Demographics

[CKH]

I’m still in the process of searching for a laundromat to acquire and I have three options right now; two of which are good and one is pretty much a no-go. As I’ve been trying to assess the options, I keep coming back to the demographics. The thing is, the one that I think is the best option has the worst demographics of the three on paper, but I may be more emotionally invested in this option for some reason.

I’d like to hear what you all look for in terms of demographics, and compare it to what I’ve found online doing my own research. Two distributors have told me that my favorite location has good demographics, or good enough to justify a retool. Today one told me that his strategy is to see how many competitors are within the immediate area and to calculate whether there are at least 5,000 people per laundromat in the area. He said this population size justifies a retool, which seemed excessively low to me compared to what other research I’ve found.

Here’s what I’ve found online so far:
Minimum one mile population: 10,000
Minimum population of renters: 25%
Minimum Hispanic population: 25%
Minimum blue collar workers: 35%

The site where I pulled these from had other figures for what constitutes a good/better/best scenario, but these are minimums for a good enough scenario. What are your thoughts?

[Kalvin Sid]

It’s also good to know how many other laundromats you have to compete against. 5000 for one laundromat sounds like a lot of people to me!

[Jason Dodge]

Run demo reports on other laundromats in your area. I went to places that I knew where making a killing because they had 15 to 25 cars in their parking lots on Sundays. Then I ran a demo report on that address and mapped all competing locations. Yes it can cost a few bucks to do this. But you will see some differences in demographics when comparing super successful places and places that look super slow.

[Emerson]

What Jason described is exactly what I have been doing.

It can be eye opening and frustrating at the same time but a great exercise.

An added element is that I know what 2 stores NET that I have run reports on to compare to but that is kind of an aside.

Set up tables with summaries of the usual key factors on about 10 different locations so far.

I have been getting the reports from ESRI at $50 a pop.

https://www.esri.com/en-us/home

[Alex Alleva]

Hi Emerson

Which services specifically are you using from ESRI? Thanks

[Emerson]

https://www.esri.com/en-us/arcgis/products/buy-reports/configure

I have been selecting “Demographics” then choosing the “Market Profile” reports.

You can look at the other sample reports as well.

I liked that you can see what information is included in a. report before purchasing.

[Alex Alleva]

wow that’s fantastic thanks!

[Emerson]

Jason —

Funny to hear you mention those car counts.

At least in my area/region 25 cars can be seen only at the busiest store I can think of.
Years ago I talked to the collector as. he was servicing the store and it was pretty amazing. This place stays busy all week. It sold to a group that owns hotels for a very nice price.

15 cars is at another very busy consistent place. Sundays 15, weekdays seem to be 8 cars or people most times.

Other than that in the smaller towns or rural areas 10 to 12 cars at once on the weekends seem to be the max or when they are slammed.

I get it is not exact but something I have been able to note is the grinders or really busy places get pops during the week as well that I think make a real difference. I mean most places get a pop on Sundays but you can spot places that get the weekday crowd and you know that adds up.

Sundays busiest day and Mondays are surprisingly busy especially mid day.

[Emerson]

Alex,

One thing I wish that report did do or include would be to separate owner occupied housing by income levels.

Some formulas used to estimate potential market or “core customers” take X % of renters and X % of owner occupied houses below a certain income level and combine.

I have pulled several reports in smaller population areas where the number of renter households and the the number of households below certain income levels are almost exactly the same.

I mention this because if using a formula to estimate market size that factors in X % of renter plus X % of owner occupied housing below a certain income level, it would be possible to overestimate by double counting some renters and households below a certain income level.

Again this only matters if using the type of formula I mentioned.

[Emerson]

Renewing the discussion for B Wilson.

https://www.esri.com/en-us/arcgis/products/buy-reports/configure

I have been selecting “Demographics” then choosing the “Market Profile” reports.

You can look at the other sample reports as well.

I liked that you can see what information is included in a. report before purchasing.

[Author]

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