By clothing-bag, 30/01/2022

Castilla y León Salamanca The rise of self-service laundries as a saving option against the rise in electricity

The electricity bill has been absolutely intractable for months and hits especially the most modest family economies. The prices for carrying out an operation as simple as turning on the washing machine have skyrocketed and every housewife or husband is struggling to search the Internet for the cheapest time slots to fill the drum of the appliance with dirty clothes and proceed to turn it on. The costs have also increased substantially if the drying program is started. Meanwhile, the dialectical squabbling and bitter verbiage among politicians about the rise in electricity rates does not diminish in intensity and consumers still do not understand the reasons why a practice as absolutely essential as washing pants, skirts and underwear is becoming becoming a real shock for the pockets.

Teresa Mendoza is a mother of a family with two small children enrolled in Primary who, as she confesses, has banished her washing machine to absolute inactivity and paralysis for weeks and has chosen not to turn it on due to the insolent digits that began to appear on the screen. your electricity bill. Once a week, she deposits the dirty clothes from her home in a large bag and goes to the self-service laundry that she finds located a few meters away from her home, an establishment located on Villamayor Avenue in the capital of Salamanca. "When electricity bills began to arrive for 60 and up to 70 euros a month, I told myself that we had come this far and that I had to save money, because my husband became unemployed and only receives the benefit, so I decided to stop putting the washing machine in the house and bring the dirty clothes to the laundromat and for now it is coming out much cheaper," says Teresa, who talks to this newspaper as she begins to introduce her children's socks and pants into one of the washing machines self service.

"Coming here with your clothes is cheaper and not only the washing but also drying them.... Also, you don't have to bring detergent from home, so I plan to continue coming to the laundromat as long as the government doesn't lower the price of laundry." light, what is happening is scandalous".

Prices and discounts

The signs of one of the self-service laundries visited by this newspaper reflect the current rates in a very concrete way. Thus, washing up to nine kilos of clothes costs four euros and if you have a prepaid card for the franchise in question, you get a 10% discount and pay only 3.60 euros. Filling a drum with 12 kilos of dirty clothes for washing involves a modest cost of 5 euros (4.50 if you have the prepaid card in question). And if they are 15 kilos, you pay six euros (5.40 euros with the card). In all three cases, the washing operation only lasts 30 minutes.

As far as drying is concerned, there are 18 minutes of operation of the machine for only three euros. In this way, the daily laundry but also sheets, duvets, blankets, work clothes, curtains and all kinds of garments regardless of their size can be washed in these self-service appliances. In addition, these premises insist that all machines have soap, softener and disinfectant for each wash.

What do the administrators and owners of these laundries think about the evolution that their businesses are experiencing since the crazy rise in electricity broke out? The main conclusion they provide is that the number of people who choose their establishments as a way to save money has grown considerably, users who try to minimize the use of the washing machine at home. Miguel, who answers the phone that appears on the Internet for a self-service laundry, highlights the advantages for users "speed and economy, since it is much cheaper than putting the washing machine at home and the clothes smell very good due to the fabric softeners and industrial detergents that we have.

In addition, we must not forget another fundamental fact, Miguel points out, such as the fact that these washing machines normally hold three times as much as in a domestic washing machine, which explains the savings achieved for pockets. In fact, 17 kilos of clothes fit in one of these washing machines at once, which is equivalent to putting three washing machines at home. To the economic savings must be added the energy in water consumption and the elimination of the maintenance costs of the machine. In fact, in their advertising messages the congratulations they offer are put before the price of the domestic washing machine in the market, its life cycle, the costs in the purchase of detergent, fabric softener, electricity and water, as well as the expense that it could entail. any unexpected failure.

Another advantage is that the client knows perfectly and in advance exactly what it will cost to do the laundry, given that they are fixed rates, which always fluctuate according to the kilos. On the other hand, at home the cost of putting the washing machine varies depending on the time slot you opt for.

Origins and rise

Until not long ago, the image of self-service laundries was an unmistakable image of movies set in New York, places where people queued and even made friends while watching their clothes spin frantically inside the washing machine drum.

The first laundry of these characteristics that operated in the United States was opened in Fort Worth (Texas) in 1934, but the real 'boom' was recorded in the 1950s, closely linked to the increase in population in cities from rural areas.

The rise in our country of this type of establishment has been exponential in recent years. It is estimated that throughout the present five years the number of self-service laundries has increased by 62% in Spain. For example, in 2018 and according to data from the Spanish Association of Franchisors, these businesses invoiced more than 252 million euros in Spain. And Castilla y León, of course, is no exception to this trend, which has increased in recent months with a significant increase in users as a result of the rise in electricity bills.

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