Chile Forum

I have lots of business ideas, but here is one I was thinking about during my trip.
Why not start a self service/coin operated laundry? It could be open 24 hrs if there was the need. You could have an attendant/security guard to make sure people didn't vandalize.
Do they have these types of laundries down there?
The reason I think this would be good was because the laundry where we stayed was slammed everyday. They couldn't even get the clothes clean.
I was thinking it would be especially profitable during January and February.
I'm not really sure how Chileans would like the idea, but my mother in law and my wife liked it.

Good luck.. My recent attempt to start a self-service coin-operated enema therapy center has failed, though.. My attendant and security guard.. They couldn't get their clothes clean.. Too many clients..

charged wrote:I have lots of business ideas, but here is one I was thinking about during my trip.
Why not start a self service/coin operated laundry? It could be open 24 hrs if there was the need. You could have an attendant/security guard to make sure people didn't vandalize.
Do they have these types of laundries down there?
The reason I think this would be good was because the laundry where we stayed was slammed everyday. They couldn't even get the clothes clean.
I was thinking it would be especially profitable during January and February.
I'm not really sure how Chileans would like the idea, but my mother in law and my wife liked it.

I don't know where you are thinking of starting it, but I think it's a FABULOUS idea...in my gringa thought process, at least. Your mission, of course, you have to have a mission...would be to get across that cramming three loads of dirty clothes in a washer to save money does not result in clean clothes, and that it is cheaper to load washers appropriately!

Good Luck

I think it's a fantastic idea. We live on the coast and currently don't have a dryer. Line drying is okay but the humidity level at the beach can be high and the clothes dont' dry in a reasonable time. Winter is even worse. We hang a rope accross the front of our wood burning stove to dry our clothes. If there were a landry in town, I'd use it!!

I hate the little appliances they have down there. Everything is small. The refrigerators, ovens and stove tops, dryers and washers. I know how much laundry my family generates it would take forever to wash it all in the small machines they have.

On our recent vacation to Algarrobo I only remember seeing one laundry (not self service) and it opened around 10am and closed at 8pm. It was downstairs at the apartment where we stayed next to the Banco de Chile right on alessandre. Anyway, they didn't charge much 4000 pesos for a small basket. That was washed and folded, but the word washed was a stretch.
I was there from the 22nd of Dec to Jan 7th. The town was fairly quiet until Christmas, but then the people started to show up. I don't know where they all do laundry. But, I was thinking a shop near the beach with visibility, that stayed open late would get business. I like clean clothes and for the most part I think Chileans are clean. There would have to be an attendant to keep people from filling machines too much and keep people from throwing junk in the dryers.

We were house shopping while we were there and looked at a lot of houses to get ideas. We went to San Alfonso which was too much@195K us for a 3 bd, but went to their new development up the hill I think it was heights of san alfonso or something. This is a development with about 3000 apartment homes which cost from about 3000-5000uf(for a suite). The lady showing us the apartments was proud that they had a laundry room for the development. It consisted of 3 washers and three dryers. They were not commercial front load ones. They were the same size that I have in my house here in the US. The apartments had no hookups for a washer or dryer.

I would guess startup costs might be a little high.

charged wrote:It consisted of 3 washers and three dryers. They were not commercial front load ones. They were the same size that I have in my house here in the US. The apartments had no hookups for a washer or dryer.

Our apartment building had pretty much the same set up. Mind you there were only 144 apartments in the complex. We rarely had problems but they had top load washers a bit larger than the one we have in Canada.