The change was needed, said Walker Gilmore, owner of South Street Coin Wash, to accommodate Wash Cycle's growing customer base - clients largely outside the laundromat's South Street West neighborhood.
Mandujano, 28, called it "a difficult decision."
"We were trying to split the facility's usage in the best way to keep everyone happy, recognizing it's not ideal for everyone," he said last week.
What it is is an example of the evolutionary rigors of small businesses, said Dimitri Schneiberg, vice president and principal of LearnQuest in Bala Cynwyd, which offers employee-training programs for large corporations and courses for small-business owners.
"It's an excellent case of what businesses encounter as they go beyond the original idea to actually running a business," Schneiberg said.
In the end, growing revenue is of utmost importance, he said, to provide the resources needed "to both serve the community and grow the business."
Gilmore estimated that up to 15 percent of his customers were morning users. Though "the jury is still out" on what effect the decision to limit customers' weekday access to mostly late afternoons and evenings will have, he said that "it was clear it was time to do it."
Since September, Wash Cycle has had a major new client: a student-run business catering to University of Pennsylvania students. First Services Laundry collects nearly 3,000 pounds of dirty clothes, towels, and bed linens each week from dormitories. Mandujano's cyclists retrieve it from a central site on campus, bike it to South Street for cleaning, then return it to First Services for delivery to its owners.
