Always Need A Parking Lot?

 

When looking at a store to buy I’m often asked about parking lots.

Do you need a parking lot to have  successful laundromat.
The answer is NO.
Laundromats come in all shapes and sizes and are located in all different areas.

Each one is unique because of store size, neighborhood, equipment mix, zoning, street traffic flow, street patterns, building shape, lot size, etc.

The above store is 1,000 sq ft with 4 big washers, 20 small chassis washers, and 19 dryers.
The owner tells me his average customer uses at least three-four small washers and maybe a big washer. If you do the math this owner maxes out at 5-6 people in his laundromat at any given time.
He has an entrance in the front and street parking for three cars and an entrance in the back with street parking for six cars.
He also has a sizeable population that walks to the laundromat in all weather.
With the limited amount of customers that can wash or dry in his store, he only needs space for 4-5 cars before his store is maxed out.
A lot of people leave between cycles so there are always parking spaces available.
This location has been a laundromat since 1979 so it must not need a parking lot to survive and thrive.

The above laundromat is smaller than the first example.
It is on the corner of a busy street, yet the majority of the customers are people who walk there from the apartments above the laundromat or around it.
It also has almost all small chassis machines so it caters to the neighbors and customers who usually carry their 1-2 loads of laundry from their apartments to the store. There is a bar on one side of the laundromat and an auto repair shop on the other, plus being on a corner the city has blocked off some of the street parking as a fire lane. It maybe has space for two cars on either side of the entrance and there is a space or two across the street from the entrance, although that is a large apartment block so those spaces are often taken up by tenants.
This location has been around since the 1980s so it is another that didn’t need  a parking lot to survive and thrive.

Here is an example of a laundromat that is also on a corner of two busy streets but is a little more landlocked because it has to share street parking with other neighborhood store fronts and businesses in its own building. It is a larger store than the other two examples as it is about 1,500 sq/ft.
Like the other two examples, this building relies on walk up traffic from the area houses and apartments, It also has some street parking in front and on the side that people can come and drop off customers or park and do their laundry. Roughly 6-8 cars combined can park on both sides of the building.
This location has been around since roughly 2010 so it is a newer location than the other two and didn’t need  a parking lot to survive and thrive.

All laundromats are unique to their neighborhoods, buildings, owners, and customers. Even chain and franchise laundromats have small differences from each other. Parking areas for these laundromats are also unique. Having a parking lot with 5-10 spaces right in front of the laundromat entrance doors is great. What happens if those same 5-10 spaces are set further back from the store entrance by lets say a fire lane, loading zone, or the parking lot driving lane. Is that any different than having street parking that is not close to the entrance door? Not really. In the future we'll take a look at different parking lot situations. 

Ev
A Heck of A Nice Guy