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.

2019: The Year in Review

2019: The Year in Review

Laundromat Industry Experts Review the Past 12 Months – And Share Thoughts on What May Lie Ahead It’s impossible to recap the past year in the laundromat business without acknowledging the clear-cut success of the Clean Show, which attracted more than 11,000 attendees...

‘AMP’ Up Your Business Marketing!

‘AMP’ Up Your Business Marketing!

An Interview with American Marketing & Publishing Co-Founder Joline Staeheli Joline Staeheli is a co-founder of American Marketing & Publishing and has spent two decades in a range of operations, technology and marketing roles. Today, Joline leads AMP’s client...

When Competition Moves In…

When Competition Moves In…

How to Respond When a New Laundry Business Enters Your Market Bill Gates has carved into his desk a quote by Andy Grove, one of the founders of Intel. It states: “Success breeds complacency… complacency breeds failure.” This may sound strange or surprising, but there...

Headlines

Create Enthusiasm for Your Wash-Dry-Fold Business

Four Basic Steps to Marketing Your Full-Service Offerings Wash-dry-fold services can be an incredible boon to your customers. You’re offering them a time-saving, hassle-free way to get their laundry done. You’re helping today’s customers stay on top of their busy...

Wash with Wally: Cleaning Yoga Blankets

I have been approached by a potential commercial client about cleaning yoga blankets. They are heavy wool blankets about the size of a twin bed sheet. This client doesn’t want to dryclean the blankets. What’s the best way to wash them? And how would I dry these items...

What, Me Worry?

You’ll Never Eliminate Anxiety from Your Business Life, But Here’s How to Control It “Stop worrying about what can go wrong, and get excited about what can go right.” I’m confident you’ll agree that owning a business such as (but not limited to) a laundromat can be,...

A Change of Heart

The Laundry Doctor Reconsiders His Perspective on the Profitability of the Wash-Dry-Fold Business For 20 years, I’ve warned laundromat owners against letting their wash-dry-fold operations interfere with and encroach upon the self-service end of their businesses....

PlanetLaundry Podcast Episode 21: An Interview with Neal Shapiro

In this episode, you will hear PlanetLaundry Editor Bob Nieman interview Chicago laundromat owner Neal Shapiro. In 2014, Neal – and his wife, Kate – purchased their first laundromat in Chicago. Since then, the Shapiros have become fully immersed in the laundromat...

HappyNest Now Available Throughout New Jersey

Laundry pickup-and-delivery service HappyNest is now available in southern Ocean County, N.J., through the company’s new partnership with Main St. Laundry Tuckerton. As a result, HappyNest serves nearly 200 cities and towns throughout New Jersey, including Morristown,...

CLA Surveys Store Owners on Worker Shortage

As laundromats begin to return to pre-COVID operations and start to increase business, the Coin Laundry Association has been hearing from a number of store owners who are experiencing issues with finding and retaining employees to operate at maximum capacity. As a...

‘Like a Fine Gumbo’

A Literacy Theme Runs Throughout Famed New Orleans Laundromat/Restaurant Combo Jane and Scott Wolfe, who own Wash World laundromat in New Orleans, are not novices when it comes to incorporating a literacy theme into their business ventures. In fact, the Wolfes also...

LaundryCares to Host Free Laundry, Literacy Day in Indianapolis

On Thursday, June 10, the LaundryCares Foundation will host a Free Laundry and Literacy Day, in collaboration with Too Small to Fail and Big Heart World. This event will be held from 12:00 to 4:00 p.m. at Indyland II Laundromat in Indianapolis. Free Laundry and...

HappyNest Adds Customer Service Manager

Laundry pickup-and-delivery service HappyNest has named Alexandria Messom as manager, customer success. Messom previously served as team lead, customer onboarding at custom sports apparel provider, SquadLocker. “Our customers’ happiness is of utmost importance, as...

The Future of Wash-Dry-Fold

A Look at the Evolving Full-Service Laundry Business Model Long before COVID-19 turned many – at least for a while – into semi-reclusive shut-ins venturing out only as far as the front porch to retrieve their latest Amazon packages, numerous companies offering...

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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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

ACI Names Senior Manager of Public Health

The American Cleaning Institute, the trade association for the cleaning products supply chain, has appointed Audrey McCalley as senior manager, public health. “Audrey joins ACI with a background in public health, clinical research, policy and sustainability,” said Dr....

A Surprise Trend: ‘Inflation Relief’ Tax Policy

Rising inflation levels have hit consumers hard, and state lawmakers have spent time trying to provide relief, including indexing income tax brackets, issuing taxpayer rebates, and adopting new sales tax exemptions. Georgia, Idaho, Indiana (with an expansion of a...

COVID Relief Bill Introduced

Chair of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Ben Cardin recently introduced legislation to create what’s being called the Hard-Hit Small Business Relief Fund (S.4471). For small businesses demonstrating substantial losses in 2020 and 2021 due...

ICYMI: New York City Repeals Retail Laundry License Requirement

On July 18, 2021, New York City enacted Local Law 80 of 2021, which repeals the licensing requirement for retail laundries. This repeal went into effect on December 31, 2021. Beginning last December, a retail laundry license from the city’s Department of Consumer...

FROM YOUR FAVORITE INDUSTRY EXPERTS

Columns

The Laundry Doctor

Community Service

Orginally posted - Jan 02, 2013 Your laundromat is a crucial part of the neighborhood in which it's located. And, as a small-business owner, you need to recognize this fact and do what you can to strengthen that bond with those within your community. Whenever I look...

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The Business Mind

Going Off-Script

How to Raise Your Laundry Business Above and Beyond the CompetitionYou might assume – understandably so – that most customers select a specific laundry based essentially upon location, vend prices and hours of operation. But that just isn't so.Let me explain...

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Wash With Wally

Viewpoint

Vital Signs

Neglect Your Store's Signage at Your Own Risk Because a laundromat is a self-service business, there is the tendency among some owners to have a "build-it-and-they-will-wash" attitude toward their stores. In other words, the focus is primarily on the equipment offered...

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Digital Marketing

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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.