Third-Generation Wisdom: Scaling The Wash House Laundromats

Alex (Host): All right, well, thank you again, everybody, for being here. I'm super excited to talk to two of my—actually, my favorite brothers. I don't know how many other brothers I know. Gilli's my brother-in-law, but these are my favorite brothers in the laundry business. Luke and Lee are multi-generation operators building what I think is one of America's most successful laundromat operations.

Before we dive in, I'd love to have you guys talk a little bit about your background—how the hell your family got into this business from that one small store to where you guys are now. Luke, I'll pass it to you first for a little intro.

Luke: Thank you for having us, Alex, and the Cents team. Y'all have done an amazing job coming into the industry and bettering it, so our goals align—to improve the industry. We're excited to be here today at the Clean Show. Thanks for having us.

In 1967, my grandfather got a laundromat. His name's Jimmy, and with Barbara, they got a laundromat in a small town. The reason they ended up with that laundromat is because they were the landlords. The laundromat owner and dry cleaner quit paying rent, so they had to take over the business.

The first thing they did was start to fix the machines so they wouldn't take a penny—they'd take a nickel. So, you know, that was kind of the start. They improved and fixed all the washers and dryers. Then the next thing they did was they took down the partition that separated the blacks from the whites. That was the right thing to do, and we like to say we've been improving laundromats ever since—making it a better environment for people.

The Wash House was born back then. Our dad grew it into a chain of about ten-plus stores, and his ceiling was our floor. We kind of took that and ran with it. My background is I'm kind of front-of-house COO, chief operating officer, and my brother handles a lot of the finances and the vision. I love people, and this business is perfect when you love people. If you don't love people, it's probably not a business you want to get into.

But I love people. I kind of love sports, so I was a football, basketball, baseball player growing up. I took that same hustle and muscle into the laundromat business. I was a C student, so having Lee—the combination of both of us has really created rocket fuel. I don't know if you've read the Rocket Fuel book, but I'm so thankful for my best friend, brother, and our CFO of our company.

Yeah, that's kind of where we started, and the good Lord's kind of got it every step. He's opened and closed doors, and we've kind of tried to keep blinders on for other opportunities and really just stuck to self-service laundromats and creating a brand that consistently delivers an excellent customer experience. The money kind of has taken care of itself. So that's kind of where we're at.

Lee: Hey, everybody. Thank you for being here. Exciting.

Yeah, we started a long time ago, as Luke said. A lot of work was done before us. Our floor was our dad's ceiling, and it's been wonderful to see what has transpired in the industry. My first Clean Show was 26 years ago, right here in Orlando, and I'll tell you what's amazing—to see what has happened over those 26 years. A focus on customer experience, which is what Luke talked about. That's what we are all about: delivering an excellent customer experience.

We have been able to incorporate technology into that, and that creates efficiencies, which also helps with profitability. So the industry is growing because of those things: focus on excellent customer experience, incorporating technology to deliver an excellent customer experience to improve your margins. And that tide just continues to raise all of our boats. So excited to be part of the industry.

Alex: It's always so key. I've heard the story a couple times at these shows, and every single time I learn something a little bit new. It's so clear that even though maybe the definition of success has changed over time, it's been evident from just getting to know you guys—I'm sure everybody that's spent time with you—the core values of your family, your grandfather getting into the business, has remained unchanged in terms of what you guys care about and how you've been able to build the business.

One of the questions I have is: What do you think the advantages and disadvantages of being third-generation operators are? And then for first-generation operators getting into this space, what is kind of the advice on both ends of that spectrum on how they should think about entering this industry?

Lee: I think the first thing that comes to mind is a disadvantage. When you are third generation, a lot of things have been established. And if you are not of the mindset of "okay, how do I break this so I can fix it," then you will stay the exact same. You will stay stagnant, you will stay constant, and there will not be that opportunity to continuously improve what you have inherited, been born into, been given, whatever it may be.

And so if you are a second or third-generation operator, just think: How can I make this better? Where can we improve? And you will kind of take the experience you have gained and be able to turn it into an advantage.

Luke: Absolutely. So the advantage or the disadvantage is—if you're the owner, you're the father, you're somebody who would be stepping down and passing that to the next generation—my challenge to you is to let them get involved. My dad let us get involved. He threw us in the deep end. He threw us in the deep end. Literally, that's how we learn to swim as kids, and also with the business. He was like, "Yeah, just go figure it out." And what he did was he kind of got out of the way and he would listen to our ideas. So listen to that next generation's ideas and let them implement some of those ideas.

And the worst thing in the world is family business entitlement. It's the worst entitlement in the world. So if you're that third generation or fourth or second, their ceiling is your floor. It's not yours to kind of keep the same and "we'll just all live off of this, man." God calls us and business calls us to grow. If we're not growing, we're dying.

So I challenge you to get involved. Be a part. It's not just "dad has this laundromat." Hey, this is an opportunity for me to take advantage of. And what Lee and I did is we took that opportunity, and we are squeezing the lemon juice out of that thing. So that's what you have to do in life, whether your opportunity is to fry the french fries at McDonald's, or whether your opportunity is to take over a laundromat chain—how you take advantage of that little opportunity will determine where you end up next.

So take advantage of the opportunity. Do not take opportunity for granted. If you're that next generation, there's a lifespan within opportunity, so don't miss that lifespan. So that's my two cents.

Alex: Yeah, two cents. I mean, look, I'm just fired up. I love the passion. But I think the passion is something that resonates with a lot of people. I want to talk about the success in your forward-looking plans, but I know that you guys have talked about operating with regional managers managing about five to seven locations. I think you guys are at 43 now.

Luke: Forty-three open, 44 is under construction, 45, 46—you know, they're all in the pipeline.

Alex: We'll get to the pipeline in a minute, but I want to know a little bit about company culture. How do you hire? How do you translate the passion that you have and make that something that resonates with others so they get to carry that on?

Lee: You talked earlier about values. So we have five core values: excellence, respect, integrity, kindness, and generosity. Those are not aspirations—they have to be part of who you are. And so we look for people who exhibit those core values. It's hard to pour those into people as staff members, but if they have those things and they can buy into what you're doing and they can help you deliver an excellent customer experience, then that in itself will continue to create a pretty incredible culture.

We are a family business, but we are also a family as a business. So we treat all of our team members as family members. We celebrate birthdays, we celebrate births, marriages, holidays—those types of things—because people are not equipment. We might break down, but we are not equipment. We were made in the image of God. So it was very important for us to see all of our team members in that perspective.

And so it allows us to create a culture where people feel welcome, where they feel valued, and where they stay. Luke talks big about how all of our staff members are full-time. We have zero part-time staff members because it's important for us for them to be part of our family and committed to what we are doing, because we are committed to them and how they serve our customers. So that's a big part of what has helped establish, build, and sustain our culture.

Luke: Sure, just intentionality and getting to know people—both your customers and your staff. You've got to show your staff members how to pour into your customers before they actually know how to do it. So you set the tone. Years ago, I knew about half our customers and I knew all of our staff members' names. And everybody—whether a staff member or a customer—they have "make me feel important" on their forehead. That's the same thing here today: make me feel important.

So if you can instill that and make your staff members feel important, they'll learn how to do it and they'll duplicate that with your customers. But just be intentional about getting to know somebody's name that works with you. That's a person. Know their kid's name. Take a little extra time. It's more valuable to spend a little more time with your staff than it is to come to the Clean Show. I'm sorry, it is.

So if I can encourage you to take one thing from here—Wanda, who works for you, Tiffany, Deborah—I'm thinking of people that work for us right now: Preston, Carlos, all of these guys—we intentionally make time for them. And now, Lee and I's time is so spread, we can't make time for everybody. So we've actually hired a role and that's all they do—they know what's going on in people's lives. So that's something you've got to do.

It's easy at first to just think about what's next and who's next, but pour into them. "Faithful with the small, he'll trust you with the great." If you've only got one employee—or family member, we don't use the word employee—but if you've got one team member, make sure you pour into them. And then as that grows, continue to do that. And that's what we've tried to do: be intentional because we are human beings, not human doings, and just showing that you care and giving somebody your most valuable thing, which is your time.

You can, of course, give them a bonus and do all these things. We have annual training where we bring 90 of our staff members together. We go through every scenario. Lee and I do skits of customer roles—you left the clothes in the dryer, "don't touch my clothes," and how we're gonna handle that. Not to wear AirPods to make sure you're available for your customers. I don't walk in the store with AirPods on. That says, "do not talk to me." So my staff, they don't wear AirPods either. So yeah, just being intentional about those things.

And no matter how big or small you are, start with what you've got and yeah, it'll grow. Faithful with the small, he'll trust you with the great, but people are the most important thing. If a machine's broke, I'm okay with that. But if a customer or staff member's hurting, we wanna run to that. So yeah, that's kind of it.

Alex: I mean, I think we can all agree that this—and so much of the laundry business we think is isolated to being in the laundry business—in reality, that's just great leadership. That's just great company culture. And we think the same thing in our business. We talk a lot to our customers: What are Cents' guiding principles? Why does Cents have such low employee churn? I mean, it's not the easiest thing when there's Facebook and Google and OpenAI to go say, "Hey, don't look at those companies. Come to the laundry tech company. That one's really exciting."

And so it's the same thing. Why is working at a laundromat theoretically—I think a lot of us would say working at a laundromat doesn't sound great—but why is working at Chipotle or Starbucks or any other retail business better than working at a laundromat? Make the argument that it's not, because I think that people look at this industry in a passive way, which makes you forget about the humans that are actually involved—whether it's self-serve, wash-and-fold, whatever the kind of business is—realizing that when you invest in people, you actually get a return the same way. When you invest in your business, you get a return. And I think that is so evident in how you guys have built your stores.

Luke: One thing I want to add is as you grow big, we want to grow small. So that means my staff member—their number one rule in the handbook is to meet two people by name every day. So as customers come in, Julie who's at the store needs to be meeting that person by name. And next time when the customer, when she says, "Welcome, Wanda, to the Wash House," they start to build a rapport with each other. So just knowing people's names and learning their names is so, so important.

But as you grow big, you can lose that, you know? So it's so important to be intentional. So we train our staff: meet people by name every day. And as we grow large in numbers of locations, we're also growing small and really getting involved in these communities and connecting—our staff is connecting with the customer. And once they make a connection with another person at your store, they could care less which equipment they're using. They just come to see that person and they know how they made them feel.

Future Growth Plans

Alex: Well, I want to get your take on—you guys are at 43, 44 locations. What does the Wash House look like at 100? I mean, I think the core tenants have lasted, I don't know, forevermore, but what does it look like? What are your goals and what is it going to take for you guys to evolve, change, improve, et cetera, to get to that next level where maybe your ceiling becomes the floor for whatever that looks like?

Lee: So a lot of people in this industry are beginning to partner with private equity or bringing in additional partners who have capital. Our goal is just to continue to use our cash flows to grow our number of stores under our same brand.

What 100 looks like—it looks pretty similar to what we've got now. So we have tried to centralize everything that we have to for our operations. So when you talk about scaling, you have to make decisions. A lot of it is: How does this scale at three stores? How does this scale at 13? How does it scale at 23? So what does that look like? So making decisions about what you centralize and what you decentralize is extremely important.

So we could probably run 100 stores in our 1,700-square-foot office. We have excellent people. We have excellent people on the ground, which is the most important thing, because they all have responsibility, authority, autonomy over a certain number of stores. We don't have levels of management. So our middle level doesn't manage another level. All those people report back to our central office. And so we would be able to grow to that scale. I didn't think we could do it at 43, and yet we have been able to. So as long as we have people on the ground in the stores, yeah, we're able to get there from an oversight-type way, you know, doubling the size. I mean, I have gray hair now—that might really put me over there.

Luke: Don't do it.

Lee: Y'all would have to send me to Costa Rica, and I could do it. And it is, you know, our tradition has been one store at a time, maybe find someone with two stores at a time. And in the future, there may be opportunities where somebody's trying to retire, they have five locations in a pretty tight-knit geographic area, and you grow that way.

Luke: Yeah, did you have a question? So one thing on the management structure Lee said is we don't have managers managing managers. So our store managers out in the stores—they are not the boss of another person working in that store. Our regional technicians that go around—they're not the boss of anybody. So it really creates no friction there. They know all of them report back with problems, but from headquarters is where we do HR and if we've got to discipline anybody. So I think I wanted to answer that for you.

Lee: And there's a difference between reporting back an issue and gossiping or telling on somebody or creating some drama in your laundromat. There's a difference between that. We call them tickets. So if there is a need in the store that has disrupted our customer's experience, that needs to trigger a ticket. And so if somebody is reporting a ticket, that's just the way it goes. We need to know so that can be created and the responsible party can fix the problem because we want 100% in operation all the time.

Luke: And cancers within your organization—they stand out like a sore thumb, and the other team members, when you get rid of that, they realize that, they respect that, and everybody moves forward as a team together. We are anti-drama. Nobody said "she didn't clean that good." I need exactly what she didn't do, the time and the stamp. I want a picture. I want to know exactly what did not happen. I don't talk vague. We do not talk vague. Don't come to me with a vague report of anything. I need to know factual evidence: "She did not clean any of the dryers." I need the pictures, the timestamp, all of that. Don't bring it to me unless you got the evidence.

Then I go back with the evidence, or our staff members in-house do, but we really kill a lot of drama. That's like the second rule. Actually, that's the last. First is to meet two people by name. The last rule is, in big letters: NO DRAMA. We put up with no drama. If I hear in the office, "Are you dealing with that person again?" Let's get rid of them, because we've got hundreds of people applying to work with us every month. We have 50 to 100, and we're a laundromat chain, and we've got 50 to 100 people every month applying with us consistently.

That really builds things, and you know what? When we have a need that we need to fill, you know who we send it to to get filled? Our staff members, because we treat them so well. Their cousin or their sister's going, "How do I get to work with that company you get to work with?" When we have an opportunity, it fills itself, and that's how we grow as a family company, and that's how we grow really strong together.

Hiring and Industry Perception

Alex: I think it's one of the myths that people don't want to work in a laundromat, that it's so hard to hire people. What it actually is—it's not that people don't want to work in a laundromat, it's just hard to do everything that Luke and Lee are saying. But with effort, care, and having that ingrained in the culture, and you invest in it, you get a return. People do want to work for any business—in a laundromat, in a car wash, in retail, wherever it is—if they align with the culture, they align with management, and they believe in where they are, especially when they're serving the community and all that.

So I appreciate you guys going so deep because I think it is such a critical thing for everybody to remember. Some folks don't have the appetite—they don't want to make that investment, and that's okay, completely okay. If you don't want to build that kind of culture, just know what you're gonna get when you don't make that investment. And once you have that expectation, you're never disappointed. So I appreciate you guys going so deep into that.

And, you know, look, while we're on the growth conversation, I know you guys got two stores kind of near each other—two miles or something like that—in your area. I know you guys grow a lot through acquisition versus new store builds. I think for everybody, it'd be really curious to understand: How do you think about location growth? What's your strategy as you're looking at either acquisitions—if you do build, are you looking at locations too close, too far? How do you guys think about your location growth?

Luke: Yeah, so we're looking 2,000 square feet, 2,500 square feet to 6,000 square feet with upfront parking and good visibility with 10,000 people in a one-mile radius. I mean, it's not rocket science. But on the acquisition side, we wanna buy stores that we can develop. When we look at a store, we're not so worried about their net and the multiple or whatnot. We're looking at the potential. Once we put in our model, we know what we can do. So we run pro formas based off of our reinvestment that we're gonna do.

Years ago, Lee and I literally would paint the stores at night. We would buy a store, and to fix it up, we'd fix all the machines. We'd order one machine from Dexter brand new or whoever, and we'd order that machine and it'd be upfront, and then we'd get one big dryer. So you may say, "Well, I can't—I don't have the money to reinvest all new equipment." That's okay. Put one machine in or fix what you have. Paint the walls. There's so many easy things that you can do. But for looking at a new store, we need the demand there. We never put a store right across the street from another.

And an interesting story: we were going into a market a few weeks ago, had two buildings under contract in this market. We were gonna build two laundries there. And anyway, soon as I get it under contract, I put up the "Wash House Coming Soon" sign, day one. So we put up that sign and I get a call from the city. The city says, "Hey, I've got your six-inch sewer line. I'm gonna meet you over at the laundry on this street." And I said, "I haven't called for a sewer line. I've just got the building under contract."

Long story short, a laundromat was being built right across the street. I called to find out who it was. We called the guy and said, "Listen, I heard you're going across the street. I'm sure you've seen my sign. When are you opening?" He said, "We're opening in a few months." I said, "You beat me to it. We're gonna pull out of the contract, not put a store there."

So that's just—we prayed on it, slept on it. And God said, "Hey, that doesn't need to be where you're going." So we decided that was a closed door. Yeah. And that was a closed door, but you know what happened? I felt the Lord—I'll talk about the Lord a lot. You can kick me off if you need to, but I felt the Lord say there's this other market that's so much greater than that one you were gonna put two stores in. The max you could put in that town was two. Said, "I want you to go to this bigger market and serve more people there." And that guy was ahead of me across the street. We could have built, we could have competed, but it wasn't the right thing to do.

So we also look at the competition around. We don't really see them as competition, but they're other owners. They have heartbeats as well. I try to get to know those people. If you're in our market, we want to know you. We want to build a relationship with you. I've given change machines away. I've done all sorts of things for owners around me. And you may say, "That's crazy." Well, I build relationship. Who knows—one day I may purchase that store, one day I'm not—but doing the right thing's always the right thing to do.

And as you grow, there's so many markets that are underserved. Let's not go all to the same corner and put a bunch of different laundries on the same corner. There's so many markets across the country that are underserved. So find one of those markets. Always try to grow through acquisition because it's the easiest way to get in. But if you can't do that, find a building to buy or lease or a space to lease. And if it's your first one, I realize it can be scary, but that's why we offer our free resource as a podcast. That's why we do these sorts of things. We want to help you. Come talk to us here. We'll answer any questions for you and help you kind of get through that learning curve.

But when people die and they're on their deathbed, they always regret things that they didn't do. They don't regret things that they did do. So if you're just thinking about this, you're here. Give it a shot. You can do this. That's my two cents.

Lee: No, we buy stores. If you're gonna buy a store and someone's gonna sell it, they're not gonna sell it to the jerk from down the street. They're much more likely to engage in a conversation with you if you're kind to them. If you show them the value that you're gonna add. We got into a store one time and this lady—she tried to sue us because we took over the lease that she lost and we paid her for her equipment. And she said that we had broken an NDA. We said, "Okay, well, we don't wanna go to court or anything like that. We will be happy to compensate you. But the only way we're gonna compensate you is if you meet us at your store and we give you the check in the store."

We had completely finished the renovation, and this lady walked in amazed—amazed at what Luke and his team had worked really hard to renovate what was a very crappy laundromat into a beautiful store, lots of capacity. And she was blown away, and she would not have understood exactly what could happen in that same space with a little bit of vision, creativity, the capital that we bring to deliver an excellent customer experience. And so it was totally worth it.

Scaling and Consistency

Luke: One thing as you're acquiring and as you're growing: figure out what you're gonna do first. So if you have one, let's go ahead and figure out what services you're gonna offer, how you're gonna offer them, pick a couple colors, get branded. That way we know what we're scaling. Without that, we really don't know what we're gonna operate—this one that way and that one this way.

One thing that's helped us with scale is I am a stickler for consistency. So we have the same hot water heater, we have the same payment system, we have the same blue color walls, and that helps us know. And that way when I send Sandra over to another location, it's not like we're operating any different business model over there. It's actually the same business model. The same key actually works all of our doors at all 44 locations. So I can send staff members to other locations.

So when you're thinking about acquiring or whatnot, think about what you're gonna do with the space to improve it. Look for things like their low vend price. Look for things like that you can improve quickly. We know we can fix broken-down machines. Karl can fix any machine you got, right Karl? He's got a video for it. Shout out to Karl—a legend in the industry. Can we give it up for Karl Henrich? Store owner, distributor. You've helped the industry for a long time, so thank you. I couldn't help but recognize you standing there.

So did you have a question? So we're 6 a.m. to midnight. We used to be 24 hours, but then I would get up at night and I would find myself dispatching police all over the state—

Lee: —between midnight and six.

Luke: Those six hours we've learned are worth it. We use mag locks, so the mag locks lock at night. We've got night managers who go around and make sure that the door actually locked because they'll put something in there so it won't lock.

And one thing I'll tell you that's gold right here—so write this down if you have a laundromat. Don't use contact sensors for break-ins. Have in your store, if you've got closed hours, have in your store a motion sensor. So any motion inside that laundromat whatsoever during your closed hours is gonna trigger an alarm. So that way the alarm goes off before they even bust anything up. That's one thing we've done two years ago.

Lee: Partially attended 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. And then we have night managers who go and see about three or four stores on a rotating schedule throughout.

Alex: And I'd say one—and I think we can open it up now for some questions because I think the most important thing, and hopefully everybody's takeaway, is how much of an open book Luke and Lee are about what the best practices are. Because the industry as a whole—the quality of investors, the way that the industry is viewed, more customers coming to laundromats in general—will increase when we share information to make each other better.

We don't hide—Cents, we do everything, we showcase everything that we do, we don't care if competitors look at it, because if other people are doing great things, it creates better competition. Competition raises the bar for everybody. If you treat people with respect, then it's a very long-term industry and very long-term goals that everybody has, and I just think it's so important what Luke and Lee do and so many operators. So don't be closed off to not just asking the questions, but answering them with your opinions, because that's how we're gonna learn and get educated on what actually is possible and what the best practices are.

So, for the time that we have remaining, which I have no idea how much it is, maybe we could go to some questions.

Luke: I would say, what is it, 150?

Lee: So from our westernmost door to our easternmost door is about 200 miles.

Luke: Yes, so about an hour and a half.

Lee: If we did get a circle diameter—

Luke: I have people call me all the time. "I want to own 50 stores in 50 states." I said, "No, you do not." So you want to kind of own a market. You want to dominate—I'll use the word.

Lee: Dominate the market.

Luke: So even if that market is just one little neighborhood, you want to really do a good job serving that. And before you look way far off, if there's more of a need in that area, just go a few miles up the road. Very similar to Starbucks. There's one on every corner.

What we've done, we created our own payment system years ago before Cents was here. We probably wouldn't have done it if y'all would have been a little sooner, but we did because we knew at about store 20 that we couldn't grow anymore unless we created a solution to the problem we have of coins. It wasn't profitable. It was very taxing on our team to go around. So we created our own payment solution, which allowed us to continue to scale. Now, Cents offers that and has done a really good job bringing technology into our industry.

And it was very much needed because we were really slow to transform as an industry, but it allows people to own stores in other states. But it's kind of like dating a girl in another state. Is it wise? You can do it, but is it wise? So you're gonna have to—if it's your first, I would try to live close to it, but don't make the decision based off where you live. Make the decision based off a pro forma and demographics that actually will justify the investment that you're gonna make.

And if you're a first-timer and the numbers don't work at first, a distributor will always sell you more machines. So you can buy 20 washers to start with. And then if you need to add some more, you can add some more. Cents will take your order on some more when that time comes, but you don't have to go out and overspend at the beginning. So—the hybrid is like hunting and toting the dog. So, can I say that? That's exactly how I was gonna describe it.

Lee: What's the average distance between the stores? Average is probably three miles in those tight markets.

Luke: Yeah.

Lee: We run 2,000 to 6,400 square feet, so they vary.

Luke: Your question on hybrid? To answer your question—I was just being silly—but what it does is we created a loyalty payment system that's RFID-based, very similar to a LaundryWorks system. We totally wanted to eliminate coins because they were the problem we were having. We didn't want to get rid of 50% of our problem. We wanted to really cut it at the root and get rid of the whole problem.

And also when customers pay at a kiosk and they use a loyalty card to pay—or our app, we've got an app—they build an account. Well, when they have funds on that account, they're gonna come back and come back to you often. So we run promotions with that. But when customers pay on the machine with a credit card or coins, that really doesn't build any loyalty. And our goal, like Lee said, was to dominate our market. We want customers using us 10 times out of 10. When we had coin stores, customers used us probably seven out of 10 because three of those times they were all across town and it was just more convenient.

So we created our system and we added stores so our average customer uses two to three locations. We've been able to see that, and we force them to try our other locations because we'll run promotions at those locations that get them to go and make them aware of that other location. We do have cash. Yes. That can get convoluted. So a card system—whether LaundryWorks or any of it—does not mean we're gonna still take cash. I would never recommend anybody not to take cash. We even take coins. If you bring coins—you give me ten dollars' worth of coins, I'll give you a ten-dollar bill, Miss Johnson, and you can put it in there. We never—we don't want to turn anyone away. But yeah, no.

Lee: So you multiply your problems rather than divide them, because you don't eliminate problems with coin by adding a credit card-accepting ability. You just multiply your coin drop still getting jammed, and your credit card reader giving you problems.

Alex: And you remember, there's one person or one group that benefits from using coins, and it's the people that make the coin drops, right? But in general, otherwise, people are usually not showing up to your store with a big bag of quarters. They're showing up with cash, which is then being converted into quarters and then being used in the machine. So you cut out one piece, but the transaction itself is still exactly the same.

Luke: Actually, lower-income customers—especially when you put technology into your business, they appreciate it, they feel valued, you know? Because most people—well, those people—well, there ain't "those people." Now, today, everybody's got a smartphone from the homeless to the CEO, and they all know how to use it. When you put that into your business, they appreciate that, and it makes it easier. It's safer for people in the store. A lot of women—70 percent of our customers are female—so them not having to have cash on them really helps, and we do about 50% cash and 50% credit card is what we run on average at all our stores.

Alex: Yeah, and I think the other thing that we see is when you add technology, you're able to increase price because just increasing price without changing the quality of the service you're providing is much more challenging. You show you're investing in your business. People are willing and actually happy to pay because they know where their money's going. It's going to create a better experience for them at your laundromat.

Any other questions if you want to ask? I think we're over time anyway, but Luke and Lee, I can't tell you how grateful we are for you to be here to share your insights with everybody. Happy and so grateful to call you guys friends and excited to see you guys continue to grow and get to that 100. Let's do it. Thank you, Cents. Thank you all. Give it up for Cents.

Luke: Thank you guys so much for what you're doing for the industry.

Alex: Yep. Awesome. Thanks, guys.