Longtime Laundromat Owner on 23 Years of Service, Challenges, Community Impact

For more than two decades, Lee Ann Geurts has been a steady force in her Brooklyn Park community in Minnesota, running three laundromats that have become known not just for clean clothes, but for connection, comfort, and care. What began as a business venture for her...

Green is Good Business 

Green Operations Increasingly Important to Feed Consumer Demand  When Green Laundry Lounge co-owners Pulin and Krishna Dasai got into the vended laundry industry, they wanted to change a narrative: laundromats are water and energy-intensive businesses.   “The...

Leveling the Playing Field

John Um wanted to make sure small business owners could get fair pricing and access to reliable suppliers without needing to have significant buying power. As a leader whose career spanned several major retail and e-commerce companies, he had seen firsthand how hard...

Staying Fierce: Haley Gould Finds Perfect Fit in Vended Laundry

Haley Gould is the Director of Partner Success for HappyNest. She manages an internal team while leading more than 100 partners across the United States building a successful pickup and delivery operation in addition to running their laundromat business. A consummate...

PlanetLaundry Podcast

America’s #1 Resource for Vended Laundry News & Info

PlanetLaundry is the official publication of CLA and is trusted by thousands of laundry professionals to deliver the latest news and industry-specific topics.

Join the Conversation, Part 2

Join the Conversation, Part 2

How to Build Your Laundry’s Brand Through Social Media Marketing [This is the second of a two-part feature on how laundromat owners can use social media to market their businesses and build their brands. You can read Part 1 here.] Long-time laundromat owner Patti...

Join the Conversation, Part 1

Join the Conversation, Part 1

How to Build Your Laundry’s Brand Through Social Media Marketing [This is the first of a two-part feature on how laundromat owners can use social media to market their businesses and build their brands.] Love it or hate it, social media is here to stay. Research shows...

The Best of Both Worlds

The Best of Both Worlds

With a Few Equipment Tweaks, California Laundromat Owners Expand Their Business – Catering to Self-Service and Full-Service Clients Alike Shortly after purchasing an existing laundromat near Palm Springs, Calif., Keith and Jacqueline Reed decided to make a few...

Headlines

‘The Sky is the Limit!’

Aloha Laundry Life Connects On-Demand Laundry Services with Top-Quality Laundromats Founded in 2020, Aloha Laundry Life is a virtual laundromat platform designed to connect on-demand laundry services with laundromats. In essence, the company provides an online...

Wash with Wally: Removing Tar from Clothing

There’s a lot of road construction being done in the area around my laundromat, and the workers are bringing in a great deal of drop-off laundry. However, I’m having some problems removing tar from their work garments. Do you have any suggestions? Tar and concrete are...

Pellerin Milnor Celebrates 75th Anniversary

Pellerin Milnor Corp., headquartered in Kenner, La., is celebrating 75 years as a commercial laundry equipment manufacturer. Founded by W.A. Pellerin, his wife Mildred, his son Norvin, and brother-in-law A.W. “Jack” Walsdorf in 1947, Milnor – a name derived from...

Whirlpool Named to List of ‘Most Responsible Companies’

Whirlpool Corp. has landed in the No. 3 overall spot on Newsweek’s 2023 list of America’s Most Responsible Companies, up from the fourth position in 2021. The annual recognition, acknowledging the top 500 most responsible companies in the United States across 14...

Viewpoint: What a Year It Has Been

At the beginning of the year in this space, I posed the question: “What can the CLA do for you?” More than a catchy (and borrowed) tagline, it was a sincere effort to solicit feedback from CLA members – our customers – as to what they wanted the association to provide...

Going Forward… (Part 2)

Industry Insiders Recap the Past Year – And Look Closely at the Factors Shaping the Laundry Business in 2023 [This is the second of a two-part feature article reviewing the year in laundry and taking a glimpse at what 2023 and beyond might hold for store owners. You...

Alliance Laundry Systems Distribution Relocates Dallas Office

The Dallas-area headquarters of Alliance Laundry Systems Distribution has relocated to the Dallas suburb of Coppell, Texas. The office previously was based in Farmers Branch, Texas. “I can’t wait to open the doors of our new office to customers,” said Sam Husain,...

Iowa Laundry Hosts ‘Clean for a Cause’ Event

Clean Laundry in Ottumwa, Iowa, recently partnered with Whatsoever You Do Inc., a Christian nonprofit organization dedicated to helping the less fortunate, during one of the laundromat’s “Clean for a Cause” charitable events. Clean Laundry co-founder Phil Akin...

Texas Laundromat Holds Coat Drive for Homeless

Gr8 Laundry in College Station, Texas, has teamed up with Hope’s Locker, an organization that helps homeless children within the area, to host a coat and blanket drive. “For us to be able to reach out and help however we can makes us feel good with what little bit we...

Alliance Acquires Laundry Equipment Services

Alliance Laundry Systems has expanded its direct distribution base with the acquisition of Laundry Equipment Services. The acquisition – Alliance’s fifth distributor asset purchase in the last two years – is the company’s latest move in a strategy “to bring...

Wash with Wally: Making ‘Scents’ of WDF Laundry

My store handles a good amount of wash-dry-fold laundry, and lately I’ve been using a lot of detergent and softener. When I approached my laundry attendants about this issue, they told me that many of the customers indicated that they wanted their clothes to smell...

Going Forward… (Part 1)

Industry Insiders Recap the Past Year – And Look Closely at the Factors Shaping the Laundry Business in 2023 [This is the first of a two-part feature article reviewing the year in laundry and taking a glimpse at what 2023 and beyond might hold for store owners.] It’s...

SPONSORED CONTENT

Business Solutions

Laundromat Marketing

CleanCloud talks to industry experts about the tactics they use to attract new customers and encourage repeat business in our latest webinar

Watch Webinar

SPONSORED CONTENT

Stand out with an optimized online presence.

Stain Solutions Guide

Your go-to guide for using OxiClean™ Versatile Stain Remover — from laundry loads to facility messes. Download the free guide today!

Download Guide

September Magazine Issue

This Month's Issue

 

  • House of Laundromats: Real Estate Trends and What to Watch
  • Member Spotlight: Bringing a Century of Expertise to the Evolving Laundromat Industry
  • PlanetLaundry Podcast: Reimagining Community: How the Hub Laundromat Cafe is a Change Catalyst in Detroit
  • Women In Vended Laundry: How Adrienne Hurrington Keeps the Wheels Turning as SAMCO
  • And More…

THE LATEST ON LAUNDROMATS

Industry News

ACI Supports Adding New Laundry Products to EPA Programs

The American Cleaning Institute has recommended new product categories be added to the Environmental Protection Agency’s potential expansion of its Safer Choice and Design for the Environment programs. The Safer Choice and DfE programs allow companies to receive an...

ByNext Acquires Laundry Angels

ByNext, a tech-enabled clothing and premise care company, has acquired Laundry Angels, a tech-enabled laundry and drycleaning pickup-and-delivery services company based in New Jersey. The move is part of the ByNext strategy to expand its omni-services and omni-channel...

CG West to Host Customer Appreciation Days

Continental Girbau West will host a three-day customer appreciation event on September 12-14 at the company’s headquarters in Santa Fe Springs, Calif. This free event, which will run from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. each day, is open to current and potential CG West...

Eastern Funding Bolsters Sales Team

Eastern Funding LLC – a financial lender to laundromats, industrial laundries, car washes, commercial vehicles, and other businesses – has announced that Raina Bass has joined the company as loan officer. Bass, who will focus on commercial laundry financing, joins...

Whirlpool Unveils New Technology Center

Whirlpool Corp. has unveiled a new, 153,000-square-foot technology center in St. Joseph, Mich. The more than $60 million project expands and replaces much of the current St. Joseph Technology Center – and represents the first of a three-phase plan to redesign an...

FROM YOUR FAVORITE INDUSTRY EXPERTS

Columns

The Laundry Doctor

A New ‘Spin’ on a Familiar Brand

Tide Tests the Waters of Chicago’s Wash-Dry-Fold Market A few months ago, Proctor & Gamble decided to expand its Tide brand to include a retail, wash-dry-fold model. Using the successful Tide Dry Cleaners franchises as an example of what to expect from this new...

read more

The Business Mind

Coming to Their Senses

Coming to Their Senses

Leverage the Five Senses to Impact Consumer Behavior As members of the human race, we all experience the world largely through our senses. And, by the way, so does the animal kingdom. However, unlike animals, we also boast well-developed intellectual skills that can...

read more

Wash With Wally

Wash with Wally: Battling Bleach Stains

Wash with Wally: Battling Bleach Stains

A few of my drop-off laundry customers have complained about small bleach spots on their clothes. However, we don’t use bleach on their clothes, nor do we place the garments where bleach could be splashed on them. The only thing I can think of is that maybe the bleach...

read more

Viewpoint

Open for Business

Open for Business

For the grand opening of its Canadian flagship location, Lululemon – the popular yoga-inspired athletic apparel company – offered free merchandise to the first 30 people to run naked through its new retail outlet. As you can imagine, the media was all over this...

read more

Digital Marketing

Building a New Relationship with Consumers

Customer Service in Today's Turbulent, Information-Driven World Let’s talk about where businesses are in the world right now. 2020 has been quite a year. And we’re only six months in, which makes everything that’s already happened seem just that much more dramatic....

read more

Strategic Corporate Allies Program

Our Strategic Corporate Allies support CLA’s mission through advocacy, education, and innovation to strengthen the industry, advance our members’ businesses, and prepare the next generation of laundry professionals for the future.

Interested in becoming a Strategic Corporate Ally of CLA? Contact President & CEO, Brian Wallace via email at [email protected] or call (630) 491-0499.