Latest / Small Business Success with Fexingo: Local Companies, Main Street Stories, and Community Commerce / The Laundromat That Turned Coin-Operated Into Coffee-Fueled
Transcript
- Lucas: Jenna Ruiz owned a laundromat in Portland, Oregon. It was profitable, but barely. She was bringing in about $8,000 a month in revenue from the machines, and after rent, utilities, maintenance, and the occasional vandalism, she was clearing maybe $1,200. Luna: That's a tough business. Thin margins, all cash, lots of headaches. Lucas: Right. And she told me she was bored. She'd sit there for eight hours a day watching people load their clothes and leave. Average dwell time was about 45 minutes. Average spend was $8 — just the machine fees. No additional sales. Luna: So she's looking at this empty time and thinking, there's got to be something else. Lucas: Exactly. She had this idea: what if she turned half the floor space into a coffee bar? Pour-over, espresso, pastries from a local bakery. She'd seen it done in a few cities — there's a famous spot in San Francisco called Brainwash, but that's a full cafe with laundry as an add-on. Jenna wanted the reverse. Luna: Laundry first, coffee second. Keep the core business, layer something on top. Lucas: Right. So she crunched the numbers. The build-out — plumbing, a proper espresso machine, seating, permits — came to about $40,000. She financed it with a small business loan at 6 percent over five years. Monthly payment was about $770. Luna: That's a big bet on a hunch. Lucas: It was. But she had data from her own customer base. She surveyed 100 regulars — handed out a little card with a QR code. 60 percent said they'd stay longer if there were coffee and Wi-Fi. 40 percent said they'd spend another $5 to $10 per visit. Luna: So she validated the demand before spending a dime. Lucas: Exactly. She opened the coffee bar in March of last year. First month, coffee sales were $2,800. By month six, they were $5,200. But the real surprise was that laundry revenue went up, too. Luna: How? People washing more clothes? Lucas: Partly. Average dwell time jumped to 90 minutes. People would wash, grab a coffee, sit down, check email. Some would do an extra load they hadn't planned on. The per-visit spend from laundry alone went from $8 to $9.50, because people were adding the second load or using the bigger machines. Luna: So the coffee bar made the laundry business more profitable, not less. Lucas: That's the key insight. By month 12, total monthly revenue was $16,000 — $8,500 from laundry, $7,500 from coffee. The coffee had higher margins, too. Coffee beans and milk are cheap. Gross margin on coffee was around 70 percent, versus maybe 50 percent on laundry after utilities. Luna: So the coffee bar essentially subsidized the laundry side. And the loan payment was only $770 a month. Lucas: Right. She paid off the loan in 14 months. Now she's clearing about $4,000 a month net, which is more than triple what she was making before. And she's working the same hours. Luna: What about the operational side? Running a coffee bar is different from managing washers and dryers. Lucas: She hired one part-time barista for the morning rush, 7 to 11 AM. She handles the afternoons herself. She said the learning curve was real — dialing in the espresso grinder, managing milk inventory, learning to steam properly. But she watched a lot of YouTube tutorials and spent a weekend at a friend's cafe. Luna: So she invested in herself, not just the equipment. Lucas: Absolutely. And she became a kind of local celebrity. The coffee bar attracted a whole new customer base — remote workers from the co-working spaces two blocks away, parents waiting for their kids at the nearby school. People who would never set foot in a laundromat now come for the pour-over. Luna: She turned a chore destination into a hangout spot. Lucas: That's the branding shift. She even renamed the business — it was called 'Sudz' before, now it's 'Sudz & Beans'. She put up a new sign, updated the Google Maps listing, started an Instagram. The coffee bar became the marketing engine. Luna: If today's story gave you a concrete idea for your own business, that's exactly what we're here for. The way these episodes stay ad-free and focused is through listener support. If you found value, you can help keep it going at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Lucas: Yeah, it's a small gesture that makes a big difference. And it keeps us independent, so we can keep digging into stories like this. Luna: Agreed. So back to Jenna — she's now thinking about adding a third offering. Maybe a small barber shop in the remaining unused corner. She's already scoping out the plumbing. Lucas: That would be a triple play. Laundry, coffee, haircuts. You come in with dirty clothes, leave with clean clothes, a caffeine buzz, and a fresh fade. Luna: The one-stop shop for the time-pressed Portlander. Lucas: Exactly. But the lesson here isn't about adding a coffee bar. It's about finding the complementary product that extends your customer's dwell time and increases their spend per visit. For a dry cleaner, it might be a shoe repair counter. For a car wash, it might be a detailing subscription. The principle is the same. Luna: And the risk is manageable if you validate first. Jenna's survey cost her nothing but a stack of index cards. Lucas: Right. She didn't guess. She asked. And then she built the smallest viable version. She didn't open a full kitchen — just a La Marzocco espresso machine and a pastry case. She kept the overhead low. Luna: That's the playbook: test with a survey, start small, watch the dwell time, and let the numbers tell you whether to scale. Lucas: Exactly. And if you're listening and thinking about your own business, ask yourself: what do your customers do while they wait? And can you give them a reason to want to wait longer? Luna: That's a question worth sitting with. Thanks, Lucas.