CHICAGO — Roughly half of the distributors polled in the 2025 American Coin-Op Distributor Survey say 2024 was a year they performed at or near their prior year’s numbers. Meanwhile, 30.4% saw their 2024 total business sales — including sales of newly constructed vended laundries and replacement business — grow from the previous year.
Some 22% of distributors reported their 2024 performance was lower than their 2023 efforts.
As for how distributors expect their 2025 overall sales will compare to those of 2024’s, 40% of those polled are predicting brighter things this year.
American Coin-Op invited distributors listed in the previous edition of the magazine’s Distributors Directory to participate in this year’s unscientific survey, which charts 2024 business and makes comparisons to previous years. Participating distributors identified themselves but they will remain anonymous for purposes of this report.
Take note that in this summary, percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding.
In Part 1, we examined year-over-year sales, replacement business and new-store construction. Let’s continue:
EQUIPMENT MIX
While self-service laundries have many similarities, the types and numbers of machines installed often vary. If you’re curious about what types of equipment distributors are installing in new stores across the county, American Coin-Op offers the following analysis.
Top Loaders — Approximately 17% of new stores in 2024 had at least one top loader, according to distributors surveyed. Shares in recent surveys were 38% in 2023, 39% in 2022 and 30% in 2021.
Self-service laundries newly built in 2024 have an average of 1.1 top loaders, compared to averages of 2.6 per new store in 2023, 2.5 in 2022, 5.7 in 2021, 2.4 in 2020, 1.9 in 2019, and 3.1 in 2018. (These figures factor in new stores with no top loaders.)
Front Loaders — Laundries that were newly built in 2024 have an average of 28.5 machines. This compares to prior front-loader averages of 26.1 in 2023, 29.4 in 2022, 27.3 in 2021, 28.5 in 2020, 30.3 in 2019, and 26.5 in 2018.
Among the new stores built last year, 16.7% installed fewer than 20 front loaders and 83.3% installed 20 or more.
Dryer Pockets — There is an average of 28.7 dryer pockets in self-service laundries newly constructed in 2024. This compares to an average of 31.5 pockets in 2023, 32.6 pockets in 2022, 29.5 in 2021, 33.5 in 2020, 34.4 in 2019, and 27.8 in 2018.
Fewer than 20 dryer pockets were installed in 21.1% of new stores built in 2023. The share of stores installing 20 or more pockets was 78.9%.
SURVEYING STORE SIZE
Stores averaging 2,000 square feet or less that were constructed in 2024 account for 17.6% of the total (that number was 20% in last year’s poll), while 58.8% average between 2,001 and 3,000 square feet (46.7% in last year’s tally).
The largest newly constructed self-service laundry built in 2024, according to the survey results, covers 8,300 square feet, while the smallest measures just 900 square feet. In last year’s poll, those extremes were 9,000 and 800, respectively.
For 2024, the average newly constructed vended laundry covers 2,903 square feet, which is about 25 square feet more than the 2,867-square-foot average of last year’s survey. Other prior averages in recent years were 3,027 in 2022, 2,855 for 2021, 2,845 for 2020, 2,990 for 2019, and 2,948 for 2018.
The average newly constructed store sold for $749,000 in 2024 (distributors were asked to exclude the cost of land and building in their calculation). Prior average sales were $808,500 (2023), $593,000 (2022), $421,818 (2021), $429,563 (2020), $497,864 (2019), and $460,238 (2018).
Coming in Thursday’s conclusion: Recent new-store profiles, other business, and the 2025 performance forecast
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Bruce Beggs at [email protected].
