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.

Laundries Connecting Communities

Laundries Connecting Communities

Celebrating the Work of the LaundryCares Foundation In essence, it all began with Hurricane Katrina. “For a while, I and many of my peers in the business felt an appreciation and a gratitude for the opportunities we’d all enjoyed and the livelihoods that had been...

Meeting Families Where They Are: The Powerful Role of Laundromats

Meeting Families Where They Are: The Powerful Role of Laundromats

Please take a moment to picture the face of a child you care about. This child may be your own son or daughter, a niece or nephew, grandchild, a youth you may have coached, or a little one who runs into your laundromat with her mom each week. I think of my own two...

Upgrading Your Laundromat

Upgrading Your Laundromat

Five Steps to a Successful Retooling Project Since opening my first laundromat – O-Town Laundry in Salt Lake City – approximately five years ago, I’ve retooled three more stores, am currently building two stores and have three more waiting in the wings. Working with...

Headlines

Go Big!

Large-Capacity Washers Can Be One of Your Laundromat’s Most Important Features From an equipment standpoint, large-capacity washers are the most important element in any vended laundry today – and every store owner should have at least two of each unique capacity....

HappyNest Expands Reach in Ohio

Laundry pickup-and-delivery service HappyNest is now available in the Ohio cities of Kent and Akron, through its new laundromat partner, Laundry 101. In addition, Laundry 101 is providing HappyNest next-day pickup-and-delivery services to surrounding towns in Portage...

KioSoft Mobile App Tops Two Million Users

KioSoft recently announced that its mobile app for laundry payments – CleanPay Mobile – has surpassed two million users worldwide. According to KioSoft, the app is a prime example of the growing popularity of contactless alternatives in the market, as indicated by...

Alliance Laundry Systems to Acquire Gulf States Laundry Machinery

Alliance Laundry Systems has announced it is acquiring the laundry division assets of Gulf States Laundry Machinery Co. Alliance expects to close on this purchase in the third quarter of this year, marking the manufacturer’s fourth distributor asset acquisition in...

Who’s Minding the Store?

Businesses all across the United States are desperate for workers these days. The numbers don’t lie. In late April, the Labor Department reported a record 9.3 million job openings. “The worker shortage is real – and it’s getting worse by the day,” commented Chamber of...

Wash with Wally: Cleaning in Cold Water

I’m considering switching to a cold-water detergent for my wash-dry-fold business in order to save some money on my natural gas bill. Does this make sense? I don’t want to sacrifice the quality of the wash I offer my full-service customers. No, that does not make...

Be Better Tomorrow Than You Were Yesterday

Are You Running a Finite Laundromat Business or an Infinite One? Let me start with a very simple question: did you “win” at business last year? Huh? I’m serious. I’m talking about the battle with your competitors. Did you win it last year? If your answer is yes, my...

Magic in a Box

How LaundryCares Family Read, Play and Learn Centers Are Impacting Communities and Changing Lives Before jumping into the “what” and the nuts-and-bolts of the LaundryCares Family Read, Play and Learn Centers, we need to take a step back and examine the “why.” How did...

SpyderWash, Wash-Dry-Fold POS Announce Cross-Platform Integration

Laundry payment system provider SpyderWash, a Setomatic Systems company, and Wash-Dry-Fold POS, a point-of-sale system developed for laundromats, recently announced they have teamed up on a cross-platform project. SpyderWash enables laundromat customers and employees...

New Benefits Added to CLA Health Insurance Program

The Coin Laundry Association – which is working with LIG Solutions to offer comprehensive, affordable health coverage designed for laundromat owners, as well as their families and employees – has announced a newly added element to this health insurance program. The...

HappyNest Expands Further into Long Island

Laundry pickup-and-delivery service HappyNest has expanded further into central Long Island, N.Y., through its partnership with The Laundry Closet. HappyNest now serves the east end of Suffolk County – from Bay Shore to Sayville to East Setauket. “We decided to...

Get Down to Business

There’s Never Been a Better Time to Boost Your Bottom Line with Commercial Accounts In the laundromat business, idle machines represent missed revenue that can never be recovered. Every store operator knows that it’s all about “turns per day.” And no one understands...

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.

Scaling Wash & Fold Operations

Learn how to grow your wash & fold from an offering into a money-making operation.

Download Guide

September Magazine Issue

This Month's Issue

 

  • Tech on the Rise: How Operators Are Using Innovation to Run Smarter, Faster Laundromats: From AI phone systems to real-time data tracking, operators and suppliers share how technology is reshaping the modern laundry business and what’s coming next.
  • Business Profile: Delivering a Superior
    Laundry Experience
  • Member Spotlight: Rick Rome –
    Innovating Laundry, One Customer at a Time
  • Guest Column: How AI Changed Google Reviews (What Laundromat Owners Need to Know)
  • And More…

THE LATEST ON LAUNDROMATS

Industry News

EEOC Updates COVID Guidance

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has updated its guidance across several different areas relating to COVID-19 and the workplace, including when employees can be required to undergo COVID-19 testing, reasonable accommodations, and parameters around mandatory...

LIG Health and Wellness Roundup

The Coin Laundry Association works with LIG Solutions to provide CLA members with health care insurance, as well as prescription drug services. Below are some articles LIG has provided to help expand your health and wellness awareness, and to learn about new health...

P&G, Supermarket Chain Partner in Flood Relief Effort

Procter & Gamble and supermarket chain Food City recently teamed up – through the Tide Loads of Hope mobile laundromat – to help provide clean clothes and some needed relief to those affected by the recent flooding in southwest Virginia. “During times of disaster,...

LaundroLab to Add Boston Location

Laundromat franchise LaundroLab is set to launch its first location in Boston, spearheaded by local money manager Bill Shean. After more than 30 years as a professional money manager, Shean decided it was time for a career change. “I think it’s interesting to do...

HappyNest Expands Commercial Business

Laundry pickup-and-delivery service HappyNest recently expanded its commercial laundry services in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Florida, and Colorado, with further expansion planned in the coming months. In addition, the company now offers a per-bag pricing model...

FROM YOUR FAVORITE INDUSTRY EXPERTS

Columns

The Laundry Doctor

Reflecting on Injecting

Originally posted - Feb 10, 2014 In past columns, we've discussed all of the different types of products and chemicals than can be used to successfully handle heavy-duty commercial accounts, as well as to service some of the more challenging wash-dry-fold orders. With...

read more

The Business Mind

Head Games

The Psychological Aspects of Entrepreneurship – And the Six Primary Emotions That Inevitably Grip All Business OwnersA number of years ago, it was quite common in Detroit and other larger cities to have actual elevator operators in tall buildings. And, while riding in...

read more

Wash With Wally

Viewpoint

Mid-Year Report Card

I hope the first half of 2015 has been successful for you and your businesses. Recent surveys and economic indicators are all showing positive results, and it looks to stay that way for some time to come. In addition, the Coin Laundry Association accomplished some...

read more

Digital Marketing

No Results Found

The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.

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.