Apr 13, 2001 - 12:23 PM

Laundromats Charging More to Cover Heating Bills By Melissa McCord Associated Press Writer

MILWAUKEE (AP) - Cleaning clothes costs a bundle these days. Laundromat owners say soaring natural gas prices forced them to increase the number of quarters it takes to clean a load of clothes.

"Frankly, we've been knee deep just trying to survive since December," said Terry Collins, owner of Collins Quality Cleaners in the northern Wisconsin city of Tomahawk. "It's eating my lunch."

Natural gas prices have skyrocketed to as much as five times what they were last year, driving up heating bills and cutting into businesses' profits. Gas prices probably won't change much going into summer, said Peggy Laramie, a spokeswoman with the American Gas Association.

Utilities - water, sewer, gas and electricity - are a coin-operated laundry's largest expense, said Brian Wallace, executive director of the Coin Laundry Association in Downers Grove, Ill. Natural gas powers the dryers and heats the water in the washers.

"This is really a case where you have to raise the prices as soon as you can to keep your head above water," Wallace said.

About 80 percent of the nation's nearly 35,000 Laundromats have raised prices in the past year, Wallace said.

Collins Quality Cleaners plans to raise its rates later this spring. Customers will pay a quarter more to use double-load washers and 50 cents more for triple-load washers.

The family owned business also recently raised its dry-cleaning prices after seeing its heating bills nearly doubled.

"It's tough to make some of these decisions ... but it's been a 'get-by' situation here," Collins said. "It's taking quite a bite out of people's pockets."

Yolanda Villarreal has a washer and dryer at her Milwaukee home, but she prefers to clean her clothes at Laundromats. She knows the extra quarters will add up, but she's willing to pay the price.

"I come here for the convenience. I don't have five washers at home, and I like to get it done all at once," she said.

Besides, it costs more for her to wash her clothes at home, too, because of the higher utility expenses, she said.

Until now, laundry prices averaged about $1.25 a load for the past 10 years or so, Wallace said. Now, he estimates prices average about $1.50.

He said some laundries also have raised prices for dryers by reducing the drying time per quarter.

The cost of washing a standard load is up by a quarter, to $1.25, at Cecil Maytag in Cecil, a village of 375 people in northeastern Wisconsin's Shawano County. That's after the average monthly heating bill grew by nearly $200 at the laundry, which has about two dozen washers and dryers.

"The customers don't like the higher prices, and they tell me about it, but what can we do?" owner Richard Klapste asked. "It's got to be absorbed somewhere."

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On the Net:

Coin Laundry Association: http://www.coinlaundry.org/

American Gas Association: http://www.aga.org/

AP-ES-04-13-01 1222EDT © Copyright 2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

-- Anonymous, April 13, 2001

Answers

got quarters?

-- Anonymous, April 13, 2001

I need to go to wash and dry quilts and pillows. The have been sitting in my van forever. One of the laundry mats in town went out of business a few weeks ago. Small things make me happy, when I first moved here...I brought alot of quilts, blankets and pillows to the laundra mat, the owner ask if I wanted her to put them in the dryer when they were done washing and I said sure if she didn't mind. So, I went off to get some errands done and when I got back, she not only dried them for me but, folded them as well. No extra charge! Now that was service.

Maggie

-- Anonymous, April 13, 2001