Sergio Aguirre is betting his future on people who don’t want to waste time washing, drying and folding their clothes. He opened the first U.S. franchise location of Mr. Jeff, a tech-forward home-delivery laundry concept—think the Uber of laundry—near Miami.
An encouraging soft opening in the middle of March led to a better response in traffic in May, but Aguirre is still hoping to see an uptick once students at the University of Miami return to campus in August.
“In general, the local people in the neighborhoods aren’t reacting to new services in the area” yet, he said, since some people have been going to the same local dry cleaning spot their entire lives. There are five dry cleaners just blocks away from Aguirre’s store who have been there for more than 20 years, he noted. Breaking into that market will be a challenge, as well as educating consumers on the innovative concept.