Cleaning Up

The average coin laundry customer does three to four loads weekly and spends about $5 to $6 during each visit, according to the Coin Laundry Assn. The money is used to wash and dry clothes as well as to purchase sundries such as soap powder and fabric softener.

By comparison, families with home laundry equipment today do an average of 6.3 loads of laundry per week, down from 8.7 loads a week in 1976, according to the Soap and Detergent Assn. in New York. The drop was partially due to a decrease in household size. The association’s study also found that in 93% of families, a woman did the laundry. In the coin-operated laundry the typical customer is also female, but experts say more men are doing their own clothes as laundries go upscale.

A marketing study conducted last year by PWS Inc., a City of Commerce company that is California’s largest builder of coin-operated laundries, found that coin laundry customers most enjoy spending their time doing the following activities, in this order, while waiting for their laundry to be completed: watching television, eating, drinking coffee or soft drinks, reading a magazine or newspaper, reading a book brought from home, talking to friends or other customers, shopping or running errands, playing video games.

The study also found that about half of the patrons of coin-operated laundries bring their laundry by foot, while the other half drives. Not surprising, the study found that most customers preferred to do their laundry on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, although in poorer communities, use of coin washers and dryers was also heavy on days when neighborhood residents received government pension and welfare payments.