Survey: Price and Quality Equally Important for Most Who Choose, Buy Textiles

CHICAGO — Among those who play a part in selecting and/or purchasing the textiles that his or her laundry processes, 78.6% believe purchase price and product quality (cost per use) are equally important to consider when choosing products, according to the results of this month’s Wire survey.

The remaining 21.4% believe that quality is the most important factor. No one who responded to the American Laundry News survey believes that purchase price is most important.

Everyone who took the Wire survey said they or a member of their staff play a role in selecting and/or purchasing textiles. Their laundry processes virtually all customer-owned goods (42.9%), virtually all rental textiles (14.3%), or a mix (42.9%).

Nearly three out of five respondents (57.1%) believe that today’s textiles are neither easier nor harder to process when compared to products on the market five years ago. Roughly 21% believe they are “somewhat easier to process” while equal shares of 7.1% think they are “easier,” “somewhat harder” or “much harder” to process.

Higher cotton prices have impacted the laundry operations for some respondents, but how?

• “Improved inventory management and moved away from the use of chlorine bleach.”
• “The quality isn’t there.”
• “None … since I only process COG.”
• “Significantly increased operating costs and ultimately we are looking at engineering products with less cotton weight.”
• “We had to look for ways to make things last longer, save in any directions we could, but it has been OK.”
• “We joined a buying group to better control our prices.”
• “Last year, we bought ahead before the price increase … we expect a drop in prices.”

While the Wire survey presents a snapshot of readers’ viewpoints at a particular moment, it should not be considered scientific.

Subscribers to Wire e-mails—distributed twice weekly—are invited to take a brief industry survey anonymously online each month. All managers and administrators of institutional/OPL, cooperative, commercial and industrial laundries are encouraged to participate, as a greater number of responses will help to better define operator opinions and industry trends.

To sign up for the Wire, click the “Subscriptions” button at the top right-hand corner of this page and follow the instructions.