Freshman Randy Shaffer looks to give back to students and make extra money through his laundry service.
While other students were spending their Monday night studying or unwinding after a day of classes, Randy Shaffer was doing somebody else’s laundry.
Shaffer offers to pick up students’ laundry, wash it, dry it and return it folded within three hours for $5 a load.
Shaffer said he got the idea while doing his own laundry.
“I was thinking, ‘Wow, this really sucks, and I kind of wish I could just pay someone to do it,’ and then a lightbulb went off,” Shaffer, a freshman studying broadcast journalism, said. “I said, ‘Oh, why don’t I just have people pay me to do it? I’m sure they’re feeling the same thing.’ ”
Even though Shaffer’s name is Randy, he is calling his business Larry’s Laundry.
“I decided ‘Larry’ and ‘laundry’ kind of sound the same, like a jingle, and I know someone named Larry, so I just threw it in there and it sounded good,” he said.
Larry’s Laundry has been in business for about three weeks now in Gamertsfelder Hall, Shaffer said.
Shaffer, who is from Hubbard, Ohio, has gotten some business at this point, but said it wasn’t easy getting his idea off the ground. When at first he didn’t receive any calls for work, he said he considered quitting.
“Well, I could either stop, or I could try 10 times harder,” Shaffer said. “I put up a bunch more posters. I started integrating with social media a little bit more, and after that, I started getting more calls. So I really think it’s all about how much you put into it.”
After finally getting his first customer, Shaffer said he knew the business could work.
For one of Shaffer’s customers, Brandon Yaroma, the service has been worth it.
“I think it benefits everyone,” Yaroma, a freshman studying psychology, said. “Someone can make a little bit of money from it, and it helps the lazy.”
The $5 fee is all-inclusive, and after factoring in the cost of washing and drying, $2.50, and about $.33 per load in detergent, Shaffer said he makes about $2 per load.
But Shaffer said it’s less about the profit and more about helping fellow students.
“It’s more of just a service to other kids,” said Shaffer. “I know how much that sucks, having to wait around and do your laundry, so I figured it would be a good way to meet people and interact with the kids on campus.”
Although there is a dry cleaner and several laundromats in Athens, none of them offer the option of a pickup and delivery service.
“The big thing with my business, I think, is that we pick it up from you," Shaffer, who also has a job at Shively Dining Hall, said. "We clean it. You don’t even have to see it, and we drop it back off. You don’t have to leave your dorm if you don’t want to."
One of the other challenges Shaffer said he has run into has been the gender divide. All of his customers so far have been guys, he said.
Alex Molnar, a freshman studying communication, said she probably wouldn’t trust Larry’s Laundry to take care of her more delicate items.
“I’m a girl, and some things you can’t put in the dryer because it’ll shrink, but I think it’s a really good idea,” Molnar said. “It’s annoying to do your laundry all the time because you have class. You don’t want to come all the way down here and lug your laundry to the laundry room when you live on the fourth floor of a building.”
According to the Ohio University Student Housing Handbook, “Actively seeking and/or operating any aspect of a business from your residence hall room or anywhere inside a residence hall is prohibited.”
Pete Trentacoste, executive director of Housing and Residence Life, said in an email that the policy is rarely violated.
“In the rare instance that it were to occur, Housing’s trained staff would approach the student or students and educate them on the policy ... and ask that they stop the business from operating within their room,” Trentacoste said in an email. “If the business were to continue within the residence hall, the student, or students, would then be referred to Community Standards.”
In the future, Shaffer said he hopes to expand his business to include at least one female employee. He hopes to continue the service during his time at OU.
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“Over my four years here, I’d really like to expand it," he said. "I don’t know if I’m looking to go outside of my little Ohio University community, but just as a friendly, small business that operates within Ohio University. Maybe after I graduate it could be passed on to somebody else.”
At the end of the day, Shaffer said it comes back to the value of hard work.
“(My parents) kind of instilled in me at a young age the value of hard work and how you don’t get things unless you go out and try to get them for yourself, because no one’s going to hand you things anymore,” he said.
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