Australian cities are awash with luxury laundromats: ‘They’re popping up left, right and centre’

Travelling down any main street in urban Australia today, you may notice a sea of neon signs. These white, light and bright shopfronts are the new laundromats. No longer dingy and sad, today’s laundromats have cleaned up their image. They are now “lounges” or “clubs” that offer a “luxurious” laundry experience that promises to make the sisyphean task of laundry enjoyable. I’m at Foam Laundry Lounge in inner-city Sydney to see what a boutique laundromat is like, and the appeal is clear. For a room full of machines stacked on top of each other, it’s a lively place to be. The millennial pink and green walls are comforting. The wifi is free and fast, the music is upbeat and my shoes don’t stick to the floor. “I walk past other laundromats and I will feel jealous that it looks better than the one I go to,” says Olivia James, a 26-year-old living in Sydney, who uses the laundromat weekly as she lives with three other people and doesn’t have a dryer. She enjoys being able to “go in, do your own thing and not talk to anyone”. Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning Steven Borg, the national manager at Aqualogic Water systems, a company that distributes commercial laundry equipment across Australia, estimates there has been a 200-300% increase in self-service laundromats over the past five years. Borg says interest has increased so much that most suburbs now have at least one laundromat. “They’re popping up left, right and centre,” says Stuart Faulkner, founder of The Tumble Club. He opened his first store in 2020 and there are now more than 20 locations across New South Wales and Queensland. While this fresh spin on laundromats hasn’t totally relieved the chore’s tedium, it’s not gone unnoticed by customers. Backpackers Bran and Gon, 21, decided to use Foam Laundry Lounge because it looked “cool”. Office worker Min Lau, 24, says the more “aesthetic” a place is, the fewer objections he has to using it – though Lau still smells each washing machine to ensure he’s using the cleanest one. Borg says certain laundromats are “the place to be”. “It just looks stylish and it’s something that people are happy to be seen in.” Beyond the aesthetics, contactless payment is a major draw. “When it’s as convenient as pulling out my phone and tapping on the screen, then I just do it almost subconsciously,” says Borg. “It’s a lot different to pulling out 13 coins.” People are more willing to pay for these “premium conveniences” says Hoon Han, a professor in city planning at the University of New South Wales. The laundromat-goers I spoke to spend about $12 to $23 a week on laundry, depending on how much washing they have. Related: Don’t tumble, don’t soften and wash less often: how to save money on laundry Han says retailers are increasingly adopting autonomous business models such as cashier-less payment or QR order codes. “These models provide more private, individualised experiences which lend itself to health, beauty and fitness services.” Says Faulkner: “There is definitely a call for [more modern] laundromats, and I think the old type, which they call ‘zombie-mats’, are dead.” Han says this new customer base “values time over space”, and enjoys more convenient and faster services. Consumer advocacy group Choice calculated that, based on a 10kg front loader washing machine, one wash costs 15c in electricity and water. This is compared to $6 at a laundromat. If you’re doing one load a week at the laundromat, then you would make up the price of Choice’s top ranked washing machine ($1,299) in about four years’ time. However, when you factor in the price of renting an apartment large enough to fit a machine into, the economics change. Laundromats can also be faster than doing the washing at home due to the design of commercial-grade machines, which are bigger and operate at faster speeds. Chris Barnes, a project manager from Choice, says generally they’re designed to do big loads “as quickly as possible”. He adds that smaller domestic models don’t have that same focus. Customers are in and out within an hour, with washing and drying each taking around half an hour. This is for two baskets’ worth of laundry. When James started a full-time job, she said her time became “far more important” to her. With the time she’s saved by using a laundromat, she’s able to do her weekly shop and still has time to unwind. Says Borg: “It’s money well spent to buy themselves some convenience.” Despite the fresh look, laundromats still have the quirks of any public space – other people. James says there have been several instances where she has questioned whether she should continue using the laundromat. There’s sometimes the realisation she’s picked up a piece of “intimate” clothing that’s not hers, which always gives her a feeling of “extreme ickiness”. And she once went to use a dryer and found a lollipop had melted through it.“I don’t think the look of a laundromat … will stop human beings from being disgusting,” says James. “It’s just integral to our being.”