Going Card-Only: A Field Report from Three Stores

By Amara Okafor

We spoke with Diego Ramírez, who converted three Guadalajara laundromats from coin to card-only over 14 months.

The numbers

Capex per store: roughly USD 18,400, including reader hardware, machine kits, network gear, and signage. Payback period averaged 11 months, driven mostly by labor savings — no more nightly coin pickups, no more jammed coin chutes, and a 22% drop in vandalism reports.

What surprised him

Average ticket size went up 9%. Customers who used to limit themselves to the coins in their pocket now run a second dryer cycle. Loyalty programs (free wash on the tenth) drove repeat visits up 14%.

Watch-outs

• Pick a processor with strong unattended-retail support; chargeback handling is different.
• Keep one coin-accepting top-loader for the holdouts; you'll lose them otherwise.
• Train your attendant to walk first-time card users through the reader; the first transaction is where you lose them.