Latest / Small Business Success with Fexingo: Local Companies, Main Street Stories, and Community Commerce / How a Local Laundromat Turned Coin-Op Into Community
Transcript
- Lucas: When was the last time you walked into a laundromat and actually wanted to stay? Luna: Honestly? Never. It's always fluorescent lights, a broken vending machine, and that damp smell that follows you home. Lucas: Exactly. But a three-store chain in Portland called Suds & Community is flipping that script. They've turned the laundromat into a place people hang out — free Wi-Fi, a kids' play area, a coffee counter, even a membership program. And it's working. Luna: I've heard of coffee shops adding laundry, but a laundromat adding coffee — smart. Who's behind it? Lucas: Maria Torres. She bought the first location in 2022 — a classic coin-op that was barely breaking even. The previous owner had run it for 25 years, but it hadn't changed a thing since 1998. Maria saw something else. Luna: What did she see that everyone else missed? Lucas: She saw that the people using the laundromat were mostly families in the surrounding neighborhood — young parents, renters, folks without in-unit machines. They were captive for 45 minutes to an hour per load. And they had nothing to do. No coffee, no place for their kids, no reason to come back sooner than they had to. Luna: So she turned downtime into a reason to return. That's the playbook for so many small businesses — it's not about the core product, it's about the experience around it. Lucas: Right. Maria started small. She painted the walls, swapped the fluorescent tubes for warm LEDs, added a couch and a few secondhand chairs. Then she installed a mesh Wi-Fi network — cost her about $200 a month for commercial-grade service. That alone changed things. Luna: People could work, scroll, or let their kids watch something. That $200 probably paid for itself in extra return visits. Lucas: It did. Within three months, she saw a measurable lift in repeat customers. But the real breakthrough came when she added a small coffee bar — a La Marzocco espresso machine, a couple of grinders, some pastries from a local bakery. She didn't even build a full café; it's just a corner counter. But it changed the economics. Luna: Because the margin on coffee is huge compared to washing. A load of laundry might net a dollar or two. A latte — after cost of goods — probably three or four bucks. Lucas: Exactly. And while they're waiting for their coffee, they might buy a pastry, or grab a snack from a small retail shelf she added. Today, about 40 percent of revenue across her three stores comes from non-laundry sources — coffee, snacks, and a small line of eco-friendly detergent she sells at a markup. Luna: That's a huge shift. And the membership program — what does that look like? Lucas: It's simple. Ten dollars a month gets you a reloadable card with a ten percent discount on every wash and dry, plus a free coffee each visit. Twenty dollars a month bumps that to a fifteen percent discount, two free coffees, and priority access to the machines during peak hours. Luna: And I'm guessing the math works because the marginal cost of an extra load of laundry is basically zero — it's mostly idle capacity. So any incremental visit is high-margin revenue. Lucas: You nailed it. Maria told me that members visit twice as often as non-members, and they spend about 30 percent more per visit on coffee and snacks. As of last month, she has 850 active members across the three stores, which is about 18 percent of her total customer base. But that 18 percent accounts for 35 percent of revenue. Luna: If today's episode gave you one practical idea — maybe it's rethinking the experience around your own core offering — that's exactly the kind of thinking we love to share. And the way these stay ad-free is listener support. You can keep it going at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Lucas: Yeah, and that support really does make a difference. It's what lets us spend time on stories like this instead of reading ad copy. So, seriously — appreciated. Luna: Alright, back to Suds & Community. How does that retention compare to a typical laundromat? Lucas: Industry average for laundromats — and this data is from the Coin Laundry Association — is about a 40 percent annual retention rate. That means six out of ten customers you had in January won't be back by December. Maria's stores are running at 65 percent retention. That's 25 percentage points higher. Luna: So the membership and the experience are creating loyalty in an industry that traditionally has none. That's remarkable. Lucas: And it's not just about retention — it's about word of mouth. Maria says that since she opened the second location in 2024, she's had almost zero paid advertising. The growth has come from people posting about the play area on Instagram or telling friends about the coffee. Luna: That's the community-commerce flywheel. A better experience brings people in, they tell other people, and suddenly you're not just a laundromat — you're a place. Lucas: Right. And that's exactly what she's building. The third location, which opened just this past January, is in a slightly more affluent neighborhood. There, she added a small co-working nook — a few desks with power outlets, a monitor you can plug into. The rent on that space is higher, but the average spend per customer is also higher. Luna: She's essentially segmenting her model by neighborhood. Smart. Does she franchise or license the concept? Lucas: Not yet. She told me she gets inquiries every week, but she's cautious. She wants to prove the model can work in at least three different neighborhood types before she writes an operations manual. Her goal is to have five stores by the end of 2027, all company-owned. Luna: That discipline is refreshing. Too many small business owners get seduced by franchise fees and lose control of the experience. Lucas: Exactly. And the numbers back her up. Her first store, which she bought for $120,000 in 2022, is now generating about $280,000 in annual revenue. That's a compound annual growth rate of about 32 percent over three years. The second store, which cost $200,000 to fit out, hit profitability in month seven and is now doing $210,000 a year. Luna: What about the third one? Still in the ramp-up phase? Lucas: It opened in January, so it's only been five months. But Maria says it's already cash-flow positive, which is ahead of her projections. She expected a nine-month ramp. The co-working element seems to be driving more daytime traffic than she modeled. Luna: That makes sense. If you're a freelancer or a remote worker without a good home office, a laundromat with coffee and a desk is actually a pretty great deal. You can get work done and cross laundry off your list. Lucas: And that's the kind of cross-functional thinking that big-box competitors can't replicate easily. A corporate chain like Speed Queen or a national brand could copy the coffee bar or the Wi-Fi, but they'd struggle to replicate the local curation — the pastries from the bakery two blocks away, the local art on the walls, the partnerships with nearby daycares for the play area. Luna: So the moat isn't the machines — it's the neighborhood relationships. That's the real lesson for any small business owner listening. Lucas: Yeah. Maria told me something that stuck with me. She said, 'A load of laundry is a commodity. But the hour you spend doing it — that's a service.' And she's right. She's in the business of making that hour better, not just the clothes cleaner. Luna: That's a great line. And it applies to so many businesses. A haircut is a commodity. The conversation in the chair is the service. A pizza is a commodity. The atmosphere in the restaurant is the service. Lucas: Exactly. So if you're running a small business, the question isn't 'How do I sell more of my product?' — it's 'How do I make the time people spend with me feel valuable?' Suds & Community is a perfect case study in that shift. And I think it's a model we'll see a lot more of in the next few years. Luna: Yeah, I can imagine laundromats becoming neighborhood hubs in cities where housing doesn't include washer-dryers. That's a huge addressable market. Lucas: And Maria is already thinking about that. She's working on a 'Laundry + Library' concept for a fourth location, partnering with the local public library to host a small rotating book collection and a weekly story time for kids. If it works, it'll be another layer of community connection that nobody else can offer. Luna: That's the kind of local innovation that makes Main Street worth rooting for. One laundromat at a time.