Speaker: Dave Sabo, Owner
Hi my name is Dave Sabo and this is Jay Dee Cleaners. So we’re in a Cleveland area and we started in 1946. We’ve been with Valpak since even before I bought this store so 20, 30 years I’d say. So we have four locations right now. Two of them are full price, full service dry cleaners. That’s the JayDee Cleaners. We also have what we call Budget Dry Cleaners. It’s a one-price, low-priced cleaners. Down here at Jay Dee cleaners we get a pretty good return on our Valpak advertising.
I did a report and there were 600 coupons that came back and it did about $12,000 in sales, which is pretty good. We’re increasing our new customer accounts. Every month they’re increasing. We’re retaining our customers a little better. I track these things every month, and virtually, every store I’m getting between 60 and 100 new customers every single month.
We’re also trying to get more out of a customer. I look at their average sales per year and we’re also trying to inch that up in doing some high-ticket item promotions like the comforter sale will increase the revenue per piece, per garment and all that kind of thing. So low cost advertising expense or entry into the markets. I’ve tried a number of newspapers things. I’ve tried radio. I’ve tried inserts. So just the bang for the buck is worth it.
Depending on your advertising budget, you know, you can really saturate a market, get your name out there, maybe do a 50,000 customer radius around your store the first few months to really get your name going. And this is a good relationship and it’s been successful. If it wasn’t working, I would quit doing it.
