Packerland Rent-A-Mat

Happy first day of October! 🍂🍁

Katelyn gave our entrance a 'gourd'geous little makeover! 🤩 How'd she do?!

Pumpkins from Silver Spring Pumpkin Farm and .farm!

Two weeks left.

New commercial service customers in Washington, Ozaukee, and Waukesha counties get their first install delivery free, up to $500. Mats, towels, mops. Every rental item on that first truck.

The process hasn't changed: we come walk your building at no charge, you get a proposal within 24 hours, and signing within 48 hours of us sending it is what qualifies you.

If you've been meaning to call, do it now before October gets away from you.

New customers only. One per location. Weekly service agreement required. Offer ends October 15, 2026.

📞 1-800-472-9339

In August I answered whether anti-fatigue mats are required by law. (Short version: no, but prolonged standing is a recognized hazard, so the outcome sort of is.)

The follow-up question I got was better: where do they actually go?

Because most of the anti-fatigue matting I see in buildings is in the wrong spot. It ends up wherever somebody once slipped, or wherever there was budget left over, not where people actually stand still.

So: walk your floor during a shift and find the places where a person is planted. Prep station. Press. Register. Bench. Packing table. Those are the spots. A walkway doesn't need one, because walking isn't the problem. Standing is.

Then size it to the standing footprint, not the room. If somebody steps off the mat every four minutes to reach something, the mat isn't doing its job. Extend it or move what they're reaching for.

And yes, there is a right or wrong when it comes to thickness. Too soft gets unstable and becomes its own trip risk. Too thin and you've bought a rug.

I'd rather tell you where one mat should go than sell you six that sit in the wrong place.

— Katelyn

Say hi to Martin Ohrmund, one of our sales representatives.

The real advantage of being a family-owned operation is that all of our customers have a direct line to a specific person who knows their building.

The national companies can’t say that because the people answering the phone are rarely in the same building as the decision-maker, and I can almost guarantee that the person in charge has never even set foot inside your facility.

That’s the Packerland difference. You get a person, not a 1-800 number and a ticket. If something goes sideways on a Thursday you call Martin, not a queue.

Say hi if he turns up. 💚

— Katelyn

"How many bar towels do we actually need?"

I get this one constantly and there's no chart I can hand you, because it depends on your volume and your layout. But here's how to actually find out.

Count on a Friday night. Not a Tuesday. Your busiest service is your real number, and if you stock to a slow night you're going to run out on the night it matters.

Then pay attention to where they're going, because a bar towel and a bussing rag are doing completely different jobs. Kitchens need two types of towels, and it matters which kind you use where.

And the thing nobody budgets for: running out is more expensive than overstocking. A line cook grabbing a dry towel for a hot pan is how people get hurt. A server wiping a table with something questionable is how you get a review.

What we do is simple. Dirty towels get picked up, we commercially launder them at our plant, and we leave you with a full shelf of clean towels every time. Bar towels, kitchen towels, and we do the mats and mops too.

What's your Friday night number? I'd bet most of you don't know it. 👇

— Katelyn

First frost around here usually lands mid-October. So you've got about three weeks.

Most people think of winter matting as a slip-and-fall thing, and it is. But the part that actually shows up on a budget is the floor itself.

Salt is abrasive. It comes in on a boot and gets ground into your finish by every person behind that boot. It's also hygroscopic, which is a fancy way of saying it pulls moisture out of the air and holds it against your floor long after everything looks dry.

That white haze you see on commercial floors in February? That's salt residue. And stripping and refinishing a lobby costs a whole lot more than matting it properly would have.

The whole game is catching the grit before it gets past your door. Scraper matting outside or in the vestibule to knock it loose, absorbent matting inside for what's left.

You have three weeks (or less). If you want me to come look at your entrances before the weather turns, give us a call.

📞 1-800-472-9339

— Katelyn

If you run a business in West Bend, Germantown, Hartford, Richfield, Mequon, Cedarburg, Grafton, or Port Washington, you're going to start seeing more of us.

We've been running mats, towels, and janitorial supplies in Wisconsin since 1969, out of Butler and Appleton. Sixteen routes, about four thousand stops a week. That part isn't new.

What's new is that we're putting real attention on Washington and Ozaukee counties this fall, which means one of our guys is probably going to walk into your building at some point.

Here's what that looks like: he'll ask to see your entrances. He'll tell you what's working and what isn't. And if you want a proposal you'll have it the next day.

It’s as easy as that.

📞 1-800-472-9339

— Katelyn

Switching service vendors is a hassle. The first month is where most of that headache lives, so we're taking it off the table.

Start commercial mat, towel, or mop service with Packerland this fall and your first install delivery is free — every rental item on the truck, up to $500.

For a restaurant, that's usually the entire front and back of house, comped.

How it works: call us, we walk your building, you get a proposal within 24 hours. Sign within 48 hours of getting it and the first delivery is on us.

One thing that makes us different from the national guys — we fit the mats to your space. We won't shove four small mats together across a doorway and call it covered. We put down the right size for the floor it's going on. That's how it's been done here since 1969.

New customers in Washington, Ozaukee, and Waukesha counties. One per location. Offer ends October 30.

📞 1-800-472-9339

I got to hold an Olympic gold medal earlier this month.

closed out the WATS Midwest Executive Conference in with a talk on achieving your personal best. She won those five across three Winter Games — and the first one came FOUR YEARS after finishing eighth.

That's the part that stuck with me.🥇

Two other operators spent an afternoon walking our Butler plant last week.

I met with industry friends Laura Judge (Liniform Service) and Brian Lechner (Lechner Services) at the WATS Midwest Executive Conference and invited them out to see how we do things.

People outside this industry assume that's a strange thing to do. It isn't. Independents help independents. You pick up the phone, you answer the question, you show somebody your floor. That's how this industry takes care of itself. 57 years and three generations later, I'm still taking notes from people doing the same job in a different town.

It's about keeping this industry healthy enough that independent operators can stay independent.

Laura and Brian, thanks for making the trip. Our door's open anytime.

Shoutout to sponsors: M+A Matting Royal Basket Trucks Inc. and for hosting: Potawatomi Hotel & Casino