Lucky Bubble laundromat a positive for the town and business

By Robert Williams

Editor

With the continuing inflation rise nationwide, the grocery store business has been a struggle for both consumers and store owners as prices continue to stay high putting a crunch on everyone’s pocketbooks.

“It’s been a rough summer, really; it was a late summer to begin with,” Peterson said.

As noticeable as high prices are to the consumer, they are equally expensive to store owners.

“Since COVID and with the inflation, the cost of everything is up,” said Peterson. “It’s frustrating, especially, when Kamala Harris comes out and says, ‘we’re going to go after price gouging.’ Grocery stores are not price gouging. To be honest, it’s a tough time for us right now. Our electricity goes up, the gas goes up, you name it…it goes up.”

When delivery, operating and inventory costs continue to rise, there are not many ways to defer those costs.

“Anytime you get those you either pass it on to the customer or you go out of business; those are your two choices,” said Peterson. “It’ll get better and it always does, but the problem is…when you have people in high places complaining and not understanding the problem it’s frustrating. It really is.”

Having nearly two decades of experience in the industry, the struggle is nothing new and Peterson has a positive outlook on the future.

“I’ve found after 16-17 years in this business that it ebbs and flows; right now we’re in an ebb, but it will flow again,” Peterson said.

Much of that positivity comes from local support in good times and bad.

“The people of Frazee have supported me well,” he said. “Right now is a challenging time because of inflation and everything else.

A big positive to the store was the addition of The Lucky Bubble laundromat in the spring of 2021, which brought back self-serve laundry services to Frazee after an absence of five years.

“That’s doing really good; I can’t complain about that at all,” said Peterson. “If I had to do it all over again there’s probably a couple things I would do differently. We don’t really use the small washers that much. I probably would have put one more big one in, but it works. Doesn’t seem like there are any issues.”

The Bubble is open 24 hours, has 10 washers and dryers available for use as well as laundry detergent machines, and a coin machine.

Aside from the occasional incident, the community has appreciated the access and used the building with care.

“For the most part, people take care of it,” said Peterson. “You see people do that; 2 o’clock in the morning and they’re in there washing and folding.”

The investment was not an easy one as up-front costs for all new equipment were hefty.

“That was a lot, but it’s getting that paid off, which is great, because with all new machines the lifespan is pretty good and we went with the top of the line,” said Peterson. “I wanted quality. We could have maybe saved some money and tried to find someone that was going out of business but then you’re just buying other people’s problems.”

The laundromat business came out of discussion with Frazee’s Economic Development Authority (EDA), of which Peterson is a contributing member.

Something Peterson stresses at EDA meetings is the need for more affordable housing in Frazee and how that can only benefit businesses like his and the rest of the town. Peterson is a big proponent of affordable, multi-family housing units.

“Get some apartment complexes; these are people that are likely working in Perham or Detroit Lakes, but if they want to live in Frazee, put their kids in our school district, what the heck would we complain about that for?” he said.

Peterson also believes there are more than enough people out there looking for rural living and taking advantage of the positive momentum in Frazee demands more housing sooner than later.

“It has to be affordable and it’s needed to help build Frazee,” he said.