Laundromat investment claims, checked against public data

Public data does not settle whether a laundromat is a good investment, and it does not support several of the claims made by the sites that rank for the question. Census counts show an industry that shrank from about 14,000 employer stores in 1998 to about 11,000 by 2007 and has held near that level since. Revenue per store has risen faster than prices. The margin, return and payback figures quoted online come from equipment sellers and have no public dataset behind them. Whether one particular store is a good buy depends on its lease, its utility bills, its machines and its neighbourhood, and those are things you can check. This page summarises the evidence. It is not investment advice, and nothing here recommends buying or not buying.

Where the claims and the data disagree

Every claim below was read on the named source’s own page on 2026-09-23. The primary data is linked in the right-hand columns.

Claim	Who says it	What primary data says	Verdict
Laundromats are a dying business	A common search question	Employer establishments fell from 13,983 in 1998 to 11,111 in 2007, then to 10,890 in 2023, a 2% change over 16 years (CBP 1998, 2007, 2023). Revenue rose from $3.55 billion in 2012 to $5.50 billion in 2022 (2012, 2022).	Unsupported
There are about 30,000 U.S. laundromats	Laundrylux advisory page	Census counts 10,890 stores with employees (CBP 2023). Stores with no employees are published only for the wider laundry and drycleaning group, 25,090 in 2023 (Nonemployer Statistics). The true total sits somewhere between about 10,900 and 36,000.	No public evidence
Recession resistant	Huebsch, Laundrylux	From 2007 to 2009, employer laundromats fell 5.2% and their employees 13.0%, against 3.5% and 5.1% for all U.S. industries (CBP 2007, 2009). Counts are not demand, and revenue for those years is not published at this level.	Mixed
“Coin laundry profit margins are typically 20% to 35%”	Huebsch	The Economic Census publishes revenue and payroll for NAICS 812310, not profit. No public source reports laundromat margins.	No public evidence
Cash-on-cash return of 20 to 35 percent; “ROI of 20-35 percent in the first year”	Huebsch, Laundrylux	No public dataset of store returns exists.	No public evidence
“Relatively low labor costs” and “semi-passive”	Huebsch	Employer stores paid 18.4% of revenue in payroll in 2022 and averaged 4 employees (Economic Census 2022). Laundry workers’ median wage was $16.78 an hour (BLS OEWS). A store with no payroll is usually staffed by its owner.	Mixed
Utility costs vary and drive profitability	Huebsch	From 2017 to 2025 the consumer price of laundry and drycleaning services rose 45.2%, against 36.2% for water and sewer, 38.1% for electricity and 47.4% for piped gas (BLS CPI). Nationally, prices kept pace with utilities. Local rates can differ widely.	Mixed: supported nationally, local rates not tested
New machines cut water bills 50% and energy bills 40%	Laundrylux	Manufacturer figures. No independent public test was found.	No public evidence
Wash-dry-fold is a revenue line worth adding	Huebsch	In 2022, self-service machine use was 91.7% of employer-store revenue. Non-commercial laundry services were 2.6%, reported by 18% of stores (Economic Census product lines, 2022) The census does not break out wash-dry-fold separately; non-commercial laundry services is the closest line. Growth after 2022 is not measured.	Mixed
$200,000 to $500,000 to buy or build, on average	Huebsch	No public dataset of laundromat sale prices or build costs exists.	No public evidence
Most new stores reach positive cash flow in one to three years	Huebsch	No public data.	No public evidence

Most of the “no public evidence” rows are not false. They are private numbers that only store owners, brokers and equipment financiers hold, so a buyer has to get them from the specific store rather than from an industry average.

The industry is flat in store count and growing in revenue

Employer establishment counts from County Business Patterns, NAICS 812310 (coin-operated laundries and drycleaners):

Year	Establishments	Employees
1998	13,983	56,561
2007	11,111	43,513
2012	10,979	39,183
2017	10,798	40,419
2020	10,630	41,229
2023	10,890	41,351

The Economic Census adds revenue. Average revenue per employer store was about $326,000 in 2012, $403,000 in 2017 and $510,000 in 2022. From 2012 to 2022 total revenue rose 54.9%, while the price of laundry services rose 39.5% (BLS CPI). That implies roughly 11% more laundry was bought, not just the same laundry at higher prices. Firms fell slightly from 9,698 to 9,538 between 2017 and 2022 while establishments held at about 10,770, which is a small shift toward owners with more than one store, not a wave of consolidation.

Capital, financing and running costs

Capital goes into the lease, the build-out (plumbing, venting, drainage, gas lines) and the machines. No public source publishes typical build-out costs, so treat any single figure as a quote to confirm.

Financing shapes the economics. An SBA 7(a) loan can be as large as $5 million and can fund a change of ownership. Maturity is capped at 10 years unless it finances real estate or equipment with a useful life beyond ten years, and at 25 years for real estate. The age and remaining life of the machines therefore affect the loan term a lender will offer, as well as the replacement bill. None of the vendor pages we read gave a useful life in years, and we found no public primary source for one, so ask the seller for the purchase date of every machine.

The recurring costs are rent, water and sewer, gas, electricity, payroll or the owner’s time, repairs, insurance and payment processing. Payroll is the only one the Census publishes for this industry: 18.4% of revenue at employer stores in 2022.

What makes a location work

Laundromat customers are mostly households without in-unit machines, so the first test is renter density in the store’s walking and driving radius. The American Community Survey table B25003 (tenure) gives renter-occupied households by tract. The second test is competition. ZIP Code Business Patterns counts NAICS 812310 establishments with employees by ZIP code. A walk or drive past each nearby store, with machine counts and prices, catches the owner-run stores the Census misses. The third test is the lease: its remaining term and renewal options decide whether the build-out can be paid back before the landlord can raise the rent or end the tenancy.

Buying an existing store against building new

An existing store comes with a revenue history, and that history is the thing to test. An owner’s profit and loss statement is a claim. Utility bills and machine records are evidence, because every wash cycle uses water and every dryer cycle uses gas or electricity. Ask for 24 to 36 months of water, sewer, gas and electric bills directly from the utilities, machine counter readings or card-system reports, tax returns, and the lease. If reported revenue grows while water use is flat, ask why.

Building new means no history, a longer ramp, and a location bet you make before any revenue exists. It also means new machines, current utility efficiency and a lease you negotiate yourself.

When it is likely a poor fit

The public data points to a few situations where the case is weak: a short remaining lease with no renewal option, a store whose revenue cannot be reconciled with its utility bills, machines near the end of their life priced as if they were new, an area where owner-occupied homes with in-unit laundry dominate, or a buyer who needs a hands-off income. Employer stores average four staff, so a store without payroll usually has an owner doing the work.

Questions to answer before you buy

• Do 24 to 36 months of utility bills support the revenue the seller reports?
• What do machine counters or the card system say, month by month?
• How many years remain on the lease, and what are the renewal terms?
• How old is each machine, and what will a lender accept as its remaining life?
• What share of nearby households rent, and how has that changed?
• How many laundromats operate within the trade area, and what do they charge?
• Who will staff the store, and what does that cost at local wages?
• What happens to the numbers if water, sewer and energy rates rise faster than your prices?

A cited market report for one store

This page covers the national picture. A specific store needs the same work at street level: renter share and trend around the address, competing stores, local utility rates and scheduled increases, and the lease market. A Hyperresearch Deep run ($49) is built for that kind of question. It targets about 150 to 200 sources over about 3 to 5 hours (targets, not guarantees), and every citation in the report is checked against the source it cites. It does not read private broker listings or a seller’s books, and it is research, not financial advice.

See pricing for what a run costs, and the verification receipt for how each citation is checked.

For the arithmetic behind a market-size estimate for one store, including a worked Columbus, Ohio example on the same Census data, see how to calculate market size.