How we model laundry locker returns
The ROI calculator on our homepage gives illustrative ranges, not a guarantee. Here is exactly what those numbers are built on, the factors that move them, and what they leave out, so you can judge them for yourself.
What the ranges are based on
The figures are drawn from operator data since 2012. They assume a roughly 50% margin after cleaning costs, moderate utilisation reached within the first 60 to 90 days, and the per-locker hardware pricing shown on our pricing page.
Because real locations differ on every variable below, we present a range rather than a single promised number. A well-placed bank of lockers in a dense apartment building behaves very differently from the same hardware in a quiet industrial estate, and the model has to leave room for both.
The factors that drive returns
Industry research consistently finds that location alone influences up to 80% of a laundry business's success, with several other factors compounding on top:
- Product-market fit. Whether your service mix and pricing match what the building's residents or workers actually want. Premium dry cleaning in a student dorm under-performs; bulk wash-dry-fold there does well.
- Location quality. Foot traffic, population density, demographics (typically 18 to 35 with $30k to $60k household income index strongest), tenant turnover, and visibility from the building's main thoroughfare.
- Pricing tolerance for the market. What the same neighbourhood pays for nearby laundromats, dry cleaners, and competing pickup-and-delivery services. Pricing too high stalls adoption; pricing too low burns margin without lifting volume.
- Marketing and customer acquisition effort. Operators who run consistent in-building outreach, lobby launch activations, concierge enablement, referral offers, and digital campaigns see materially faster ramps than operators who install the lockers and wait.
- Local competition. Existing laundromats and pickup services within a roughly 2-mile radius affect both achievable price and rate of customer acquisition.
- Cleaning partner economics. If you run the wash yourself, your margin is set by your store's costs. If you partner with an external laundry, it is set by the wholesale rate you negotiate.
What the numbers exclude
Software is excluded from the per-locker maths: Laundry Wise software has no monthly fee (we keep a small share of card payments), so it does not scale per unit and would distort the comparison. Final returns will vary with all of the factors above.
The only way to get numbers tailored to your specific address, service mix, and competitive landscape is a Letter of Engagement, where we model your actual location rather than an industry average.
Most of the factors above are addressable. Our Sales and Marketing pack exists specifically to help with the marketing and customer-acquisition lever: targeted lead lists, a branded pitch deck, a lobby launch playbook, locker decals with QR codes, social and digital templates, and a referral and loyalty programme. Treat it as a resource, not a requirement.