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...

Metrics That Matter 

Profit, Performance, and Planning in Vended Laundry  The laundromat business is like most businesses in that you need to do a lot of things right to be successful. But how do you know if it’s working? According to successful owners, you just need to look at the...

Startup to Scale

How Western State Design Has Been Helping Laundry Businesses Thrive for More Than 50 Years   For more than five decades, Western State Design has been a leading provider of turnkey laundry solutions across the vended, on-premises, and commercial/industrial markets....

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.

Powering Your Laundromat

Powering Your Laundromat

A Look at What’s Ahead for Natural Gas and Electricity Prices It’s no secret that electricity and natural gas prices are rising across the board – and have been for a while. Electricity prices began rising shortly after winter storms in February 2021 and have been...

15 Steps to a Smooth Laundry Project

15 Steps to a Smooth Laundry Project

1. Make sure your site is zoned for a laundromat before you buy or start the project. Also, make sure of what size signage you can install and where you can put it. 2. Oversize your utilities – 400-amp, three-phase service. Know whether you will need a transformer on...

Slashing Through the Red Tape, Part 2

Slashing Through the Red Tape, Part 2

Working with Local Government and Utilities to Get Your Laundromat Project Completed on Schedule and on Budget [This is the second of a two-part feature. You can read Part 1 here.] In Part 2 of PlanetLaundry's May cover story, laundromat owners shared their thoughts...

Headlines

LIG Health and Wellness Roundup

The Coin Laundry Association works with LIG Solutions to provide CLA members with healthcare insurance, as well as prescription drug services. Below are some articles LIG has provided to help expand your health and wellness awareness: Health and Wellness: Fall 2022...

Laundromat Safety is No Accident, Part 1

Here’s How to Keep Your Employees and Customers Safe – And Your Business Compliant with Today’s OSHA Regulations [This is the first of a two-part feature on keeping your laundry business OSHA-compliant.] “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” – Benjamin...

Getting Paid, Part 1

Payment Options and Considerations for Today’s Laundromat Owners [This is the first of a two-part feature on payment acceptance options for laundromat owners.] As a laundromat owner in 2022, you need to give yourself as many opportunities to succeed in your business...

ZIPS Announces Two New Locations

ZIPS Cleaners has announced it will add two new locations in Washington, D.C., by the end of next year. KV Management, LLC, which currently operates two ZIPS locations in the District – as well as two in Fairfax, Va., and another in Sterling, Va. – has issued letters...

Wash with Wally: Safe Bleaching, Cleaning Lint Screens, More…

I offer a wash-dry-fold service at my laundromat, and I was wondering if there is any product we could use in place of chlorine bleach. The problem we occasionally run into is that my attendants will mistakenly use the chlorine bleach on colored garments, which will...

Disaster Relief in Florida

Tide’s Loads of Hope program and Matthew 25: Ministries have partnered to set up mobile laundry units for Florida residents impacted by Hurricane Ian. “Sometimes having a fresh T-shirt or a pair of pants or anything like that can really have a huge impact on people...

Laundry Tech Platform Raises $7M in Seed Funding

Tumble Smart Laundry, a smart laundry technology platform based in San Francisco, recently raised $7 million in seed funding. Founded in 2019, the company intends to use the funds to scale its proprietary software platform – powering an all-digital experience from...

Inflection Points: Preventive Maintenance for Your Laundromat

Quiet Reflection on the Future Path of Your Business May Be the Most Important Time You Spend All Week “Inflections points” are those moments in your life where events and decisions conspire to take you in a different direction, thus altering the course of at least...

RJ Kool Acquires BDS Laundry

RJ Kool – a commercial laundry distributor with headquarters in Kansas City, Mo. – recently purchased BDS Laundry, a distributorship based in St. Paul, Minn. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. The sale of BDS includes its vended and on-premises laundry...

Curbside Laundries Opens New Office, Adds Key Hires

Curbside Laundries – a full-service SAAS company for laundromats specializing in wash-dry-fold and pickup and delivery – has opened a new facility in Los Alamitos, Calif. The move was required to meet the company’s business demands, as well as to help facilitate the...

Doing ‘Good’ Close to Home

Laundry Capital’s Commitment to Bettering the Communities It Serves It takes more than money and desire to better a community. Just ask Alex Weiss. He should know. Weiss is the owner of Laundry Capital Co. LLC – whose affiliated network of stores owns 80 Clean Rite...

Small-Business Tax Incentives, Grants and More…

Laundromat owners can find themselves in a dilemma – they want to grow their businesses to meet demand, but tight financial circumstances can make it difficult to expand. Fortunately, there are a number of tax credits, grants and incentives that can encourage...

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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

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June 2025 Cover of PlanetLaundry Magazine

This Month's Issue

 

  • Green is Good Business: Green Operations Increasingly Important to Feed Consumer Demand
  • Women In Laundry: Lee Ann Geurts Loves a Challenge
  • Store Profile: Kings Laundry Kicking it in Los Angeles
  • Untapped Growth Opportunities
  • And More…

THE LATEST ON LAUNDROMATS

Industry News

New Distributor Partners with B&C, Announces Open House

Prairie Commercial Laundry Services, based in Chicago, has announced that it has teamed up with B&C Technologies of Panama City Beach, Fla., to introduce B&C’s new line of commercial vended washers and dryers in Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan....

HappyNest Adds Laundromat Partner in Virginia

Laundry pickup-and-delivery service HappyNest has expanded its offerings to residents and businesses in and around the Richmond, Va., area through the company’s new partner, Neighborhood Laundromat. The 3,600-square-foot vended laundry provides HappyNest services to...

Speed Queen Spring Show Slated for June 1

Alliance Laundry Systems Distribution – South Region will host its Spring Show on June 1. The event, to be held from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., will be held at Victoria Palms RV Resort in Donna, Texas. The show is geared toward current and prospective laundromat owners...

Lucy Doll Retires from Mountain Electronics

After 13 years with Mountain Electronics, Customer Service Representative Lucy Doll has announced her retirement. Mountain CEO Whitney Brasington remembers hiring Doll: “The clinic she was working for was getting ready to close, so she ran a classified ad in the local...

Lavanett Named GNA’s Top Canadian Distributor for 2022

Girbau North America recently recognized Lavanett, headquartered in St. Laurent, Quebec, with its third consecutive Canadian Distributor of the Year Award for exemplary performance in the vended and on-premises laundry markets. Owned by Earl Eichen, Lavanett employs...

FROM YOUR FAVORITE INDUSTRY EXPERTS

Columns

The Laundry Doctor

Dirty Laundry Never Takes a Vacation

Summer Camps May Provide the Perfect Opportunity to Grow Your Laundry Business’ Wash-Dry-Fold Revenue Summer is just around the corner – which means that, for many kids, so is summer camp. And, while going to camp has been a rite of passage for so many...

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The Business Mind

The Formula for Powerful Advertising

The Formula for Powerful Advertising

Don’t Overlook the Impact of Human Psychology on the Success of Your Promotional Campaigns I’m a firm believer that advertising is simply applied psychology using print, television, radio or any other media platform the advertiser so chooses. Given that, it stands to...

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Wash With Wally

Wash with Wally: Installing Automatic Doors

Wash with Wally: Installing Automatic Doors

I’m in the process of building a new laundromat from the ground up. The question I have is about the front and side doors to my facility. I’ve already decided that I will put in automatic doors. However, do you think I should install sliding or swinging doors? In your...

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Viewpoint

A New Beginning

When my husband and I bought our first laundromat in June of 2016, I had been employed by Corporate America for more than 30 years. However, I was laid off just 21 days after that laundromat purchase.I had begun my professional career in 1983 as a designer for Bell...

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Digital Marketing

Thriving in an Urban Setting

Simple, Effective Tactics for Building Business in Today’s Growing Metro Areas The data is clear. Pew Research recently shared that more people than ever are moving to urban areas and the diversity of our nation’s cities is increasing dramatically. For business...

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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.