This article is a testimonial to Bill Gerardi who recently renovated his Norwalk, Connecticut Laundromat. The Laundromat on 280 Connecticut Avenue was built in the late 1980's and has had the laundry equipment renovated over the years, but never a cosmetic "Face-Lift". Recently Bill decided to cosmetically overhaul and modernize his Laundromat and this has achieved great results.

Past Experience

Bill Gerardi's business experience has been from operating a successful wine & liquor store for 43 years in the high end community of Stamford, Connecticut. Bill first got into the Laundromat business when my father sold him our Laundromat that was in the same shopping center as Bill's liquor store. Bill found that he loved the Laundromat business and eventually acquired 2 more stores. Bill moved his focus from the liquor business to Laundromats, thus allowing Bill to play with his Laundromats and his sons to make their own mark in the liquor business.

Modernization

Bill has over the course of several years, modernized the laundry equipment in his Norwalk Laundromat but had never done anything to the décor of the store. Last year, Bill had some new competition come into his market and he saw his business start to drop. Business had fallen and it looked like it could drop even further when Bill decided that he needed to do something to keep his customers. Bill decided that the 1980's "look" of his Laundromat had to go and be decided to overhaul the image of the Laundromat. Bill had an interior designer match the New colors for the tiles, walls and folding tables. Bill tiled over the 1960's red quarry floor tile with a light colored porcelain tile and carried a matching tile 4 foot up on all of the exposed walls. Bill also tiled the washer slabs and this tile work set the stage in dressing up the entire store. An added benefit is that the wall tile now protects the walls from marks & damage due to laundry carts and heavy customer traffic. Bill also replaced the existing washer covers with nice new clean looking covers with decorative trim.   Bill replaced all of the folding tables with a more colorful design. The hardest problem Bill encountered was that the original lights had all of the diffusers removed creating a bare bulb look. Bill had a real challenge finding the correct size lighting diffusers to cover his existing lights.

Results

As you can see in the before & after photos, Bill has done a terrific job in modernizing his Laundromat and making it bright and more appealing. A side benefit is that the Laundromat is easier to keep clean due to the all the tile work and now Bill looks forward to visiting the Laundromat. It makes him feel proud to own and operate this store. The store cosmetic overhaul has translated in a net 5% overall increase in Laundromat revenue and more appreciative laundry customers. Bill figures that with some simple promotions for this un-attended Laundromat, that he can increase his business even further.    Now that Bill has seen the results of the new "look" and the resulting customer appreciation, he plans to clean-up his other Laundromats. Cleaner nicer looking Laundromats have greater customer draw & customer appeal and have greater profits.