CHICAGO — We’ve closed the book on 2025, so now’s a good time to review last year’s business performance and look ahead to what we might see in 2026.
The final American Coin-Op Your Views survey for 2025 was about year-over-year business. It opened with: “How would you compare your 2025 self-service laundry business to 2024’s?”
A little more than 63% say their business improved to some degree: 23.7% described it as “significantly better” and 39.5% saw it as “somewhat better.”
Roughly 16% say it was “about the same.” The remaining 21.1% say their business worsened — “somewhat worse” for 15.8% and “significantly worse” for 5.3% — in 2025 compared to the year before.
As for wash-dry-fold business, 20.5% of respondents say theirs was “significantly better” in 2025 while 17.9% described it as “somewhat better.” Roughly 23% say it was “about the same.” A little over 10% say their WDF was worse (“somewhat” for 2.6%, “significantly” for 7.7%). And the remaining 28.2% say they don’t offer WDF service.
If their self-service or WDF business improved last year, laundry owners attributed it to factors like installing or adding equipment (46.2%), raising prices (33.3%), a larger customer base (28.2%), improved marketing (25.6%) or quality of staffing (25.6%).
Among those whose self-service or WDF business worsened in 2025, rising costs and expenses (20.5%), a decreasing customer base (15.4%) and customers not coming in as often (12.8%) were among the factors they cited.
Looking ahead, 33.3% of respondents believe their 2026 overall business will be better than 2025’s. Roughly 64% say it will be about the same, and 2.6% predict their business will be worse.
As far as their plans for 2026, 53.8% of respondents say they intend to raise prices, 43.6% will be doing more marketing, 35.9% intend to spruce up their store, and 25.6% will be adding new washers and/or dryers (respondents could select any or all from a list of several options).
About 10% will be adding other equipment such as a payment system or changer, and 5.1% intend to hire additional workers. Roughly 15% are planning no changes in 2026.
To wrap our survey, we asked respondents to describe their “biggest business victory in 2025.” Here are some of their answers:
- “Lost a six-figure wash-and-fold account in January (they closed their doors). By August, we were doing the same amount of business as we were previously. Wash and fold and residential pickup and delivery grew and keeps growing.”
- “Sending a clear message to the bums that they are not welcome.”
- “Expanding by opening up another location that is a drop-off only location and offering drycleaning services. The (capital expenditure) is very low for a drop-only store so not as high risk as buying a laundromat. Drycleaning margins are very high. So that’s definitely going to be a lead revenue generator.”
- “Managing through staff revisions required by increased volume in business, especially wash-dry-fold.”
- “I took many vacations — Europe, Alaska, the Caribbean — and my son got married.”
- “Creating a sense of community amongst my staff. They’re no longer individual employees. They feel like they’re part of [our] team.”
American Coin-Op’s Your Views survey presents a snapshot of store owner viewpoints but should not be considered scientific. Subscribers to American Coin-Op email blasts are invited to participate anonymously in the industry poll.
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Bruce Beggs at [email protected].
