Launder & Tailor House

While I appreciate that there is an oil boom going on, and that it is likely to bust (at some point), I would think that the owners would take this time to upgrade their facilities. When I was in there this last Sunday, of the 14 washers and 7 dryers that were in the place, 3 washers were new, (thankfully), 7 washers were broken, and only 2 of the dryers worked. All of those dryers were at least 40 years old and looked as if they'd never had a person clean them in any fashion beyond cleaning the lint trap. I know this is a small town, and that when the boom finally dies, people will be left with more infrastructure than they can use or pay for. But, for goodness sake, make hay while the sun shines! You could be making 2-3 times more money on this place if you had all new equipment that all worked. Especially when you're charging $3/load on the washers. I watched many people walk out of there because they literally COULDN'T do their laundry there, so they drove to the next town with a laundromat. There are currently at least 50 RV's in town, and an untold number outside of town for the oil boom. Figure on a conservative number of 2 people per RV, plus the full hotels in town (another 200 people). Each person has at least 2 loads per week. That's $1,800/week. A conservative guess of about $15/day for electricity and about the same for H2O for costs, you're out about $210/week for expenses (assuming you own the building, which I'm guessing you do). That's more than enough to PAY FOR 1 new washer or dryer every other week, assuming you take 1/2 of the profits out of this venture to pay for your livelihood. You'd have a whole new place PAID FOR in less than a year, with nothing but profit from then on. Am I missing something?
2 14 years ago (22-06-2012)