Jordan Berry [00:00:01]:
Welcome to Laundromat news Today. I am my mom’s top three favorite laundromat news anchors. Jordan Berry here with you with news around the world. All things laundromat industry related. Let’s kick it off with the big news in this last week, which is the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates for the first time this year. The Federal Reserve has dropped interest rates from to around four to four and a quarter 25 basis point drop, which listen, a lot of us here have equipment that is tied to a prime rate or something like that that may or may not be adjusted based on this drop of the Federal Reserve interest rate cut. So these are the macroeconomic things that we need to be paying attention to that directly affect our business as laundromat owners here. So two, keep an eye out.

Jordan Berry [00:00:54]:
There’s a lot of anticipation that these rate cuts, there might be more coming. I know there’s a lot of pressure from government entities to reduce the interest rate even further. So we’ll keep an eye on that. But listen, they’re moving in the right direction, especially if you have an adjustable rate loan out there. So keep an eye on that, keep an eye on your payments. Hopefully they’ll be putting a little more money into in your pocket because of that. Speaking of money, let’s talk about Alliance Laundry Systems which announces their public filing of a registration statement for initial public offering alliance, which you know is most known in our industry for Speed Queen and hipsh brand. Speaking of which, it’s hipsh.

Jordan Berry [00:01:44]:
I get asked all the time, how do you say that? Hibish Hitch. That’s what we call it. Right. So alliance own Speed Queen and hips brands, they are filing for an initial public offering and they will be traded on the stock market at some point. I don’t know. Let me see if it says a date. I don’t see a date yet. But keep your ears open, keep your eyes open.

Jordan Berry [00:02:12]:
You know what, just subscribe to the news here and we will let you know as soon as we know a date for this ipo. As soon as it gets approved, I’m assuming. So, you know, listen, big moves we make and we, we know that alliance has been making moves all over the industry. They were acquired not too long ago and now that IPO is coming up. And speaking of companies in our industry, there was a study done on laundromat payment system and the market for that system. And you know, to nobody’s great surprise, probably in this industry, the laundry payment system market hits a new high with, you know, pay range Shine Pay, Laundry Card Wash, Lava and others Lead in the pack. I went through a little bit of this study here and it talks about how there’s a growth in subscription based laundry models and loyalty programs, rewards programs, things like that that are much easier to implement with these payment systems. And there’s a, you know, it study shows, and again, this should be not a big surprise to anybody that there’s a growing consumer demand for cashless and convenient, convenient payment system and that’s what’s fueling the adoption.

Jordan Berry [00:03:32]:
The big challenges right now facing the growth of these companies is the high installation costs and acquisition costs for some of the systems are. Some of them are quite costly and the resistance from traditional coin based customers, you know, whether that’s our customers or us as the customers of these companies, I don’t know, I’m not really sure. Sometimes I think we get in our own way when it comes to that. But those are the biggest challenges for this market and the biggest opportunities are partnering with these fintechs can expand innovative payment solutions. Smart Laundromats can offer bundle services like folding and delivery, wash, dry fold, pickup and delivery. And data monetization from payment platforms offers new revenue streams. So again, payment systems continuing to grow in our industry. I would just say we’re starting to catch up to the rest of the world.

Jordan Berry [00:04:32]:
Maybe, I don’t know, maybe that’s too much. But that’s, that’s what the trend is happening right now. And listen, I got to point out an article in the Sacramento B with AI meeting Laundry. Many of you guys who are at the Clean show may have saw, may have seen Dinah’s folding robot well featured in this article. And there’ll be some other ones coming up I am sure. Is Monster Laundry in Sacramento. Here’s what’s interesting about this. I just interviewed them this week.

Jordan Berry [00:05:07]:
The podcast episode will be coming up in a few weeks and this folding robot is being used in their store. In fact, I have a link. I’ll put it in the newsletter. So make sure you’re subscribed over there. If you want to see a live stream of Sophie swiftfold I believe. Yeah, Sophie swiftfold is what they named their folding robot. They have it live streaming. You can go check it out and watch this dino robot folding in real time at their store Monster Laundry in Sacramento.

Jordan Berry [00:05:42]:
And keep an eye out, make sure you subscribe to the podcast if you’re not and keep an eye out for their episode coming out in a few weeks, weeks from now. It’s really cool. We don’t Just talk about the folding robot. We talk about a whole lot of other very practical, very helpful things in that episode, but we also do cover that folding robot. Okay, so there was a hack, a hacker that broke into on campus smart washing machines that inevitably forced management to disable these devices and it left students without reliable laundry services. So I want to highlight this story for two reasons. Number one, look for opportunities out there to snab snap. I was going to say nab and then I was going to say snag.

Jordan Berry [00:06:30]:
It came out snap. Snag or nab. Opportunities to grow your business through things like this where there are now thousands of students with no reliable laundry service. Somebody needs to swoop in here and be the hero of the day and gain a whole lot of business, you know, in the meantime. Number two, though, the reason I wanted to highlight this is because, listen, as our machines get smarter and we start using more tech and more, we’re more wired or wireless. Listen, this is. These are real concerns about getting hacked, right? And we actually did an episode on cyber security a while back on the podcast, which is with Sean Dangers, which is worth going and checking out as well. But these are more and more the concerns we need to be aware of.

Jordan Berry [00:07:21]:
And this is not really a topic that’s ever talked about in our industry because we’ve been so tech unsavvy. But here we are. We’ve got folding robots. We are leading, leading edge when it comes to technology. But with that comes a greater responsibility to take care of the security of our stores, of our customers, of our data, all that stuff. So just wanted to highlight that. But also somebody go out there and pick up all that laundry for those students. Also want to highlight.

Jordan Berry [00:07:50]:
Let’s bring it local now. Let’s talk about some, some of you guys, some of your local laundromats. Let’s head over to Memphis, Tennessee, where a good buddy of mine and a couple of buddies who are running this business, Best wash laundry. Wore my best wash hat Rapid Presso today, but I also have a best wash house. But they had, they made the news as they doing. They’re, they’re opening five new laundromats in Memphis and they’re doing free wash for a whole week out there in Memphis. So very cool. Congrats to Brandon Understall.

Jordan Berry [00:08:22]:
I believe he’s like episode nine or something like that, single digits or early double digits on the podcast and has done nothing but grows business since then. So maybe we need to try to get him back on here. But congrats to Those guys. And they’re doing free wash for a week to launch their five locations in Memphis there. Pretty cool. Pretty cool. Okay. Out in Nebraska, there was a story that came out, a weird one here where there actually was a laundromat customer who was ironing four leaf clovers in their in the laundromat for like two hours.

Jordan Berry [00:08:59]:
And finally the owner questioned this customer and said, why are you ironing four leaf closer four leaf clovers? And the customer said that she was just pressing her luck. Okay. That was the joke of the day. Hope you loved it. I know my mom will love it if nothing else. All right. But going back to another local laundromat, a real story here. Heading down under to Melbourne, there is a laundromat slash pizza shop.

Jordan Berry [00:09:35]:
Can we think of anything more heavenly than having a full on pizza shop in a laundromatom? Got half a mind to expense a trip out to Melbourne to do an exclusive on this one just so I can get some pizza and hang out with my Aussie friends down there. But pretty cool. We’ve been seeing a lot of coffee shops, bars, cafes. Here’s an example of a pizza shop with a laundromat looking for ways to monetize the downtime of doing laundry and fill in some bellies while they’re at it. All right, maybe the biggest news of all is that you have the opportunity to come hang out with me and a whole bunch of other serious Laundromat owners. People who are laundry nerds, just like you, just like me. Hanging out and improving our businesses together at the Laundromat Accelerator Hawaii. Coming up in November, November 21st, 24th.

Jordan Berry [00:10:35]:
Check out laundromatresource.com Hawaii and come join us in Paradise Tax write off to help you grow your business laundromatresource.com Hawaii if you want to join us, listen, it’s going to be a great time. I can guarantee you that. It’s going to improve your business. I can guarantee you that. And you’ll get a tan. I can also guarantee you that. All right, so come hang out with me. Come hang out with Ryan Borneman of Fresh Leads Marketing and all the other attendees that are going to be here.

Jordan Berry [00:11:04]:
And in fact, next week’s podcast episode we are featuring the Amanda Barkey who is also going to be there talking all things eos and how to help you improve the operation side of your laundromat in a big, big way. So check out that podcast episode and then sign [email protected] Hawaii to come hang out with myself and Ryan, Amanda and all the other attendees coming out. Very limited, max of 20 people. There’s a few slots left and we would love for you to fill them up and come hang out with us. And finally, let’s wrap up the news today. Let’s head, I don’t know, further. I guess we’re going to go wester from where we just were. If we went west to get, I don’t know, I guess most of us would go west to get to Australia.

Jordan Berry [00:11:54]:
So let’s keep going west to get to India where Revivo. Sorry, Revivo. Announced the launch of their laundromat and master franchise opportunities all throughout India. Listen, laundry is catching heat all over the world of Catching Fire. They’re getting popular. There’s more and more opportunities in this business no matter where you’re at. And listen, India making some moves of their own, doing laundry and getting things done over there. So congrats to Revivo and all their franchisees.

Jordan Berry [00:12:37]:
It’ll be interesting to see how it takes and, and how it grows. So stay tuned to that. And listen. That’s it for the news. We span the globe nearly in this episode of Laundromat News today. And listen, local stuff. Big news with the Fed if you’re in the US and big news with alliance and all the other stories. So hopefully you got something to kind of keep you informed, give you something to talk about when you’re at the library with your friends hanging out because you’re a bunch of laundry nerds.

Jordan Berry [00:13:10]:
And that’s what you do, hang out the library and chat with each other. I don’t know where that came from, but we’ll see you next week with news from around the industry if you’ve got news, big or small, about your business or your local laundromat that you want to share on Laundromat News today, shoot us an email news at laundromatresource. Com.