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.

Getting the Message Across

Getting the Message Across

Tiffany Outdoor Enables Laundromat Owners to Benefit from ‘Place-Based’ Media In 2008, with more than a decade of media experience, Bert and Barbara Rosenthal decided to branch out from their printing business, Tiffany Press, and create Tiffany Outdoor – an...

The Profit Power of Incrementalism

The Profit Power of Incrementalism

Adding New Services and Customer Offerings to Your Laundry Business Can Greatly Add to Your Bottom Line In the laundromat world, as in any business venture, owners can greatly boost their profit and revenue simply by knowing what their customers want most – and then...

Laundromat, Part 2: The Curse of the Sequel

Laundromat, Part 2: The Curse of the Sequel

How to Avoid Common Errors and Make All the Right Moves When Adding a Second Store Years ago, I met actor Dennis Hopper, who had come to New York City on the heels of writing, directing and starring with Peter Fonda in the incredibly successful release of the 1969...

Headlines

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...

HappyNest Adds New Jersey Laundromat Partner

Laundry pickup-and-delivery service HappyNest has expanded its availability to Middlesex County, New Jersey, through the company’s new partner, Sudz N Dripz Laundromat. Based in North Brunswick, the facility now provides HappyNest services to residents and businesses...

States Seeking Inflation Relief

Inflation has become an increasingly prevalent issue for state legislators in recent months. In August, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, which targets energy and prescription drug costs in hopes of having a positive impact on runaway costs. However,...

SBA Announces Grants for Micro-Entrepreneurs 

The Small Business Administration has announced a $7.2 million grant award to 38 organizations under the Program for Investment in Micro-Entrepreneurs (PRIME) – a $1.7 million increase, up 30 percent from last year’s allocated $5,500,000 in funding. The PRIME award...

The Power of a Pro Forma

Don’t Neglect One of Your Laundry Business’ Most Important Planning Tools Whether you’re purchasing and renovating an existing laundromat or starting one from scratch, a pro forma income statement is one of an investor’s most important tools in not only attaining...

A Long Laundry Heritage

Arizona Commercial Laundry Leans Heavily on Its Industry Knowledge and First-Class Customer Service Arizona Commercial Laundry – a full-service laundry distributor headquartered in Phoenix – can trace its commercial laundry industry roots back more than 60 years… and...

HappyNest Expands Reach in Texas

Laundry pickup-and-delivery service HappyNest has expanded its availability to Georgetown, Texas, through the company’s new partner, U Wash M Laundromat. Based in Georgetown, the laundry facility is now providing HappyNest’s services to residents and businesses in the...

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Scaling Wash & Fold Operations

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September Magazine Issue

This Month's Issue

 

  • Connecting, Learning, Advocating: CLA Maximizes Impact at Clean Show 2025

  • Member Spotlight: Finding a Niche in the Laundromat Industry

  • PlanetLaundry Podcast: Turning Setbacks into Success: Saichelle McNeill’s Journey

  • A Laundromat With Heart: Inside Cherry Drive’s Customer-First Approach

  • 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

Minimizing Payroll, Maximizing Productivity

With Labor Costs on the Rise, Getting the Most Out of Your Staff is Critical to the Success of Your Wash-Dry-Fold and Commercial Laundry Business As a small-business owner, you’re very likely aware that there’s a movement in cities and states across the...

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The Business Mind

Stay on Target

Stay on Target

Knowing Your Audience is the Key to a Strong Advertising Message It’s a fact that many laundromat owners love to advertise. And it’s equally true that several of these operators, unfortunately, do so incorrectly – thus, spending large sums of money for very little...

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Wash With Wally

Wash with Wally: Increasing Labor Costs

Wash with Wally: Increasing Labor Costs

I own three vended laundries, and I’m quite concerned about the $15 per hour minimum wage that’s being talked about more and more these days. I have three or four employees at each of my locations, and I’m paying those attendants $10 per hour. I don’t know how I would...

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Viewpoint

By the Numbers

Five Keys to Measuring Your B2B Marketing StrategyOur world is run by numbers.We don't always see them though. In fact, we rarely ever see them, but they're there.They run our business. Power our homes.Our professional lives are inundated with finding a way to make...

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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.