By Erin Engelson
Put down that heavy bottle of laundry detergent: Method Laundry wants to revolutionize the way you wash your clothing.
Target and Method Laundry teamed up last Saturday in an effort to simplify laundry for Boston’s students. Attendants filled The Laundromax, located on Brighton Avenue in Allston, and occupied all of the 50-plus machines.
The event included games, giveaways, prizes and two free loads of laundry for everyone in attendance.
Some of the prizes offered were free T-shirts, laundry detergent and laundry bags. There was a sock-matching contest, in which contestants had three minutes to match as many socks as possible, and a one-handed folding contest which pitted two middle school students against each other. Target served non-alcoholic Targetinis in plastic martini glasses for everyone as they walked in and cookies with the Target logo were in abundance. Customers could also have their photo taken with the Target dog.
Laundry-inspired sculptures created by Allen Teng were auctioned off with the proceeds benefiting the Children’s Health Environmental Coali-tion. There was a hand, bull’s-eye and leopard face made of shirts as well as a sculpture made from cargo pants. But the grand prize was a brand new washer and dryer, given away by Mix 98.5 DJ Erin O’Malley.
O’Malley said she was very enthusiastic about the event and thought the Laundromax was a perfect setting because of its proximity to many college campuses and apartments.
Over 30 percent of Laun-dromax customers are college students because they don’t have their own laundry rooms. Laundromats are very important, said store manager Jason Penza.
“I came out for the two free loads of laundry,” said Mike Joly, a senior criminal justice major. “Doing laundry is a pain and it’s expensive.”
Local college-grad Laura Christman said she agreed with the current pitfalls to doing laundry.
“It’s too much money, and it’s a waste of time,” said Christ-man, a 23-year-old Allston resident.
The underlying mission of the launch was to promote Method Laundry, a new, super-concentrated laundry detergent. Its aim is to make doing laundry easier, said co-creator Eric Ryan. Although its bottle is smaller than containers of Tide or Era, Method cleans the same amount of laundry loads with one bottle as its competitors. The detergent is sold exclusively at Target stores.
“We want to convince you all to stop carrying heavy bottles of detergent,” Ryan said. “We want to start a laundry revolution and we think the people in Boston are open-minded enough to do it.”
Method is focusing its marketing on Boston’s students. The promotion has made a lot of headway in getting the word out, said store representative Justin Karkos. There is a print advertising campaign in People Magazine, displays inside Target stores and the product is featured in Target circulars, Karkos said.
The closest Target to Northeastern’s campus is in South Bay Center. To get there, students must either have a car or take the No. 16 or No. 10 bus. There are also stores in Everett and Somerville. The No. 97 bus goes to Everett and the No. 87 to Somerville.
One bottle of Method detergent sells for $6.99.
“Detergent is detergent. I’m not paying seven bucks for laundry detergent,” Joly said.
But those involved said the launch was a huge success and will go a long way in orchestrating Method’s laundry revolution.
“The two free loads of laundry today are the best thing that’s happened to me in a long time,” Christman said.
