Other owners are finding ways to reach new customers. To sustain himself, he also repairs boots and vacuums. One older owner in Vancouver, who preferred not to be named because he is trying to sell his business, referred to the self-service portion of his laundromat as “a kind of charity” because it now earns him so little income. Laundromats have long offered additional services to help the business survive. Laundromat owners have had to innovate to survive. And rising costs like utilities and commercial real estate rents have eaten into profit margins. New apartments and condos increasingly offer in-suite laundry. “The more people, the more dirty clothes,” Wallace said over the phone from his office in Chicago.īut some industry experts say conventional laundromats are dying out. There's something tangible.”įor decades, laundromat owners were often entrepreneurs ― many of them new immigrants ― with a penchant for fixing appliances, according to the U.S.-based Coin Laundry Association.īrian Wallace, the association’s president, says laundromats have long thrived in low-income, densely populated neighbourhoods with lots of renters. “In my previous jobs that I've had, I stared at computer screens all day,” he said. It’s also an opportunity to merge his experience working in online marketing with his desire to run a brick-and-mortar enterprise.
(Maryse Zeidler/CBC)įor Freides, an app-based laundromat makes good business sense. The high-tech washers and dryers at WashOut laundromat can text their users to tell them their load is almost done. “ like the convenience of it, even though it might be more costly.” “The notion of waiting in line or waiting to do your laundry when you could just push a button and have somebody come pick it up and drop it off for you really fits in with the kind of more time-pressed, on-the-go world that we live in today,” Johal said. Sunil Johal, policy director of the University of Toronto’s Mowat Centre, says app-based businesses that outsource daily chores are a trend across the service industry. Today, there are only 47.īut like much of the service industry, the sector is changing.
In Vancouver, 10 years ago, 77 businesses were classified as coin-operated laundromats. In some cities, traditional laundromats are dying. Mike Freides says his high-tech, eco-friendly machines and card-based payment system set his laundromat apart from the pack. Watch Freides give a tour of his high tech laundromat. But when he moved back to Vancouver a couple of years ago, he didn’t see anyone offering the service. As an adult he lived in L.A., New Jersey and Las Vegas, where he often used laundry delivery. (Maryse Zeidler/CBC)įreides grew up in Burnaby and around B.C. The Coin Laundry Association says laundromats often serve low-income renters who live in densely populated neighbourhoods. And businesses like his are popping up in major cities across Canada. His isn't the first laundromat to offer those services in Vancouver, but it's one of just a few. “I want to be the SkipTheDishes of laundry.” “The service is really the main focus of the business,” Freides said. He’s betting customers will be willing to pay about $30 per load for someone to pick up their laundry from their home, wash, dry and fold it, and deliver it back to them 24 hours later ― with all of it ordered from the convenience of an app. He says he is just starting to break even on his monthly costs. Mike Freides opened WashOut laundromat in September. It’s a gamble he’s confident will pay off. But he says he has invested $750,000, most of it his own money, on this laundromat, which opened last September in the heart of the city’s Commercial Drive neighbourhood. A bored staffer in overalls sits behind a wood-panelled desk that holds little more than an iPad.įreides, 37, used to work in online marketing and has never owned a retail space. Worn vinyl floors, bare walls and broken pastel-coloured furniture are their typical features.īut Freides is not running your typical urban laundromat.Īround him are rows of stainless steel, high-efficiency washers and dryers designed to text users when their cycle is done. Many of the city's coin-operated laundromats have seen better days. “Most laundromats you go to are really scary, especially in this city,” Freides said, standing under the glare of the bright neon lights of his Vancouver shop WashOut laundromat. Which is odd, perhaps, for someone who owns one.
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