58. Investing in Your Laundromat to Increase Value with CCI’s President, Steve Marcionetti

Steve Marcionetti, President of Card Concepts, Inc (CCI) and multi-laundromat owner, joins me on the podcast this week to cover a HUGE range of laundromat-related wisdom.

We center around the pros and cons of adding a card system into your laundromat as a payment alternative or replacement for the increasing number of coins required to operate laundry machines. Steve gives a ton of great advice on how to add value to your customers AND to your business through using a card payment system without drifting into a sales pitch.

This episode by a true veteran in the industry is packed with practical information, including:

Steve’s background in the laundromat industry
Changes he’s seen in the laundromat industry over the past 22 years
What draws investors to this industry
What changes are coming in the laundromat industry
What Steve thinks successful owners are doing better than average owners
The benefits of a card payment system
Things to consider when deciding to add a card payment system
Are card systems suitable for lower-income areas?
Effective promotions with card systems
How to add value to your customers
Getting referrals before you get into business or make a large business purchase
Is a card system too big of an expense for your laundromat?

And a ton more!

Watch The Podcast Here

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Episode Transcript

Read the Transcript Here

hey hey what’s up guys it’s jordan with

the laundromat resource

podcast this is show number 58

and i’m super pumped you’re here today

because today we’re talking

with steve marcinetti who is the

president

of cci which is card concepts inc

and they’re the makers of fast card

laundry card

you are maybe familiar with some of

these card payment systems

and we have an awesome interview because

not only is he the president of cci but

he also owns laundromats himself

and so we get to talk a little bit about

those laundromats we get to talk a

little bit about car

payment systems how they can be

beneficial

when you should consider getting one who

shouldn’t consider getting one and a

whole lot more

in this episode a lot a lot a lot of

really great tips i took a lot of notes

i wrote down a bunch of quotes and i

just had a blast getting to talk with

steve

and i learned a ton i know you will too

and i cannot wait to get into it

uh but real quick i want to just mention

that the forums are still going

super strong so if you haven’t been over

there in a little bit go check out the

forums laundromat resource.com

forums that link and all other links

that will be discussed today will be

available

on the show notes which will be at

laundromat resource dot com

show 58 show five eight and also if

you’re on youtube it’ll be down in the

descriptions

all right uh man i’m super pumped about

this interview with steve

really really honored to have him on and

uh can’t wait for you to hear

this interview with him i know you’re

gonna get a lot out of it so make sure

you got something to write

with uh because you might want to take

some notes unless you’re

driving or exercising quick side note

a lot of you guys have told me that you

listen to this

podcast while exercising you know riding

bikes going on jogs

and lifting and just i know i’ve

mentioned this before but

man go get it today man do that extra

rep

that’s what i like to hear all right i

just felt like i should just

pump you up a little bit uh all right

well after this

quick message we’re gonna jump into it

with steve marcenetti president of cci

card concepts inc all right guys today’s

episode is brought to you by

atmosphere tv you may remember back in

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one of the things we talked about is

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don’t make purchase decisions based on

you know the logic of you know any

decision that they’re making to spend

their money it’s more based on a feeling

and an association

and so it’s really important to

create a positive feeling a positive

atmosphere

no pun intended uh and you’re a

laundromat to help people associate

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doing with something

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atmosphere.tv all right let’s jump into

it with steve

steve thank you so much for coming on

the show i’m super excited to hear

your uh what like 30 years of wisdom

that’s coming our way right now

in this industry thanks for coming on

man how are you

i’m doing good but i don’t know if i

feel as good anymore because it’s not

been quite 30 years but if i look that

old then

uh it looks like it’s time to touch this

white stuff up

[Laughter]

not at all not at all well i’m super

excited to have you on

um and just hear your wisdom from this

industry i know you’re coming from a

a pretty unique perspective we haven’t

heard from yet on the podcast so i’m

excited

but before we jump into that why don’t

you tell people who you are and how many

years you do

have in this industry sure well thanks

sure i appreciate uh

including us and this is uh uh

interesting times and

it’s interesting it’s great to

communicate this way so yeah i’m steve

marcinetti i’m the president

of cci card concepts for those who don’t

know what that stands for

you know we’re we’re a payment systems

manufacturer we like to think ourselves

think of ourselves a little more than

that um

but i’ve been in the industry for 22

years so not quite 30 yet but

working my way there but cci’s been

around for 21 of those years

um and yeah we come from an interesting

um you perspective i guess and that’s

something that kind of sets

um sets me apart i guess a little bit

from some of others is that

we are store owners that my family has

been in the

laundromat business for 50 years

certainly before i was involved in it

but we own stores in the chicagoland

area as a family

um and manage those uh we also have a

distribution business

so you know those who buy laundry

equipment um

are familiar with the distribution model

we we have a distribution

company that runs locally here and

services this area and then

in 2000 uh we saw essentially an

opportunity

in the payments area this is obviously a

long time ago people weren’t quite

thinking about alternative payments as

as much as they are today and um

so you know my background prior to

getting in the laundry business was in

more of an i.t background

and as a as a family that was installing

building stores for investors as a

distributor

we um we were essentially selling

other payment systems there were other

payment systems on the market

um and we just saw an opportunity my

background in i.t i saw

it seem like there was something missing

uh primarily it was reliability and

support some of the things that kind of

give a lot of opportunity out there and

we decided to

to look at building our own products and

so that started cci

and got us into the manufacturing side

of business so

you know fast forward like i said 21

years and over 2000 locations

with our product it must be working

we’re still

we’re still putting them out there um

but that’s it so you know it’s kind of

nice because people who buy our products

they typically see

can tell that it came from a laundry

operator because pretty much everything

that we do

is tested in our own laundries before we

ship it out to anybody else so

you know having uh the distribution

experience the store owner um

experience um and then obviously the

manufacturing side

um just kind of rounds us out we pretty

much part

we’re a big big proponent to the cla and

it’s difficult to choose what category

i’m in i’m on the board of directors now

actually i’m in my sixth year

on the national board of directors i am

in as a manufacturer but

in all fairness i could probably go in

in any any category

yeah so okay how many years have you

owned

laundromats um um so

you know the family my my father has

owned

laundry for years uh prior then it was a

bit of a gap

um and then we have now owned as a

family

owned stores for about 10 years okay

um i think that’s uh the oldest one is

about that

um and we’re still uh you know uh

investing in new locations and things

we’re not super aggressive about it it’s

got to be the right spot just like

anybody

um but we’re confident we really i

really love this industry frankly it’s

provided my

myself and my family you know every

opportunity that we could think of and

so you know it’s um

uh you know we believe in it you know

we’re willing to invest in it and

not not just ask people to buy our

products but we’re willing to

invest in it as well so yeah

well how many years have you been in

distribution

uh 21 years 22 years yeah okay

so yeah i mean here’s here’s the reality

of the situation that i undersold your

experience

if we’re going to add these oh okay i

mean you’re talking like

50 years of experience yeah if you count

i don’t know i don’t know it get time

served if you kind of just add it all on

yeah i guess

i guess it really really starts that’s

my mistake i

under undersold your experience here the

wisdom we’re about to receive from you

yeah that’s

very cool that you i mean you’re you’re

like all

all up in everything from you know

distribution to the tech side of things

with your

with the payment system to owner

operator side

of things on the cla board i mean you’re

you’re you’re in the thick of it you’re

in i’m in i i went in both feet in

and you know i love it i do i do like it

a lot and it’s um

you know it’s actually it’s exciting for

my family i’ve got a couple

of of kids and my son’s in college now

and he sees

a future there and you know and

typically you know young people

i mean maybe this is my perspective they

don’t look at the laundry business as

being real exciting you know what i mean

it’s not the industry that’s real sexy

that people

in college want to go in but he sees it

differently he sees

um how well you can do if you work hard

and this is an industry that certainly

has a good return if you work hard and

you do things right

um and so that’s a great it’s a great

role model for for young people that

want to get interested and i

i find it exciting because we need more

young people frankly to get involved

this year there’s a lot of

um there’s a lot of people been doing a

lot of years

me included i’m not ready to let go yet

but um

uh but we need young people to get

involved because this injuries isn’t

going anywhere we’re going to be

needing to wash clothes for a long time

that’s right yeah

yeah well and that’s that’s interesting

because

you know just as i was hearing you talk

about your

your experience your nearly 50 years of

collective experience

no but your your experience and you know

as you were saying

i think people weren’t thinking about

payment systems the same way when

you know when you kind of started 21

years ago or whatever

um and you know and then and then saying

hey we need more new people

you know coming into this industry

bringing fresh perspective so i’m

curious as to

you know what changes have you seen

you know in the industry over these

years you know the last 20

so years uh that you’ve been in here um

because i’m sure there’s been

quite a few changes and then just to

prep your mind

yeah i want to ask you what changes you

see coming down the pipeline but yeah

let’s talk about

let’s talk about the past sure um

you know we’ve seen a lot and i guess to

put in a perspective of

of our of our payment side something

that’s been interesting

um is you know 20 years ago people

didn’t really know much about

alternative payment and so we were

we were continually struggling with just

helping

getting people to accept the idea that

you didn’t have to accept only quarters

or or to potentially think about

eliminating quarters

and so i think the one thing that’s been

good and bad for us over the last 20

years is there’s been a lot more

exposure

there’s a lot more options now that

hasn’t haven’t always been there

and so now people aren’t necessarily

asking

you know they’re questioning whether

they should eliminate coin it’s more

about

there’s a lot more legitimacy into

considering how to run your business

differently

and we’re not here to tell you that

coins are the wrong way you know we have

you know we we run coins in one of our

stores and you know it’s

it’s um there’s a lot of different ways

there’s a lot of things you have to

think about when you’re thinking about

payment

but people are way more um

willing to consider uh

something different than quarters alone

certainly and and many of them are

looking to eliminate coins and there’s a

lot of there’s a lot of benefits to that

but

um so i think just over the years just a

better mindset

on it um yeah i mean i think for

from our um from that perspective for

sure i think

from a store ownership perspective i’ve

noticed

you know early on it seemed like you

know from our distribution side

it seemed like we were building stores

for the same guys that have owned stores

forever and they were building adding

another location and they were there

and they’re great people and operators

but what i’ve seen

is particularly as the years have gone

on is a new generation of owner operator

investor i’m

actually going to call them investor now

not not even as much owner operator

although they need to be but they’re

willing to invest in an industry that

has a lot of stability

you know i think a great example and you

know we’re all coming out of we hope

coming out of this pandemic

um and um just

the stability that i think laundries

were able to kind of

maintain their business you know

obviously we had some struggles in some

points but in some areas

more than others but it’s opened the

eyes up to people who are looking for a

way to invest

money and laundromats is a way that’s

attractive so

you know it’s it’s opened up um more

people to consider

our industry as a viable way to

diversify

their you know their their funds and i

think that’s that’s good because

those investors come with fresh eyes and

fresh minds and they want to do things

that

are right by the customer and they have

new perspectives

i think all of us that have been doing

this for a long time

um we can all get in our own habits you

know we get into ruts and we don’t see

the forest through the trees or the

trees through the forest and

um you know it takes fresh minds to kind

of wake us up a little bit

and uh make sure that we’re not uh

forgetting about what’s important and

trying new things so

i’ve seen a lot of things being tried

just from fresh

eyes being there and so that’s exciting

that’s exciting

yeah i mean i i think you’re right on

about that and it’s kind of i mean one

of the coolest things for me

just personally and selfishly is doing

this podcast is hearing

you know and i’ve said this multiple

times in the past but like

this is a very simple business right but

there

are so many different ways that people

are running this business

and you know successfully uh that

it it’s very surprising to me right and

so we had

um a guy tom donnelly on a few episodes

ago

and he lived out here in california he

partnered with another investor

and they bought a laundromat in atlanta

or outside of atlanta

sight unseen he’s never seen it and you

know

and that’s just a you know crazy way to

do and

possibility yeah thomas landenberger who

lives in

you know the italian countryside and he

owns

some laundromats in italy but he also

owns laundromats in florida

right and so it’s kind of there’s

a whole lot of different ways you know

there’s people who are succeeding

like the willafords who own a thousand

million

uh you know laundromats but they’re all

self-serve laundromats right and then

there’s guys like rick rome who shut

down himself serve laundromat to do only

pick up and deliver and there’s just

there’s so much variety and so many

different ways of doing this that

i think it you know hearing about that

for me at least has really opened my

eyes to okay

how do i want to run my business because

i when i got in this industry

i thought okay well it’s going to be a

self-serve business i didn’t even think

that because that’s just what i assumed

right and it’s going to be i’m going to

put new equipment in there i’m going to

keep things clean

and the machine’s running and it’s going

to be good to go right and that is a way

to run the business

but it’s not the only way by any means

so it’s yeah

that fresh eyes is it it’s interesting

you say that because

you know i’m almost embarrassed to admit

this but in some of the stores we own

there’s one location that we’ve owned

for

close to 10 years i’ve never been there

that’s awesome now i know i know what it

looks like because you know you have the

the camera systems and we have the the

payment side so i’m very aware of its

business and what it does but

you know there is a way to build a model

where you know you can remotely operate

i guess that’s really the

the interesting part and certainly some

of the technology helps with that you

know um

in aiding and that but yeah it’s

possible it is and we’re seeing we’re

seeing a lot of that so

we’ll see it opens up opportunities for

people who never thought this industry

was for them

yeah and i think technology like you

know like yours this the

you know the payment systems like that

allow for a lot of those new

opportunities and and kind of they don’t

force owners to think about that but if

you don’t start thinking about

some of those things you’re at risk of

getting left

behind you know right with with the

industry because

the industry has been like molasses

changing for a long time and now yeah

more recently

the pace has been picking up a lot more

and we’re we’re playing catch-up in a

lot of ways to the rest of society but

it’s

we’re playing catch-up a lot quicker

than in the past

yeah and i think i think part of it is

to add on to that you asked about what

changes do you see coming

and it’s already started is that there’s

so much more confidence i think in our

industry that it’s

allowing people who are interested

investing a lot more than they might

have considered before

you’re seeing a lot of acquisitions uh

of distribution

businesses you’re seeing franchises and

come out of the you know come out from

everywhere you know and

and and you know whether you have an

opinion whether you like the

acquisitions

you know happening or you like all these

franchise you know deals coming out

what it should tell you as an investor

is just the legitimacy

of this industry and that it’s stable

not going anywhere

and people with um with real money are

willing to invest in it

and and it’s not going anywhere so you

know i

that’s where i see that i see that

happening more i think we’re going to

see more and more of that going on

um i i don’t have a strong opinion

whether it’s good or bad or interesting

i just think it’s gonna change

i think it’s a way that all of us do

business is gonna change a bit

um and as you said you either have to be

willing to make those changes

and adapt or you might get left behind

and so

people are going to have to make

decisions um but at the end of the day

people still have to do laundry and as

long as they still have to do laundry

we’re all going to still have an

opportunity in this business

yep i yeah that is right that is right

on and i love

you know i i love that you say you don’t

have an opinion good or bad

i kind of think that’s a fruitless

opinion to create in a lot of ways

because

you know it’s like trying to stop a

train you’re just right you’re just

not gonna be able to stop it so you

might as well

get on board one way or another or

figure out how to work with that

or within those the new changes because

they’re coming right right happening now

yeah in

and you know i mean listen it’s going to

one of these deals where like you said

you can’t stop it

and if you even if you and usually the

reason why you would want to stop it is

because you’re in one of your ruts

probably

you know i talked about we doing this a

long time and i’m i’m certainly guilty

of it i’ve been doing things a long

a long time the same way and it forces

us all to rethink what we’re doing and

this is just another example of us

kind of being forced to rethink what’s

happening yeah

yeah i think that is right on and

it’s hard too i mean when you’ve been

doing things like i’m empathetic to that

right you’ve been doing things a long

way it’s been working really well

and all of a sudden you know things are

changing

and you’ve been pretty comfortable for a

while and it gets uncomfortable when

things change and you have to adapt and

i’m empathetic with that but at the same

time if you don’t

then you do risk getting left behind so

yeah yeah for sure

yeah uh any other changes you see coming

down the pipeline

for our industry oh gosh we could

probably um

talk about a lot of them but no i think

you know that that

you know all of it ties into that to

some degree you know

i think it all you know when you talk

about larger players being

interested in distribution we talk about

larger players wanting to distribute

laundromats literally become franchise

ores

you know then you’re going to see lots

of changes from the operational

perspective

you know again it’s it’s probably cliche

at this point but this the the full

service side of business

um is really amazing to me it’s actually

quite foreign um we’ve always

as a as a family and a business been

quite focused on the self-service side

of things i think you alluded to that

you know

early on too and we are we are good

self-service operators

um and we’re just average to less than

average

full-service providers but we know it’s

an opportunity too and again some of it

is bandwidth you know if you’re willing

to put the effort into

it then you can make something have of

it and to some degree we have to

have to make time if we want that to be

a part of it but there’s an attractive

nature to the self-service industry that

that i like because i we have we are so

busy that those stores can run

in a self-service mode without us having

to to

be there every moment you know not that

we don’t have a presence there

but um the full service side of things

is a different

it’s like to me it’s like almost like

opening up a dry cleaner you know where

you’ve got to be really focused on the

customer and there’s a quality concern

and

there’s complaints and there’s loss and

things like that that

are very profitable if you decide to get

into that but you have to be willing to

put that energy into it and so i think

we’re going to see more and more

of that happening i think we’re becoming

a society that

likes things done for us and we’re

willing to pay for it and so i don’t see

that changing

but i but at the same time i don’t i’m

not i’m not um

i’m not bearish on the idea that

self-service laundries are going

anywhere either i think that there’s

going to be lots of people who

want to do it themselves whether it’s

they can’t afford it or they just want

other people

touching their stuff and i think that

there’s a lot of that still in that it’s

okay

you know i don’t think i could convince

my wife

to drop off our laundry somewhere else

not because she loves doing laundry

but she cares about her stuff very you

know in a way that would be very

difficult i think for a retailer to

to sell her on the idea that it would be

cared for in the same way she

would do it and it’s not a not a down

play on any laundry operator it’s just

mentality but as the yeah and as the

younger

group gets older and they have the money

to afford that you know like my son you

certainly couldn’t afford to do that

today but you know as he gets older he

may

he probably thinks very differently

about that than than than others so

it’ll be interesting to see that play

out and obviously there’s tons of

providers and

um you know trying to trying to show how

to run that side of your business so um

it’s again should be

it should be something exciting for

self-service owners as well because

that’s a profit opportunity if you so

choose to go at it

you can take advantage of yeah

absolutely and i think

you know i think not only do we need to

look at what’s going on in our industry

but i think we need to look at what’s

going on in

society as a whole you know and you know

that the outsourcing

culture is i think only going to grow so

like you’re saying the

the full service side of things is

definitely an opportunity for growth and

a lot of that has to do with

one laundry is like the worst thing in

the world to do

uh for a lot of people and but two you

know

people are buying time and convenience

uh back with their money and yep that’s

you know that’s going on all over the

place now from you know doordash and

ubereats and you know and also the

the gig culture could provide

opportunities for people

like we’ve had a couple people on um on

the podcast

uh nikila and mark vlaskamp who both

started pickup and delivery businesses

before they neither one of them still

has a laundromat

sure mark’s mark’s buying some

laundromats now but

um you know kind of doing it backwards

and that’s sort of part of that gig

culture

where you don’t necessarily even have to

have a laundromat to start a laundry

service business yeah so uh yeah so

there’s

again a lot of opportunities and if you

have your eye on culture and where

it’s going and how people are thinking

and more importantly how people are

behaving

and you can tap into that then there’s a

lot of opportunity there

so yep totally agree well okay

so i mean let’s go back to all of your

vast many many decades of experience

uh collectively uh let’s

i’m curious and especially i guess from

your

your payment system side of things and

maybe the distribution side of things

and maybe even the the cla side of

things what are you seeing

successful owners do that

you know maybe struggling owners or

maybe just your run-of-the-mill

owners are are doing what are successful

owners doing

differently or better yeah i think

you know and it’s it’s gonna probably

sound a little um a little simple but

it’s not forget about the core customer

you know and um we talk about some of

those habits

that we get ourselves caught into you

know i think

it’s one of the reasons you know some of

some of the habits that are out there

have attributed to to some degree our

industry not always getting the best

reputation and i think we’re all working

hard and this is a good example of

trying to elevate

all of that and i know a lot of the

people that you have on your show

talk about trying to elevate our

industry you know and just try to get a

better

you know um get some of the stigma

associated with it and

some of those habits are the reasons why

um some operators struggle and i think

some of it is not having the right

concern for the customer

the guy that actually puts coins in the

machine or swipes her card at the

at the on the card reader or whatever it

is and realizing that without him

nothing matters and without him there

without him being happy without him

coming back

every week that family doesn’t show up

every saturday morning

none of this works and so whatever you

can do

to make sure that that customer is happy

has got to be looked at and it’s simple

things i mean think about it really

you know most people just want to be

left alone when they go do laundry and

so one let’s not get in the way of that

and i think that to some degree we can

easily get in the way of that by

having lots of rules and having lots of

things going on the store and directing

them to things let them do their laundry

the way they want to

and i think that operators that have

kind of embraced the idea of that

they do very well one of the things that

i would say if i had an opinion again

this is

i’m thinking way ahead of the game is

that we have a lot of these

you know franchise groups that are

coming in and operating and and they all

i think have very good intentions and

and likely have good operational

um ideas but the root of that’s going to

have to come back to the customer

and if you can’t execute on the customer

they’re going to struggle just like it

doesn’t matter because it says

you know you know steve’s superwash

laundry and they they own 20 locations

if if it’s a terrible experience inside

the store or it’s not convenient

then it doesn’t matter and so you know

people always call laundromats kind of a

mom-and-pop

business you know it’s always kind of

had that mentality

and the reason why is because mom and

pops could have done a really nice job

because they greeted their customers

they got to know them a little bit they

cleaned

incessantly um and at the bottom at the

end of the day we can do a lot of fancy

things but if we don’t

remember those core values of

um you know cleanliness is what we hear

all about um

you know value certainly is an important

part of that value doesn’t always mean

less price um yeah and then

and just being convenient we’re a

convenient business i think you

mentioned that already and if we forget

that we’re a convenient

we’re all about convenience um we’re

going to struggle

and i think that goes right into the

owners that are there they aren’t

they aren’t thinking along those lines

um as much as they

and the good news is that generally they

can change you know that’s not

something you have to you don’t you know

that’s not something you actively choose

sometimes you don’t

know that you’re doing that so i think

paying attention you know i think that’s

really what it comes down to and not

being afraid to

give a free wash once in a while because

it’s the right thing to do when you see

a family in there and you see them in

there every week and you’re like you

know what this one’s on me

you guys are great love to see you how

the kids all that stuff

there’s that personal element that think

about how many retail businesses don’t

have that anymore you know because we’ve

become big box type things and um you

know um

so i think that’s the difference between

successful owners and not successful

owners

yeah and i love that because laundromats

really have an opportunity to be a

community gathering place so

where better to have that great kind of

personal

feel that personal touch that care and

concern

than a community gathering place that’s

that’s also your business

right like a place where people go to do

something that

most people feel at least at the very

least is not their favorite thing in the

world to do

right at the worst they hate it right

and

but if you can come and make it feel

like okay well i gotta go do my laundry

but at least i’ll go get to see steve

or steve’s attendant who’s gonna greet

me with a smile or we can talk about

my kids i know they’re gonna ask about

my kid or whatever the case may be

right make it a little more of a just a

better experience for your customers and

i love

you know what you’re saying is you know

putting the custom i wrote down

a couple of quotes that will probably

pop up on instagram or something at some

point in time uh

but i mean you said without the guy who

puts the quarter in your machines our

business doesn’t work

right and he said you can’t execute on a

customer’s

like needs and and you know

and wants then you’re gonna struggle as

a business owner

and i think right on the head and it’s

really easy to

get focused on wanting to you know

[Music]

keep things status quo not have to put a

ton of effort in

and and just let things coast right and

you can to an extent

but if you do that too much or too long

you’ll start to see a drop

off in your business because you know

that personal touch

it helps it goes a long way so sure sure

awesome uh awesome advice for to help

people

you know be successful owners and not

just average not just

you know struggling um okay well let me

shift

a little bit um

i mean i want to talk a little bit about

card payment systems

and um just i mean what are

you know from your obviously we’re gonna

we’ll just acknowledge it you have a

biased perspective

but what are your uh what would you

what would you say to a coin owner what

are the benefits of putting in

a card payment system into your store

sure sure you know

and and you know obviously we i am

biased and i think we have a great

solution but

but the reality is is that um

there’s a benefit to to at least

supplementing coin you know and i think

there’s two ways to look at it nowadays

there are really two solutions out there

um you can eliminate coin and there’s a

whole bunch of

benefits there and and some people think

well they’re very owner focused

um and not customer focused i somewhat

disagree with that but then there’s the

Links from the Show

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