, we don’t get a whole lot of news in our industry about the uk. So what’s going over there? Going on over there? Uk, London, England, Ireland, Wales. I don’t know who all makes up UK gets a little confusing for me. But all you guys over there, what’s going on over there? Little article came out today on why it’s the right time to buy a Laundromat now to invest.

Jordan Berry [00:08:52]:
Now I’m going to, you know, I’m going to just shoot straight with you. This article is mostly just an article to try to get you to buy a laundromat business plan and a project report overview from them. However, if you’re looking for whether or not maybe you should be investing in Laundromats right now, you know, it’s got some, it highlights some good reasons why Laundromats might be a good investment plan right now and whether or not you want to buy their business plan and project report overview. I’ll leave that up to you, but I’ll probably pass on it. But go check out that article if you want to get some reasons why Laundromats might be the thing for you now. And let’s head over to Listen, Big Money has, you know, been peeking over the fence of the laundromat industry lately, looking to see if there’s any room for them to come play. We’ve seen them come in with software companies and other, you know, other companies that are serving our industry. I don’t know about you if you’re at Clean show in August, but I met a whole bunch of people representing private equity.

Jordan Berry [00:09:55]:
So there’s people coming in looking to do roll ups. There’s a whole lot of money coming in here. Another company coming out of Europe, Nimbley, raised $3 million, an expansion of $3 million to tackle laundry sustainability. So there’s more investment coming in our industry. And listen, I get asked all the time. In fact, I got asked twice today on two different calls. What’s the future of this industry? Does it have a good future or is it a dying industry? And I wholeheartedly believe that this industry is going nowhere but up. We’re going nowhere but growing.

Jordan Berry [00:10:31]:
And I Think one of the things that is evidence of this is the fact that there is more and more money coming into this industry, either through what, selling the shovels or digging for gold. I guess in this scenario, buying a laundromat’s digging for gold and software, hardware, marketing, all that stuff is the shovels, I guess. But needless to say, there’s money coming into this business all over the place. So just another evidence. So go read that article coming out of UK of why you should do it and then read this one on why, you know, why these people are putting their money into our industry. You know, trying to help us grow. And Pin Hills Laundromat caught fire. Multiple dryers.

Jordan Berry [00:11:15]:
I just wanted to highlight this because, listen, this happens. This is a hazard of our industry. So make sure, number one, that you’re cleaning your lint traps every single week or no, every single day in your laundry. Make sure those things get cleaned up, they don’t get caked up in there. That’s a extreme fire hazard. Also makes your equipment less efficient in dry times, take longer and customers less happy and eventually all your customers leave because stuff doesn’t get dry and then you go out of business and die. I don’t know. So clean your lint traps every day.

Jordan Berry [00:11:47]:
That’s the moral of that story. But also, if you haven’t done it, two things that all I’d also suggest are periodically, once a quarter, twice a year, at least once a year, take off the front of your dryers and make sure everything’s cleaned out. Vacuum out all up in there because lint can get trapped up in there. I’ve taken off many dryer face plates and seen decades of lint in these things. So make sure you’re cleaning that out. And then also your vents. Those vents need to be cleaned out. They can get clogged as well and create a fire hazard as heat’s going up again, that lint super flammable.

Jordan Berry [00:12:26]:
So I wanted to highlight that, you know, no injuries at this dryer fire in Pen Hills. So we’re thankful for that. And hey, thoughts and prayers out to the owner of that Laundromat and hopefully you can rebound and get back on your feet and all that to say. Also, I just want to point out that was not me saying that they weren’t taking care of their business. I just think it’s a good reminder for us that Tom dryers are probably the number one cause of fires in our business. So let’s make sure we’re doing the best that we can to make sure that doesn’t happen. Okay. That is the news for this week.

Jordan Berry [00:13:02]:
This is Jordan Berry with Laundromat News Today, bringing you news again from around the world. All things Laundromat related. We’ll see you next week with the hottest stories in town. Everything you need to know about our industry that’s going on. And if you have a story, send it over to newsaundromatresource.com and get featured on the news. All right, we’ll see you next week.