Choosing the Right Coin Laundry Location

Investing in a coin laundry is a terrific way to increase your portfolio and earn consistent income year after year. Coin laundries provide one of the most routine return on investments as owners see an average of 20 to 35 percent ROI. The location of your laundromat significantly increases where you’ll fall in that percentage. As you’re looking for a coin laundry location keep this checklist in mind.

Neighborhood demographics

In an urban setting make sure to answer how many people live in a one-, two- and three-mile radius. In a rural setting you can stretch the radius to 10 miles. This number is crucial because 90 percent of your customers will live within this radius.

Traditionally the best neighborhood for a coin laundry consists of blue-collar families living primarily in rental properties, but areas with middle- to upper-class families with washers and dryers in their homes, laundromats still serve a purpose by advertising large machines to wash rugs and comforters while offering wash, dry and fold services.

Analyzing the best location

Neighborhood demographics certainly play a factor in finding the best location for a laundromat but you can survive without blue collar families living in rental units by looking for areas with these features:

Areas in a retail type location with other retail stores and restaurants.
Look for neighborhoods with a lot of old style homes or apartment buildings as these buildings often don’t accommodate the best washers and dryers which can frustrate tenants enough to visit a nearby laundromat. Pro Tip: Look online for the amenities offered by nearby rentals homes or apartments.
Try to find a building that stands alone. This allows you to offer customers plenty of parking, multiple entrances and you can control all of the signage outside of the store. Finding a location in a small strip mall is also a solid option as customers will have parking right outside of your store and the surrounding stores are already driving people to the area.
Choose the right size of your space by analyzing the amount of potential customers in the market to best accommodate customers during peak days and hours.
Most importantly, work with your commercial laundry distributor to find the perfect fit for your laundromat.

Define your competition

Other coin laundries in your area are not the only competition. You must consider residential washers and dryers and apartment buildings with laundry facilities in addition to laundromats as primary competition. The questions you need to answer are who are my competitors and where are they located? Answer those questions and follow the breakdown on how to combat all types of competitors.

Washers and dryers in the home: The one way to advertise to this market is showcase the extra-large washers and dryers delivering speed and convenience to wash heavy blankets, rugs and comforters.
Apartments with laundry facilities: This might sound like a nice amenity to tenants at first but many realize the laundry facilities are small and filled with small capacity washers and dryers in addition to the frustration when you open up a machine just to find someone else’s clothes. Laundromats can exploit these issues by offering a clean and comfortable environment with efficient, easy-to-use machines and everyday conveniences like free Wi-Fi.
Other coin laundries: Plenty of laundromat owners want to be the only store in the area but this isn’t realistic and can also be a sign that the location isn’t a great fit. Competition can be a good thing when every store the market is populated enough that each store is able to survive and thrive. The best way to separate yourself from the competition is offering a cleaner store, nicer facilities and potentially better promotions.

BDS Laundry Systems’ team of experienced vended laundry professionals can walk you through all of the steps to opening a laundromat in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Illinois and Upper Michigan. Give us a call at 1-800-688-8000 or contact us online to start the conversation.