Nancy Pearson is a writer based in Victoria, B.C., who chronicles coin-op stories and issues at her blog, The Great Laundromat Adventure.
When Beach Solar Laundromat owner Alex Winch discovered that one of his customers had lost his job when chemotherapy made him too sick to work – and thus unable to make his regular visit to the Toronto-based laundromat – Mr. Winch stepped up. He paid for the washing and drying himself every week until the man recovered and was able to find a new job.
“Anyone can suffer a health challenge, an economic setback,” said Mr. Winch.
After a customer told Yummi Café Laundromat owner Nancy Seto that he had to choose between paying $5 to dry laundry or buying food for his three children, she and her husband started a Free Laundry Access Program funded through donations. Money came in from around Canada to pay for customers’ laundry, no questions asked.
“To wear clean clothes, it makes them feel better about themselves,” Ms. Seto told me.
These are just two of the many stories I’ve heard of the ways in which laundromats across Canada offer more than just clean clothes – they offer a helping hand when they see the need.
Others provide free soap or free laundry days; some have organized a pay-it-forward system. At some laundromats, blankets from shelters are washed at no cost. Clothes left behind are donated to thrift stores; one owner let unemployed customers use the abandoned clothes for job interviews.
But now, public laundromats are the ones that need a helping hand as owners turn off the taps across Canada faster than any other time in the industry’s 65-year history.
In 2004, 1,784 coin-operated laundries and dry cleaners were providing their services across the country (Statistics Canada lumps these kinds of businesses together, and many offer both services). That number dropped to 1,092 this past summer, after another 70 closed since 2020.
Many factors have contributed: soaring rents; urban development; rising water bills and surging electricity and gas rates; staff shortages; fewer customers. Parts for decades-old machines have also become hard or impossible to find, as are tradespeople who can do the necessary repairs. Some owners want to retire but can’t find a buyer; business debt becomes unmanageable when not enough coins are slotted into the machines. The COVID-19 pandemic only compounded many of these pressures.
Should this be a concern for those of us fortunate to have a washer and dryer at home? Absolutely.
Clean laundry is a key to personal hygiene and public health, which is why laundromats were declared essential services during the pandemic. Access to a service that helps people maintain a healthy standard of living also increases equality and fairness. When a laundromat closes – temporarily or permanently – hardship and social inequities often result.
People who struggle with health issues, poverty or homelessness can also benefit from other services and connections made through many coin-operated laundries.
The staff of The Laundry in Courtenay, B.C., helps link customers – particularly those who do not have a place to live – with social service agencies. “When we see people who are needy,” said manager Suzanne Tucker, “we try to encourage them to see these different organizations,” such as a mobile outreach health unit; these organizations also give laundry coupons to their clients. In Ottawa, meanwhile, the Community Laundry Co-op offers support to their members, many of whom are new immigrants and refugees, by referring them to language and settlement services.
Even Pope Francis, seeing the need to restore dignity and social justice among the homeless and low-income people, opened a free laundromat in Rome in 2017.
Over the decades, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people in Canada have relied on laundromats: students, renters, travellers, homeowners whose machines break or whose wells run dry, and large families that have to do multiple loads each week. Commercial clients, including restaurants, medical clinics, yoga studios, ski resorts, Airbnbs, hotels and fire departments, also rely on the wash-dry-fold services that many laundromats provide.
So how can communities support these at-risk businesses? The Community Laundry Co-op, which operates on donations and grants, offers one model; another is the new laundromat and public shower on B.C.’s Salt Spring Island, which was opened by a nonprofit society after several years of fundraising. If a new development forces a coin-op to close, local governments could mandate that developers work with the owner to find a new location and cover start-up costs.
The closing of a neighbourhood laundromat can mean consequences that go well beyond fewer clean clothes. Let’s make sure the ones we have today can keep the taps on, so they can continue serving our communities and the people who rely on them.