Multi-store standardisation
Senor Bubbles Laundromat - Ocala, Florida
Steve Mendez, five-store owner
A five-store operator who buys nothing but Wascomat. His largest build - a 600 m² room with 68 washers and 68 dryers - shows what happens when equipment consistency is treated as an operating decision rather than a purchase decision.
From grocery floors to laundry floors
Steve Mendez grew up in his father's Chicago grocery stores, where the rule was simple: if the floor is a mess, you get on your hands and knees and clean it. He carried that standard into hospitality, opening Pepe's Grocery and Mexican Restaurant in Clearwater, Florida in 1996.
When the antique mall next door came up for sale in 2005 he saw a laundromat, not a shopfront: "The entire front of the building is glass. I imagined taking down the old green canopy and shining up the enormous window to reveal rows and rows of washers and a whole back wall of dryers."
That first store opened a year later. Four more followed in Clearwater, Live Oak, Gainesville and Ocala.
One brand, five stores, zero guesswork
Mendez has only ever bought Wascomat - a decision that started as brand affection and hardened into operating logic. "I have found that Wascomats truly are built to last and take the abuse of a coin laundry. Both washers and dryers have heavy-duty construction. And if there is a problem, they are easy to service."
A single platform across five stores means one pricing screen, one spares list, one troubleshooting conversation and one training session for every new staff member - regardless of which store they walk into.
Programming as a revenue tool
The highest-performing cycle in the Ocala store is not the standard wash - it is Quick Wash. Half the time, 15 minutes instead of 30, at a lower price point ($1.75 vs $2.50). Customers self-select into it, machine turns increase, and the store earns more per hour of trade from the same equipment.
On the drying side, high-efficiency reversing dryers cut both cycle time and energy consumption. "The dryers get so hot and clothes dry incredibly quick. I can't tell you how many customers have shared their old-dryer horror stories - how other machines would eat up all their quarters just to get their clothes dry."
Big, bright and obsessively clean
High ceilings, a kids' play area with games, flat-screen televisions, plenty of seating, 32 security cameras, a small retail counter selling soap, softener, snacks and drinks, and the store's signature cascading-bubble wall graphic.
"Customers want their laundromats to be clean, well-lit and safe. After those three conditions are met, then they look at prices - believe it or not."
Opening a store like a retailer
Opening day drew the Chamber of Commerce, local banks and a crowd of prospective customers. Wash-and-dry specials ran alongside a monthly bicycle giveaway for the first twelve months - a promotion Mendez repeats at every new store.
The rest is unglamorous local marketing: coupon-paper advertising, flyers through apartment complexes inside a 5 km radius, and word of mouth. "A recommendation from a customer is truly the best advertisement of all."
“You'll get out of it what you put into it - that's what my dad always said. Everything I learned from him about the grocery business holds true for the laundry business.”
What this means for an Australian build
- If you intend to own more than one store, choose the platform you can repeat - not the cheapest machine available on the day of your first fit-out.
- Build a shorter, cheaper cycle into your price list. It lifts turns per machine at peak and gives price-sensitive customers a reason to stay.
- Clean, bright and safe beats cheap. Australian catchments behave exactly the same way.
- Treat opening week as retail: local letterbox drops inside 3–5 km, an opening promotion and a reason to come back next week.
Source: Laundrylux - Senor Bubbles Laundromats right at home with Wascomat. Published overseas store profile referenced for design and operating best practice; not an Aqualogic installation.
