Built to Serve: Five Laundromat Business Lessons from a New York City Second-generation Operator

Ask most people what it takes to run a laundromat business in New York City, and they’ll tell you it’s about location. Ask Christian Almonte, Vice President of Lav Express Laundromats (a 19-location operation spanning four boroughs), and he’ll tell you location is just where the conversation starts.

Christian recently sat down with Alliance Laundry Systems Senior Manager of Content and Creative Services, Randy Radtke, to share how you can grow in one of the country’s most demanding laundry markets. Their discussion includes:

• What drives steady demand in the New York City laundromat market
• Honest lessons from growing up in a second-generation laundromat business
• What it took to open a large-format laundromat in Queens
• How putting people first shapes the in-store experience and customer loyalty
• Why dependable equipment and smart store flow are the backbone of a successful operation

Lesson 1: Start from the Bottom, Even If You Don’t Have To

When Christian joined the family business fresh out of college, he expected a title and a desk. What his father gave him instead was a mop and a directive: show up every day and find something to do.

Looking back, he calls it the foundation of everything. Sweeping floors, working alongside employees, running tickets and visiting every store gave him a ground-level understanding of how the business actually operated, not how it looked from the outside. That perspective shapes every decision he makes today.

Lesson 2: Know Your Market Before You Sign a Lease

The New York City laundromat market has a reputation for being nearly foolproof: dense population, limited in-unit laundry, guaranteed foot traffic.

“Just because New York is big and has a lot of people doesn’t mean your store will be successful,” Christian shares. “You can lose your shirt here if you open in the wrong spot.”

Success in New York, and in any competitive urban laundry market, comes down to understanding the specific neighborhood you’re entering. Location is a starting point, but getting to know your market is the real work.

Lesson 3: Build for the Community, Not Just the Business Case

“We aren’t building stores just to say we have a certain number of stores. We’re building stores to serve. It starts with asking how we can impact the community and whether there’s a need for us there.” —Christian Almonte

That philosophy is most visible in Christian’s flagship store. Located in Jackson Heights, Queens, the space boasts 14,000 square feet, 132 washers, 126 dryers and murals by local artist Juan Da Vinci covering the walls. But no parking lot. This laundromat is instead designed specifically for the neighborhood nearby.

Commissioning artwork, thinking carefully about store flow and creating a space where people genuinely want to spend time; these aren’t just nice-to-haves. According to Christian, they’re what turns a laundromat into a neighborhood fixture. And neighborhood fixtures build the kind of loyal, repeat customer base that sustains a laundromat business through slow weeks and rent increases alike.

Lesson 4: Your Team Is the Business

When Randy visited the Queens location, what surprised him wasn’t just the size or the artwork. It was the staff. Christian credits that directly to the management culture Lav Express has built over time. Everyone is on the same page about what the standard is. Management understands it, communicates it and holds it. Front-line employees follow.

For operators who want to grow beyond a single location, this is where it gets real. Equipment, location and pricing all matter. But without a dependable team that shares your values and maintains your standard when you’re not in the building, scale becomes very hard to sustain.

Lesson 5: Focus on What You Can Control

The best advice Christian’s father ever gave him wasn’t about equipment or expansion strategy. It was simpler than that: stay humble and focus on what you can control.

In an industry where it’s easy to get caught up in how many locations someone else has, what systems they’re running or what the next big market looks like, that kind of focus is a genuine competitive advantage. Operators who concentrate on serving their existing customers well: maintaining clean stores, keeping equipment running, treating employees right, tend to build businesses that compound quietly and last.

Whether you have one location or nineteen, that’s the work. That’s what a laundromat business is really built on. Huebsch® is in the business of supporting operators who think exactly that way, with straightforward equipment and the kind of service partnership that’s there when you need it.

Tune in to Laundry Nerd Episode 58, “New York State of Mind” here, or find the Laundry Nerd Podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.