Looking for small town rural laundromat advice

[Mitch]

My wife and I bought the local laundromat about six months ago. Its a small 700 sqft self service coin operated laundry in a town of a few thousand people. We’ve been pleasantly surprised by running it and are looking at starting another one in a similar size town down the road. I havent been able to find much information about laundromat tips that arent aimed at bigger locations in much more urban areas. The design in our current laundry was set up in the 1960s, and it doesnt look like things have changed much since then. It does the job but doesnt seem very inspired. We have a new location in the next town under contract that we would have to build out, but I have some questions that I dont know how to get answered.

How do you set up to flow customers through the store?

How do you know what mix of machines to put in?

What are some ways to handle a machine breaking down or flooding when you have an unattended laundromat and cant drop everything at work to rush to the store?

Is it worth advertising in a town small enough that there is only really one street with businesses along it anyways?

Anyone that could point me in the right direction would be appreciated.
Thanks

[greg williams]

My laundry is in a little bigger town, about 25K. If you are building out make sure the aisles are WIDE and avoid a single long line of machines without a break in middle to allow traffic. If you have back to back washers make sure there is room to get behind them, 30″ minimum. Machine mix depends on your customers. Families need bigger machines than bachelors or couples. My store is attended so I cant help much there but again if you are building you might be able to put a few floor drains in case of a flood. Website is a good place to start, see laundromat resource or design. good luck

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