Would a coin laundromat pay for itself here?
The third Town Sim — a simulator, not a game. One attended coin laundromat — about 20 washers and 20 dryer pockets, someone on the floor twelve hours a day — budgeted in each of 29 US towns from the town’s own researched numbers (the same packs the Cybercab ladder and the fast-charger sim run on): how many households have no car, how many rent, what a service job pays here, what a commercial bay rents for, and the commercial electricity rate. The household counts are read out of the Census table the pack’s own no-car figure came from. Everything the model brings of its own is listed below and you can change every one of it.
pay back
within 7 years
1 pays back, 9 are marginal, 19 do not pay — attended twelve hours a day, under the default assumptions, with three competing stores assumed in every town.
The store is full in 19 of the 29 towns. Wherever more than a few thousand households sit inside a mile and a half, twenty washers cannot keep up, and the verdict stops being about demand: it is the local wage and the rent. The cheapest full store to staff and house is Charleston, WV — $81,544 a year in wages and rent — and it pays back fastest of all, in 6.5 years. At the other end, San Buenaventura (Ventura), CA is just as full and still loses money: $124,001 a year in wages and rent eats the same $174,720 of revenue.
10 towns cannot fill the store — Alturas, CA, Clifton, AZ, Cody, WY, Dover, TN, Ely, NV, Malta, MT, Presidio, TX, Scott City, KS, Winner, SD, Worland, WY. In a town of a few thousand people there are not enough no-car and renter households inside walking distance to cover twelve attended hours a day; the model does not invent the customers. Take away every competitor and 6 of them still cannot fill it; Cody, WY, Ely, NV, Winner, SD and Worland, WY would pay back or be marginal.
The attendant decides it. Run every town unattended — the same store, nobody on the floor — and 19 of 29 pay back, 1 more are marginal. The right-hand column of the ladder shows both. Whether a store can run unattended in a given town is exactly the thing this model cannot know.
Read it as a budget, not a forecast. The decisive inputs the packs do not carry — how many laundromats are already there, the wash price, the water rate — are typed estimates, printed in the register, and every one is in the calculator at the bottom; move them and watch which towns flip.
The ladder — all 29 towns, quickest payback first
| Town | Households in radius | Laundromat households | Loads a week, vs break-even | Local wage / hr | Rent a year | Net a year | Payback | Verdict, attended | Unattended |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charleston, WV46,117 people | 4,754 | 701 | 560 vs 480 (full) | $13.32 | $16,380 | $46,410 | 6.5 yr | Pays back | Pays back 2.7 yr |
| Columbia, MO130,851 people | 5,477 | 887 | 560 vs 499 (full) | $14.07 | $19,800 | $41,610 | 7.2 yr | Marginal | Pays back 2.7 yr |
| Quincy, IL38,918 people | 7,824 | 1,095 | 560 vs 498 (full) | $14.48 | $15,100 | $41,412 | 7.2 yr | Marginal | Pays back 2.7 yr |
| Santa Fe, NM89,837 people | 5,673 | 701 | 560 vs 543 (full) | $14.74 | $26,400 | $29,539 | 10.2 yr | Marginal | Pays back 3.0 yr |
| Fargo, ND136,275 people | 8,170 | 1,441 | 560 vs 549 (full) | $17.70 | $17,080 | $28,065 | 10.7 yr | Marginal | Pays back 2.6 yr |
| Las Vegas, NV679,817 people | 12,344 | 1,862 | 560 vs 552 (full) | $15.12 | $28,200 | $27,173 | 11.0 yr | Marginal | Pays back 3.0 yr |
| Asheville, NC93,523 people | 5,812 | 912 | 560 vs 561 (full) | $16.27 | $25,300 | $24,665 | 12.2 yr | Marginal | Pays back 2.9 yr |
| Wichita, KS400,987 people | 6,791 | 944 | 560 vs 564 (full) | $17.84 | $17,600 | $24,038 | 12.5 yr | Marginal | Pays back 2.7 yr |
| Stillwater, OK50,046 people | 4,664 | 871 | 560 vs 569 (full) | $18.84 | $17,100 | $22,485 | 13.3 yr | Marginal | Pays back 2.6 yr |
| Sarasota, FL58,458 people | 12,380 | 1,781 | 560 vs 570 (full) | $15.69 | $30,400 | $22,193 | 13.5 yr | Marginal | Pays back 3.0 yr |
| Buffalo, NY274,613 people | 20,943 | 4,588 | 560 vs 578 (full) | $16.13 | $18,880 | $20,370 | 14.7 yr | Does not pay | Pays back 3.0 yr |
| Boise City, ID238,429 people | 8,306 | 1,051 | 560 vs 581 (full) | $17.45 | $26,100 | $19,281 | 15.6 yr | Does not pay | Pays back 2.9 yr |
| Chicago, IL2,731,585 people | 36,009 | 8,142 | 560 vs 582 (full) | $16.96 | $25,980 | $19,037 | 15.8 yr | Does not pay | Pays back 2.9 yr |
| Nashville, TN721,074 people | 4,659 | 718 | 560 vs 607 (full) | $17.83 | $28,620 | $12,386 | 24.2 yr | Does not pay | Pays back 3.0 yr |
| Colorado Springs, CO494,743 people | 7,079 | 911 | 560 vs 616 (full) | $18.12 | $29,740 | $10,013 | 30.0 yr | Does not pay | Pays back 3.0 yr |
| Bend, OR107,342 people | 8,922 | 1,148 | 560 vs 623 (full) | $17.89 | $33,980 | $7,947 | 37.8 yr | Does not pay | Pays back 3.1 yr |
| Portland, ME69,911 people | 10,818 | 2,050 | 560 vs 638 (full) | $17.74 | $28,460 | $5,080 | 59.1 yr | Does not pay | Pays back 3.3 yr |
| Burlington, VT44,019 people | 12,009 | 2,342 | 560 vs 643 (full) | $18.10 | $29,760 | $3,618 | 82.9 yr | Does not pay | Pays back 3.3 yr |
| San Buenaventura (Ventura), CA109,914 people | 13,538 | 1,940 | 560 vs 681 (full) | $17.24 | $39,660 | −$5,430 | never | Does not pay | Pays back 3.8 yr |
| Cody, WY10,377 people | 3,294 | 348 | 273 vs 502 | $14.28 | $18,960 | −$36,908 | never | Does not pay | Marginal 9.1 yr |
| Worland, WY4,730 people | 2,215 | 236 | 179 vs 479 | $14.28 | $12,680 | −$55,971 | never | Does not pay | Does not pay 21.6 yr |
| Presidio, TX2,909 people | 1,066 | 108 | 82 vs 439 | $12.56 | $7,820 | −$69,629 | never | Does not pay | Does not pay never |
| Winner, SD2,969 people | 1,146 | 169 | 129 vs 499 | $15.00 | $13,900 | −$74,419 | never | Does not pay | Does not pay never |
| Ely, NV3,946 people | 1,503 | 173 | 143 vs 546 | $17.28 | $17,140 | −$84,697 | never | Does not pay | Does not pay never |
| Clifton, AZ3,752 people | 605 | 100 | 77 vs 498 | $15.26 | $10,960 | −$87,213 | never | Does not pay | Does not pay never |
| Dover, TN1,918 people | 689 | 74 | 60 vs 484 | $14.06 | $13,400 | −$88,156 | never | Does not pay | Does not pay never |
| Scott City, KS3,855 people | 1,837 | 187 | 143 vs 579 | $19.72 | $11,720 | −$91,930 | never | Does not pay | Does not pay 66.0 yr |
| Malta, MT1,846 people | 854 | 97 | 74 vs 530 | $16.89 | $11,380 | −$96,307 | never | Does not pay | Does not pay never |
| Alturas, CA2,634 people | 1,073 | 164 | 125 vs 666 | $18.03 | $15,040 | −$97,087 | never | Does not pay | Does not pay never |
Households in radius = the town’s occupied households × the share of its land area inside a 1.50-mile circle. Laundromat households = the no-car, renter and owner households inside it, each at its assumed share. Loads a week = what the model thinks the store would run after an even split with 3 assumed competitors, capped at what 20 washers can turn (“full”); break-even = the loads it needs to cover running costs and write the $300,000 opening cost off over 12 years. Unattended = the same town with attendant hours set to 0 and nothing else changed.
Town by town — every input, its source, and the arithmetic
Open a town. The first paragraph is the demand, the second the money, and the table is every number the town supplied with where it came from. The gaps are printed, not hidden.
Pays back Charleston, WV — 46,117 people · payback 6.5 yr · unattended 2.7 yr
Who would wash here. A 1.50-mile radius covers 23% of the town’s 31.4 square miles, so 4,754 of its 21,116 households are inside it: 591 with no car (50% of them counted as laundromat households → 295), 1,277 renters with a car (25% → 319) and 2,886 owners with a car (3% → 87). That is 701 laundromat households doing 3.0 loads a week each → 2,103 loads a week, plus 208.8 from visitors (1,140,000 a year, 2.0% of parties doing one load). Split evenly with the 3 other stores we assume inside the radius → 578 loads a week of demand for this store — more than 20 washers can turn, so the store is full at 560 loads a week.
The money. 560 loads a week × 52 × $6.00 a load = revenue $174,720. Electricity −$10,789 (3.0 kWh a load at 12.3¢); water and sewer −$10,483 (30 gal a load at $12.00 per 1,000); card fees −$3,494. An attendant on the floor 84 hours a week at the pack’s local wage of $13.32 an hour (+12% payroll burden) = −$65,164; rent −$16,380 (2,500 sq ft, from the pack’s $819-a-month 1,500 sq ft bay); repairs −$12,000; insurance −$4,000; everything else −$6,000. Net $46,410 a year. Break-even is 480 loads a week once the $300,000 opening cost is written off over 12 years. Payback: 6.5 years. Unattended (attendant hours set to 0, nothing else changed): net $111,573, payback 2.7 years.
The numbers this town supplied, and where each came from — Charleston, WV
| Input | Value | Basis | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| People living here | 46,117 people | sourced | US Census Bureau, Subcounty Population Estimates |
| How big the city is | 31.4 sq mi | sourced | US Census Bureau Gazetteer |
| People per square mile | 1,469 people/sq mi | derived | — How tightly packed the town is, which is what decides how far an average trip runs and how much empty driving there is between fares. |
| Occupied households | 21,116 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Renter-occupied households | 7,758 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Households with no vehicle | 2,623 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Share of households with no car | 0.1242 share | derived | — Households in Charleston, WV with no vehicle available. This is the strongest published local signal there is for who has to hire a ride, and it is the one number in this pack that most directly separates a town where ev |
| Renter households that do have a vehicle | 5,672 households | derived | — Renters with a car: the second-strongest laundromat customer group -- an apartment without hookups, but they can drive to the store. |
| Owner households that do have a vehicle | 12,821 households | derived | — Nearly all own a washer; a few use a laundromat for bulky loads or when a machine breaks. |
| What a car cleaner is paid here | 13.32 $/hour | sourced | US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024 |
| How this town's labour costs compare with the country | 0.785 x national | derived | — Everything a person does by hand costs roughly what a person costs here. This one ratio scales every cleaning price in the pack, and it is measured rather than guessed. |
| How this town's property costs compare with the country | 0.643 x national | derived | — Rent is the other half of a local cost. There is no published rent for small commercial bays anywhere in the country, so the pack uses the one property price that IS published for 32,330 places -- what people pay to rent |
| A small commercial bay, per month | 819 $/month | derived | — This is a derivation, not a local quote: a national published figure scaled by a published local index. Nobody publishes what a 1,500 square foot bay lets for in a town this size, because small commercial bays let privat |
| What this utility's business customers pay on average | 0.1235 $/kWh | derived | — The same calculation for the commercial class, which is the one a leased bay with a charger would be billed on. |
| Average business electricity price in this state | 0.1109 $/kWh | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A |
| Electric utility | Appalachian Power Co | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861 2024, service territory and sales to ultimate customers |
| Annual visitors | 1,140,000 visitors/year | derived | — Calendar year 2023 is the latest year Tourism Economics published both statewide visitor volume and Kanawha County spending; Charleston CVB does not publish a citywide annual visitor total. This is an overnight-oriented |
| Average visiting party size | 2.1 people | estimated | — Charleston’s visitor mix is high-school sports families, conventions, and medical/government trips, not solo backpackers; the CVB does not publish a party size. |
| What a household here earns in a year | 65,812 $/year | sourced | US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table B19013 |
| College enrollment | 3,032 students | sourced | University of Charleston |
Pack researched 2026-09-14 · federal cross-check of this pack: 9 confirmed, 0 disputed, 0 unconfirmed, 2 not checked · the full pack (80 records) · this town on the Cybercab ladder · the fast-charger sim for Charleston, WV · Change the assumptions for Charleston, WV ↓
Marginal Columbia, MO — 130,851 people · payback 7.2 yr · unattended 2.7 yr
Who would wash here. A 1.50-mile radius covers 10% of the town’s 67.8 square miles, so 5,477 of its 52,564 households are inside it: 389 with no car (50% of them counted as laundromat households → 194), 2,456 renters with a car (25% → 614) and 2,632 owners with a car (3% → 79). That is 887 laundromat households doing 3.0 loads a week each → 2,662 loads a week, plus 217.9 from visitors (1,700,000 a year, 2.0% of parties doing one load). Split evenly with the 3 other stores we assume inside the radius → 720 loads a week of demand for this store — more than 20 washers can turn, so the store is full at 560 loads a week.
The money. 560 loads a week × 52 × $6.00 a load = revenue $174,720. Electricity −$8,500 (3.0 kWh a load at 9.7¢); water and sewer −$10,483 (30 gal a load at $12.00 per 1,000); card fees −$3,494. An attendant on the floor 84 hours a week at the pack’s local wage of $14.07 an hour (+12% payroll burden) = −$68,833; rent −$19,800 (2,500 sq ft, from the pack’s $990-a-month 1,500 sq ft bay); repairs −$12,000; insurance −$4,000; everything else −$6,000. Net $41,610 a year. Break-even is 499 loads a week once the $300,000 opening cost is written off over 12 years. Payback: 7.2 years. Unattended (attendant hours set to 0, nothing else changed): net $110,442, payback 2.7 years.
The numbers this town supplied, and where each came from — Columbia, MO
| Input | Value | Basis | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| People living here | 130,851 people | sourced | US Census Bureau, Subcounty Population Estimates |
| How big the city is | 67.84 sq mi | sourced | US Census Bureau Gazetteer |
| People per square mile | 1,929 people/sq mi | derived | — How tightly packed the town is, which is what decides how far an average trip runs and how much empty driving there is between fares. |
| Occupied households | 52,564 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Renter-occupied households | 26,972 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Households with no vehicle | 3,732 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Share of households with no car | 0.071 share | derived | — Households in Columbia, MO with no vehicle available. This is the strongest published local signal there is for who has to hire a ride, and it is the one number in this pack that most directly separates a town where ever |
| Renter households that do have a vehicle | 23,574 households | derived | — Renters with a car: the second-strongest laundromat customer group -- an apartment without hookups, but they can drive to the store. |
| Owner households that do have a vehicle | 25,258 households | derived | — Nearly all own a washer; a few use a laundromat for bulky loads or when a machine breaks. |
| What a car cleaner is paid here | 14.07 $/hour | sourced | US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024 |
| How this town's labour costs compare with the country | 0.83 x national | derived | — Everything a person does by hand costs roughly what a person costs here. This one ratio scales every cleaning price in the pack, and it is measured rather than guessed. |
| How this town's property costs compare with the country | 0.776 x national | derived | — Rent is the other half of a local cost. There is no published rent for small commercial bays anywhere in the country, so the pack uses the one property price that IS published for 32,330 places -- what people pay to rent |
| A small commercial bay, per month | 990 $/month | derived | — This is a derivation, not a local quote: a national published figure scaled by a published local index. Nobody publishes what a 1,500 square foot bay lets for in a town this size, because small commercial bays let privat |
| What this utility's business customers pay on average | 0.0973 $/kWh | derived | — The same calculation for the commercial class, which is the one a leased bay with a charger would be billed on. |
| Average business electricity price in this state | 0.1271 $/kWh | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A |
| Electric utility | Union Electric Co - (MO) | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861 2024, service territory and sales to ultimate customers |
| Annual visitors | 1,700,000 visitors/year | sourced | Columbia Convention & Visitors Bureau / CSL International feasibility study |
| Average visiting party size | 3 people | sourced | Missouri Division of Tourism — 2024 Profile of Overnight Visitors from Nationwide Markets |
| What a household here earns in a year | 66,498 $/year | sourced | US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table B19013 |
| College enrollment | 34,201 students | derived | — Sum of the three colleges physically in the city: MU headcount plus Columbia College’s Columbia campus plus Stephens, not Columbia College’s nationwide total. |
Pack researched 2026-09-12 · federal cross-check of this pack: 6 confirmed, 0 disputed, 1 unconfirmed, 5 not checked · the full pack (80 records) · this town on the Cybercab ladder · the fast-charger sim for Columbia, MO · Change the assumptions for Columbia, MO ↓
Marginal Quincy, IL — 38,918 people · payback 7.2 yr · unattended 2.7 yr
Who would wash here. A 1.50-mile radius covers 44% of the town’s 15.9 square miles, so 7,824 of its 17,620 households are inside it: 829 with no car (50% of them counted as laundromat households → 415), 2,140 renters with a car (25% → 535) and 4,855 owners with a car (3% → 146). That is 1,095 laundromat households doing 3.0 loads a week each → 3,286 loads a week, plus 48.1 from visitors (250,000 a year, 2.0% of parties doing one load). Split evenly with the 3 other stores we assume inside the radius → 833 loads a week of demand for this store — more than 20 washers can turn, so the store is full at 560 loads a week.
The money. 560 loads a week × 52 × $6.00 a load = revenue $174,720. Electricity −$11,392 (3.0 kWh a load at 13.0¢); water and sewer −$10,483 (30 gal a load at $12.00 per 1,000); card fees −$3,494. An attendant on the floor 84 hours a week at the pack’s local wage of $14.48 an hour (+12% payroll burden) = −$70,838; rent −$15,100 (2,500 sq ft, from the pack’s $755-a-month 1,500 sq ft bay); repairs −$12,000; insurance −$4,000; everything else −$6,000. Net $41,412 a year. Break-even is 498 loads a week once the $300,000 opening cost is written off over 12 years. Payback: 7.2 years. Unattended (attendant hours set to 0, nothing else changed): net $112,251, payback 2.7 years.
The numbers this town supplied, and where each came from — Quincy, IL
| Input | Value | Basis | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| People living here | 38,918 people | sourced | US Census Bureau, Subcounty Population Estimates |
| How big the city is | 15.92 sq mi | sourced | US Census Bureau Gazetteer |
| People per square mile | 2,445 people/sq mi | derived | — How tightly packed the town is, which is what decides how far an average trip runs and how much empty driving there is between fares. |
| Occupied households | 17,620 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Renter-occupied households | 6,415 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Households with no vehicle | 1,867 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Share of households with no car | 0.106 share | derived | — Households in Quincy, IL with no vehicle available. This is the strongest published local signal there is for who has to hire a ride, and it is the one number in this pack that most directly separates a town where everyo |
| Renter households that do have a vehicle | 4,820 households | derived | — Renters with a car: the second-strongest laundromat customer group -- an apartment without hookups, but they can drive to the store. |
| Owner households that do have a vehicle | 10,933 households | derived | — Nearly all own a washer; a few use a laundromat for bulky loads or when a machine breaks. |
| What a car cleaner is paid here | 14.48 $/hour | sourced | US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024 |
| How this town's labour costs compare with the country | 0.854 x national | derived | — Everything a person does by hand costs roughly what a person costs here. This one ratio scales every cleaning price in the pack, and it is measured rather than guessed. |
| How this town's property costs compare with the country | 0.592 x national | derived | — Rent is the other half of a local cost. There is no published rent for small commercial bays anywhere in the country, so the pack uses the one property price that IS published for 32,330 places -- what people pay to rent |
| A small commercial bay, per month | 755 $/month | derived | — This is a derivation, not a local quote: a national published figure scaled by a published local index. Nobody publishes what a 1,500 square foot bay lets for in a town this size, because small commercial bays let privat |
| What this utility's business customers pay on average | 0.1304 $/kWh | derived | — The same calculation for the commercial class, which is the one a leased bay with a charger would be billed on. |
| Average business electricity price in this state | 0.1453 $/kWh | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A |
| Electric utility | Ameren Illinois Company | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861 2024, service territory and sales to ultimate customers |
| Annual visitors | 250,000 visitors | estimated | — SeeQuincy and Illinois tourism reports publish spending, not head-counts; Quincy has a modest visitor economy (architecture, river, events) but visitors do not dominate local ride-hail demand. |
| Average visiting party size | 2 people | estimated | — No local CVB figure; US leisure travel averages just over 2; Quincy’s mix of couples, families and small groups visiting historic sites and events is consistent with 2. |
| What a household here earns in a year | 56,480 $/year | sourced | US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table B19013 |
| City colleges total enrollment | 3,271 students | derived | — Sum of the three degree-granting institutions physically in Quincy; JWCC figure is institution-wide (satellites in Pittsfield etc.) so city-campus share is a bit lower. |
Pack researched 2026-09-09 · federal cross-check of this pack: 4 confirmed, 0 disputed, 2 unconfirmed, 4 not checked · the full pack (79 records) · this town on the Cybercab ladder · the fast-charger sim for Quincy, IL · Change the assumptions for Quincy, IL ↓
Marginal Santa Fe, NM — 89,837 people · payback 10.2 yr · unattended 3.0 yr
Who would wash here. A 1.50-mile radius covers 14% of the town’s 52.2 square miles, so 5,673 of its 41,921 households are inside it: 253 with no car (50% of them counted as laundromat households → 126), 1,872 renters with a car (25% → 468) and 3,548 owners with a car (3% → 106). That is 701 laundromat households doing 3.0 loads a week each → 2,103 loads a week, plus 320.5 from visitors (2,000,000 a year, 2.0% of parties doing one load). Split evenly with the 3 other stores we assume inside the radius → 606 loads a week of demand for this store — more than 20 washers can turn, so the store is full at 560 loads a week.
The money. 560 loads a week × 52 × $6.00 a load = revenue $174,720. Electricity −$10,693 (3.0 kWh a load at 12.2¢); water and sewer −$10,483 (30 gal a load at $12.00 per 1,000); card fees −$3,494. An attendant on the floor 84 hours a week at the pack’s local wage of $14.74 an hour (+12% payroll burden) = −$72,110; rent −$26,400 (2,500 sq ft, from the pack’s $1,320-a-month 1,500 sq ft bay); repairs −$12,000; insurance −$4,000; everything else −$6,000. Net $29,539 a year. Break-even is 543 loads a week once the $300,000 opening cost is written off over 12 years. Payback: 10.2 years. Unattended (attendant hours set to 0, nothing else changed): net $101,650, payback 3.0 years.
The numbers this town supplied, and where each came from — Santa Fe, NM
| Input | Value | Basis | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| People living here | 89,837 people | sourced | US Census Bureau, Subcounty Population Estimates |
| How big the city is | 52.23 sq mi | sourced | US Census Bureau Gazetteer |
| People per square mile | 1,720 people/sq mi | derived | — How tightly packed the town is, which is what decides how far an average trip runs and how much empty driving there is between fares. |
| Occupied households | 41,921 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Renter-occupied households | 15,275 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Households with no vehicle | 1,869 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Share of households with no car | 0.0446 share | derived | — Households in Santa Fe, NM with no vehicle available. This is the strongest published local signal there is for who has to hire a ride, and it is the one number in this pack that most directly separates a town where ever |
| Renter households that do have a vehicle | 13,835 households | derived | — Renters with a car: the second-strongest laundromat customer group -- an apartment without hookups, but they can drive to the store. |
| Owner households that do have a vehicle | 26,217 households | derived | — Nearly all own a washer; a few use a laundromat for bulky loads or when a machine breaks. |
| What a car cleaner is paid here | 14.74 $/hour | sourced | US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024 |
| How this town's labour costs compare with the country | 0.869 x national | derived | — Everything a person does by hand costs roughly what a person costs here. This one ratio scales every cleaning price in the pack, and it is measured rather than guessed. |
| How this town's property costs compare with the country | 1.035 x national | derived | — Rent is the other half of a local cost. There is no published rent for small commercial bays anywhere in the country, so the pack uses the one property price that IS published for 32,330 places -- what people pay to rent |
| A small commercial bay, per month | 1,320 $/month | derived | — This is a derivation, not a local quote: a national published figure scaled by a published local index. Nobody publishes what a 1,500 square foot bay lets for in a town this size, because small commercial bays let privat |
| What this utility's business customers pay on average | 0.1224 $/kWh | derived | — The same calculation for the commercial class, which is the one a leased bay with a charger would be billed on. |
| Average business electricity price in this state | 0.1082 $/kWh | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A |
| Electric utility | Public Service Co of NM | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861 2024, service territory and sales to ultimate customers |
| Annual overnight visitors | 2,000,000 visitors/year | sourced | TOURISM Santa Fe City Profile |
| Average visiting party size | 2.4 people | estimated | — Tourism Santa Fe's visitor household-size chart is dominated by 1–2 person parties and the destination is marketed to older affluent couples, so parties share a car; this is not a solo-backpacker town. |
| What a household here earns in a year | 73,482 $/year | sourced | US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table B19013 |
| College enrollment | 6,172 students | derived | — Sum of the four degree-granting campuses inside/at the city: SFCC, St. John's Santa Fe, Southwestern College, and IAIA. Excludes a 55-student cosmetology school. |
Pack researched 2026-09-14 · federal cross-check of this pack: 10 confirmed, 0 disputed, 0 unconfirmed, 3 not checked · the full pack (80 records) · this town on the Cybercab ladder · the fast-charger sim for Santa Fe, NM · Change the assumptions for Santa Fe, NM ↓
Marginal Fargo, ND — 136,275 people · payback 10.7 yr · unattended 2.6 yr
Who would wash here. A 1.50-mile radius covers 14% of the town’s 51.9 square miles, so 8,170 of its 59,970 households are inside it: 676 with no car (50% of them counted as laundromat households → 338), 3,990 renters with a car (25% → 997) and 3,503 owners with a car (3% → 105). That is 1,441 laundromat households doing 3.0 loads a week each → 4,322 loads a week, plus 1,499.2 from visitors (8,185,600 a year, 2.0% of parties doing one load). Split evenly with the 3 other stores we assume inside the radius → 1,455 loads a week of demand for this store — more than 20 washers can turn, so the store is full at 560 loads a week.
The money. 560 loads a week × 52 × $6.00 a load = revenue $174,720. Electricity −$7,006 (3.0 kWh a load at 8.0¢ state average); water and sewer −$10,483 (30 gal a load at $12.00 per 1,000); card fees −$3,494. An attendant on the floor 84 hours a week at the pack’s local wage of $17.70 an hour (+12% payroll burden) = −$86,591; rent −$17,080 (2,500 sq ft, from the pack’s $854-a-month 1,500 sq ft bay); repairs −$12,000; insurance −$4,000; everything else −$6,000. Net $28,065 a year. Break-even is 549 loads a week once the $300,000 opening cost is written off over 12 years. Payback: 10.7 years. Unattended (attendant hours set to 0, nothing else changed): net $114,656, payback 2.6 years.
The numbers this town supplied, and where each came from — Fargo, ND
| Input | Value | Basis | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| People living here | 136,275 people | sourced | US Census Bureau, Subcounty Population Estimates |
| How big the city is | 51.89 sq mi | sourced | US Census Bureau Gazetteer |
| People per square mile | 2,626 people/sq mi | derived | — How tightly packed the town is, which is what decides how far an average trip runs and how much empty driving there is between fares. |
| Occupied households | 59,970 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Renter-occupied households | 33,770 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Households with no vehicle | 4,965 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Share of households with no car | 0.0828 share | derived | — Households in Fargo, ND with no vehicle available. This is the strongest published local signal there is for who has to hire a ride, and it is the one number in this pack that most directly separates a town where everyon |
| Renter households that do have a vehicle | 29,288 households | derived | — Renters with a car: the second-strongest laundromat customer group -- an apartment without hookups, but they can drive to the store. |
| Owner households that do have a vehicle | 25,717 households | derived | — Nearly all own a washer; a few use a laundromat for bulky loads or when a machine breaks. |
| What a car cleaner is paid here | 17.7 $/hour | sourced | US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024 |
| How this town's labour costs compare with the country | 1.044 x national | derived | — Everything a person does by hand costs roughly what a person costs here. This one ratio scales every cleaning price in the pack, and it is measured rather than guessed. |
| How this town's property costs compare with the country | 0.669 x national | derived | — Rent is the other half of a local cost. There is no published rent for small commercial bays anywhere in the country, so the pack uses the one property price that IS published for 32,330 places -- what people pay to rent |
| A small commercial bay, per month | 854 $/month | derived | — This is a derivation, not a local quote: a national published figure scaled by a published local index. Nobody publishes what a 1,500 square foot bay lets for in a town this size, because small commercial bays let privat |
| Average business electricity price in this state | 0.0802 $/kWh | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A |
| Electric utility | Xcel Energy (Northern States Power Company) | sourced | City of Fargo Board of City Commissioners |
| Annual visitors (2025) | 8,185,600 person-trips/year | derived | — Calendar year 2025, Cass County (Fargo's county): Tourism Economics visitor spending of $1,080.5 million divided by the state's $132 spending per visitor. This is county person-trips, not a Fargo-city unique-headcount — |
| Average visiting party size | 2.1 people | estimated | — Visit Fargo-Moorhead does not publish party size; 2.1 is a local step-down from the national overnight-party average of about 3, because Fargo mixes sports families with solo medical and business travelers who share one |
| What a household here earns in a year | 66,998 $/year | sourced | US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table B19013 |
| College enrollment | 12,235 students | sourced | College Evaluator (IPEDS) |
Gaps in this town's inputs: The pack has no commercial rate for the town's own utility, so the model prices electricity at the state's commercial average (8.0¢ a kWh).
Pack researched 2026-09-14 · federal cross-check of this pack: 8 confirmed, 0 disputed, 0 unconfirmed, 5 not checked · the full pack (76 records) · this town on the Cybercab ladder · the fast-charger sim for Fargo, ND · Change the assumptions for Fargo, ND ↓
Marginal Las Vegas, NV — 679,817 people · payback 11.0 yr · unattended 3.0 yr
Who would wash here. A 1.50-mile radius covers 5% of the town’s 141.9 square miles, so 12,344 of its 247,741 households are inside it: 1,094 with no car (50% of them counted as laundromat households → 547), 4,443 renters with a car (25% → 1,111) and 6,807 owners with a car (3% → 204). That is 1,862 laundromat households doing 3.0 loads a week each → 5,586 loads a week, plus 6,678.9 from visitors (41,676,300 a year, 2.0% of parties doing one load). Split evenly with the 3 other stores we assume inside the radius → 3,066 loads a week of demand for this store — more than 20 washers can turn, so the store is full at 560 loads a week.
The money. 560 loads a week × 52 × $6.00 a load = revenue $174,720. Electricity −$9,400 (3.0 kWh a load at 10.8¢); water and sewer −$10,483 (30 gal a load at $12.00 per 1,000); card fees −$3,494. An attendant on the floor 84 hours a week at the pack’s local wage of $15.12 an hour (+12% payroll burden) = −$73,969; rent −$28,200 (2,500 sq ft, from the pack’s $1,410-a-month 1,500 sq ft bay); repairs −$12,000; insurance −$4,000; everything else −$6,000. Net $27,173 a year. Break-even is 552 loads a week once the $300,000 opening cost is written off over 12 years. Payback: 11.0 years. Unattended (attendant hours set to 0, nothing else changed): net $101,142, payback 3.0 years.
The numbers this town supplied, and where each came from — Las Vegas, NV
| Input | Value | Basis | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| People living here | 679,817 people | sourced | US Census Bureau, Subcounty Population Estimates |
| How big the city is | 141.9 sq mi | sourced | US Census Bureau Gazetteer |
| People per square mile | 4,792 people/sq mi | derived | — How tightly packed the town is, which is what decides how far an average trip runs and how much empty driving there is between fares. |
| Occupied households | 247,741 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Renter-occupied households | 107,416 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Households with no vehicle | 21,959 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Share of households with no car | 0.0886 share | derived | — Households in Las Vegas, NV with no vehicle available. This is the strongest published local signal there is for who has to hire a ride, and it is the one number in this pack that most directly separates a town where eve |
| Renter households that do have a vehicle | 89,164 households | derived | — Renters with a car: the second-strongest laundromat customer group -- an apartment without hookups, but they can drive to the store. |
| Owner households that do have a vehicle | 136,618 households | derived | — Nearly all own a washer; a few use a laundromat for bulky loads or when a machine breaks. |
| What a car cleaner is paid here | 15.12 $/hour | sourced | US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024 |
| How this town's labour costs compare with the country | 0.892 x national | derived | — Everything a person does by hand costs roughly what a person costs here. This one ratio scales every cleaning price in the pack, and it is measured rather than guessed. |
| How this town's property costs compare with the country | 1.106 x national | derived | — Rent is the other half of a local cost. There is no published rent for small commercial bays anywhere in the country, so the pack uses the one property price that IS published for 32,330 places -- what people pay to rent |
| A small commercial bay, per month | 1,410 $/month | derived | — This is a derivation, not a local quote: a national published figure scaled by a published local index. Nobody publishes what a 1,500 square foot bay lets for in a town this size, because small commercial bays let privat |
| What this utility's business customers pay on average | 0.1076 $/kWh | derived | — The same calculation for the commercial class, which is the one a leased bay with a charger would be billed on. |
| Average business electricity price in this state | 0.0983 $/kWh | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A |
| Electric utility | Nevada Power Co | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861 2024, service territory and sales to ultimate customers |
| Annual visitors | 41,676,300 people | estimated | — LVCVA (the official convention and visitor authority) year-end 2024 count; in a tourist city visitors, not residents, dominate ride-hail demand. Unconfirmed -- treated as our estimate. |
| Average visiting party size | 2.4 people | sourced | LVCVA / Heart+Mind Strategies |
| What a household here earns in a year | 73,877 $/year | sourced | US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table B19013 |
| College enrollment | 64,229 students | derived | — Combined Fall 2025 unduplicated headcount at UNLV and CSN, the two public colleges that serve Las Vegas. UNLV's campus is in Paradise just outside city limits; CSN has campuses in Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson |
Pack researched 2026-09-09 · federal cross-check of this pack: 4 confirmed, 0 disputed, 0 unconfirmed, 3 not checked · the full pack (78 records) · this town on the Cybercab ladder · the fast-charger sim for Las Vegas, NV · Change the assumptions for Las Vegas, NV ↓
Marginal Asheville, NC — 93,523 people · payback 12.2 yr · unattended 2.9 yr
Who would wash here. A 1.50-mile radius covers 16% of the town’s 45.5 square miles, so 5,812 of its 37,394 households are inside it: 443 with no car (50% of them counted as laundromat households → 222), 2,406 renters with a car (25% → 602) and 2,963 owners with a car (3% → 89). That is 912 laundromat households doing 3.0 loads a week each → 2,736 loads a week, plus 2,138.5 from visitors (13,900,000 a year, 2.0% of parties doing one load). Split evenly with the 3 other stores we assume inside the radius → 1,219 loads a week of demand for this store — more than 20 washers can turn, so the store is full at 560 loads a week.
The money. 560 loads a week × 52 × $6.00 a load = revenue $174,720. Electricity −$9,182 (3.0 kWh a load at 10.5¢ state average); water and sewer −$10,483 (30 gal a load at $12.00 per 1,000); card fees −$3,494. An attendant on the floor 84 hours a week at the pack’s local wage of $16.27 an hour (+12% payroll burden) = −$79,595; rent −$25,300 (2,500 sq ft, from the pack’s $1,265-a-month 1,500 sq ft bay); repairs −$12,000; insurance −$4,000; everything else −$6,000. Net $24,665 a year. Break-even is 561 loads a week once the $300,000 opening cost is written off over 12 years. Payback: 12.2 years. Unattended (attendant hours set to 0, nothing else changed): net $104,261, payback 2.9 years.
The numbers this town supplied, and where each came from — Asheville, NC
| Input | Value | Basis | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| People living here | 93,523 people | sourced | US Census Bureau, Subcounty Population Estimates |
| How big the city is | 45.48 sq mi | sourced | US Census Bureau Gazetteer |
| People per square mile | 2,056 people/sq mi | derived | — How tightly packed the town is, which is what decides how far an average trip runs and how much empty driving there is between fares. |
| Occupied households | 37,394 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Renter-occupied households | 17,981 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Households with no vehicle | 2,851 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Share of households with no car | 0.0762 share | derived | — Households in Asheville, NC with no vehicle available. This is the strongest published local signal there is for who has to hire a ride, and it is the one number in this pack that most directly separates a town where eve |
| Renter households that do have a vehicle | 15,481 households | derived | — Renters with a car: the second-strongest laundromat customer group -- an apartment without hookups, but they can drive to the store. |
| Owner households that do have a vehicle | 19,062 households | derived | — Nearly all own a washer; a few use a laundromat for bulky loads or when a machine breaks. |
| What a car cleaner is paid here | 16.27 $/hour | sourced | US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024 |
| How this town's labour costs compare with the country | 0.959 x national | derived | — Everything a person does by hand costs roughly what a person costs here. This one ratio scales every cleaning price in the pack, and it is measured rather than guessed. |
| How this town's property costs compare with the country | 0.992 x national | derived | — Rent is the other half of a local cost. There is no published rent for small commercial bays anywhere in the country, so the pack uses the one property price that IS published for 32,330 places -- what people pay to rent |
| A small commercial bay, per month | 1,265 $/month | derived | — This is a derivation, not a local quote: a national published figure scaled by a published local index. Nobody publishes what a 1,500 square foot bay lets for in a town this size, because small commercial bays let privat |
| Average business electricity price in this state | 0.1051 $/kWh | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A |
| Electric utility serving Asheville | Duke Energy Progress | sourced | Duke Energy News Center |
| Annual visitors | 13,900,000 visitors/year | estimated | — Explore Asheville / Tourism Economics visitor volume for calendar year 2023, the most recent complete year with a published headcount (Asheville is defined in that study as Buncombe County; 2024 spending was released wit |
| Average visiting party size | 2.5 people | sourced | Visit North Carolina, 2024 North Carolina Visitor Profile |
| What a household here earns in a year | 71,102 $/year | sourced | US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table B19013 |
| College enrollment | 9,566 students | derived | — Sum of the two colleges physically in the city; Warren Wilson is in Swannanoa and is excluded. Both inputs are IPEDS-style figures republished by third parties, not the registrars' own pages. |
Gaps in this town's inputs: The pack has no commercial rate for the town's own utility, so the model prices electricity at the state's commercial average (10.5¢ a kWh).
Pack researched 2026-09-14 · federal cross-check of this pack: 8 confirmed, 0 disputed, 0 unconfirmed, 4 not checked · the full pack (78 records) · this town on the Cybercab ladder · the fast-charger sim for Asheville, NC · Change the assumptions for Asheville, NC ↓
Marginal Wichita, KS — 400,987 people · payback 12.5 yr · unattended 2.7 yr
Who would wash here. A 1.50-mile radius covers 4% of the town’s 165.1 square miles, so 6,791 of its 158,589 households are inside it: 433 with no car (50% of them counted as laundromat households → 216), 2,440 renters with a car (25% → 610) and 3,918 owners with a car (3% → 118). That is 944 laundromat households doing 3.0 loads a week each → 2,832 loads a week, plus 1,170.6 from visitors (7,000,000 a year, 2.0% of parties doing one load). Split evenly with the 3 other stores we assume inside the radius → 1,001 loads a week of demand for this store — more than 20 washers can turn, so the store is full at 560 loads a week.
The money. 560 loads a week × 52 × $6.00 a load = revenue $174,720. Electricity −$9,828 (3.0 kWh a load at 11.2¢); water and sewer −$10,483 (30 gal a load at $12.00 per 1,000); card fees −$3,494. An attendant on the floor 84 hours a week at the pack’s local wage of $17.84 an hour (+12% payroll burden) = −$87,276; rent −$17,600 (2,500 sq ft, from the pack’s $880-a-month 1,500 sq ft bay); repairs −$12,000; insurance −$4,000; everything else −$6,000. Net $24,038 a year. Break-even is 564 loads a week once the $300,000 opening cost is written off over 12 years. Payback: 12.5 years. Unattended (attendant hours set to 0, nothing else changed): net $111,314, payback 2.7 years.
The numbers this town supplied, and where each came from — Wichita, KS
| Input | Value | Basis | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| People living here | 400,987 people | sourced | US Census Bureau, Subcounty Population Estimates |
| How big the city is | 165.1 sq mi | sourced | US Census Bureau Gazetteer |
| People per square mile | 2,429 people/sq mi | derived | — How tightly packed the town is, which is what decides how far an average trip runs and how much empty driving there is between fares. |
| Occupied households | 158,589 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Renter-occupied households | 65,216 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Households with no vehicle | 10,106 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Share of households with no car | 0.0637 share | derived | — Households in Wichita, KS with no vehicle available. This is the strongest published local signal there is for who has to hire a ride, and it is the one number in this pack that most directly separates a town where every |
| Renter households that do have a vehicle | 56,986 households | derived | — Renters with a car: the second-strongest laundromat customer group -- an apartment without hookups, but they can drive to the store. |
| Owner households that do have a vehicle | 91,497 households | derived | — Nearly all own a washer; a few use a laundromat for bulky loads or when a machine breaks. |
| What a car cleaner is paid here | 17.84 $/hour | sourced | US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024 |
| How this town's labour costs compare with the country | 1.052 x national | derived | — Everything a person does by hand costs roughly what a person costs here. This one ratio scales every cleaning price in the pack, and it is measured rather than guessed. |
| How this town's property costs compare with the country | 0.69 x national | derived | — Rent is the other half of a local cost. There is no published rent for small commercial bays anywhere in the country, so the pack uses the one property price that IS published for 32,330 places -- what people pay to rent |
| A small commercial bay, per month | 880 $/month | derived | — This is a derivation, not a local quote: a national published figure scaled by a published local index. Nobody publishes what a 1,500 square foot bay lets for in a town this size, because small commercial bays let privat |
| What this utility's business customers pay on average | 0.1125 $/kWh | derived | — The same calculation for the commercial class, which is the one a leased bay with a charger would be billed on. |
| Average business electricity price in this state | 0.1227 $/kWh | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A |
| Electric utility | Evergy Kansas South, Inc | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861 2024, service territory and sales to ultimate customers |
| Annual visitors | 7,000,000 visitors/year | sourced | Visit Wichita |
| Average visiting party size | 2.3 people | estimated | — Visit Wichita did not publish party size; 2.3 is a drive-market estimate below Kansas City’s published 2.8, not 1, because Wichita visitors are families, couples, and sports groups rather than solo travelers. |
| What a household here earns in a year | 64,620 $/year | sourced | US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table B19013 |
| College enrollment | 30,244 students | derived | — Fall 2025 headcount across Wichita's four main colleges: WSU, WSU Tech, Newman and Friends. Omits smaller vocational schools, so slightly conservative as a city-wide total. |
Pack researched 2026-09-09 · federal cross-check of this pack: 6 confirmed, 2 disputed, 0 unconfirmed, 1 not checked · the full pack (79 records) · this town on the Cybercab ladder · the fast-charger sim for Wichita, KS · Change the assumptions for Wichita, KS ↓
Marginal Stillwater, OK — 50,046 people · payback 13.3 yr · unattended 2.6 yr
Who would wash here. A 1.50-mile radius covers 24% of the town’s 29.8 square miles, so 4,664 of its 19,654 households are inside it: 319 with no car (50% of them counted as laundromat households → 159), 2,640 renters with a car (25% → 660) and 1,705 owners with a car (3% → 51). That is 871 laundromat households doing 3.0 loads a week each → 2,612 loads a week, plus 73.3 from visitors (400,000 a year, 2.0% of parties doing one load). Split evenly with the 3 other stores we assume inside the radius → 671 loads a week of demand for this store — more than 20 washers can turn, so the store is full at 560 loads a week.
The money. 560 loads a week × 52 × $6.00 a load = revenue $174,720. Electricity −$6,989 (3.0 kWh a load at 8.0¢); water and sewer −$10,483 (30 gal a load at $12.00 per 1,000); card fees −$3,494. An attendant on the floor 84 hours a week at the pack’s local wage of $18.84 an hour (+12% payroll burden) = −$92,168; rent −$17,100 (2,500 sq ft, from the pack’s $855-a-month 1,500 sq ft bay); repairs −$12,000; insurance −$4,000; everything else −$6,000. Net $22,485 a year. Break-even is 569 loads a week once the $300,000 opening cost is written off over 12 years. Payback: 13.3 years. Unattended (attendant hours set to 0, nothing else changed): net $114,654, payback 2.6 years.
The numbers this town supplied, and where each came from — Stillwater, OK
| Input | Value | Basis | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| People living here | 50,046 people | sourced | US Census Bureau, Subcounty Population Estimates |
| How big the city is | 29.79 sq mi | sourced | US Census Bureau Gazetteer |
| People per square mile | 1,680 people/sq mi | derived | — How tightly packed the town is, which is what decides how far an average trip runs and how much empty driving there is between fares. |
| Occupied households | 19,654 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Renter-occupied households | 12,362 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Households with no vehicle | 1,343 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Share of households with no car | 0.0683 share | derived | — Households in Stillwater, OK with no vehicle available. This is the strongest published local signal there is for who has to hire a ride, and it is the one number in this pack that most directly separates a town where ev |
| Renter households that do have a vehicle | 11,127 households | derived | — Renters with a car: the second-strongest laundromat customer group -- an apartment without hookups, but they can drive to the store. |
| Owner households that do have a vehicle | 7,184 households | derived | — Nearly all own a washer; a few use a laundromat for bulky loads or when a machine breaks. |
| What a car cleaner is paid here | 18.84 $/hour | sourced | US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024 |
| How this town's labour costs compare with the country | 1.111 x national | derived | — Everything a person does by hand costs roughly what a person costs here. This one ratio scales every cleaning price in the pack, and it is measured rather than guessed. |
| How this town's property costs compare with the country | 0.67 x national | derived | — Rent is the other half of a local cost. There is no published rent for small commercial bays anywhere in the country, so the pack uses the one property price that IS published for 32,330 places -- what people pay to rent |
| A small commercial bay, per month | 855 $/month | derived | — This is a derivation, not a local quote: a national published figure scaled by a published local index. Nobody publishes what a 1,500 square foot bay lets for in a town this size, because small commercial bays let privat |
| What this utility's business customers pay on average | 0.08 $/kWh | derived | — The same calculation for the commercial class, which is the one a leased bay with a charger would be billed on. |
| Average business electricity price in this state | 0.099 $/kWh | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A |
| Electric utility | Oklahoma Gas & Electric Co | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861 2024, service territory and sales to ultimate customers |
| Annual visitors | 400,000 person-trips/year | derived | — Visit Stillwater does not publish a citywide annual visitor count, only grant-supported event counts, so calendar-year 2024 lodging occupancy is the last complete year that can be turned into people; using a different ye |
| Average visiting party size | 2.1 people | sourced | Dean Runyan Associates / Oklahoma Tourism & Recreation Department |
| What a household here earns in a year | 43,700 $/year | sourced | US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table B19013 |
| College enrollment | 29,355 students | derived | — Sum of the two colleges actually in the city: OSU-Stillwater plus Northern Oklahoma College's Stillwater site. |
Pack researched 2026-09-09 · federal cross-check of this pack: 8 confirmed, 0 disputed, 0 unconfirmed, 5 not checked · the full pack (80 records) · this town on the Cybercab ladder · the fast-charger sim for Stillwater, OK · Change the assumptions for Stillwater, OK ↓
Marginal Sarasota, FL — 58,458 people · payback 13.5 yr · unattended 3.0 yr
Who would wash here. A 1.50-mile radius covers 48% of the town’s 14.7 square miles, so 12,380 of its 25,751 households are inside it: 832 with no car (50% of them counted as laundromat households → 416), 4,628 renters with a car (25% → 1,157) and 6,920 owners with a car (3% → 208). That is 1,781 laundromat households doing 3.0 loads a week each → 5,342 loads a week, plus 359.5 from visitors (2,710,700 a year, 2.0% of parties doing one load). Split evenly with the 3 other stores we assume inside the radius → 1,425 loads a week of demand for this store — more than 20 washers can turn, so the store is full at 560 loads a week.
The money. 560 loads a week × 52 × $6.00 a load = revenue $174,720. Electricity −$9,391 (3.0 kWh a load at 10.8¢); water and sewer −$10,483 (30 gal a load at $12.00 per 1,000); card fees −$3,494. An attendant on the floor 84 hours a week at the pack’s local wage of $15.69 an hour (+12% payroll burden) = −$76,758; rent −$30,400 (2,500 sq ft, from the pack’s $1,520-a-month 1,500 sq ft bay); repairs −$12,000; insurance −$4,000; everything else −$6,000. Net $22,193 a year. Break-even is 570 loads a week once the $300,000 opening cost is written off over 12 years. Payback: 13.5 years. Unattended (attendant hours set to 0, nothing else changed): net $98,951, payback 3.0 years.
The numbers this town supplied, and where each came from — Sarasota, FL
| Input | Value | Basis | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| People living here | 58,458 people | sourced | US Census Bureau, Subcounty Population Estimates |
| How big the city is | 14.7 sq mi | sourced | US Census Bureau Gazetteer |
| People per square mile | 3,976 people/sq mi | derived | — How tightly packed the town is, which is what decides how far an average trip runs and how much empty driving there is between fares. |
| Occupied households | 25,751 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Renter-occupied households | 10,952 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Households with no vehicle | 1,731 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Share of households with no car | 0.0672 share | derived | — Households in Sarasota, FL with no vehicle available. This is the strongest published local signal there is for who has to hire a ride, and it is the one number in this pack that most directly separates a town where ever |
| Renter households that do have a vehicle | 9,626 households | derived | — Renters with a car: the second-strongest laundromat customer group -- an apartment without hookups, but they can drive to the store. |
| Owner households that do have a vehicle | 14,394 households | derived | — Nearly all own a washer; a few use a laundromat for bulky loads or when a machine breaks. |
| What a car cleaner is paid here | 15.69 $/hour | sourced | US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024 |
| How this town's labour costs compare with the country | 0.925 x national | derived | — Everything a person does by hand costs roughly what a person costs here. This one ratio scales every cleaning price in the pack, and it is measured rather than guessed. |
| How this town's property costs compare with the country | 1.192 x national | derived | — Rent is the other half of a local cost. There is no published rent for small commercial bays anywhere in the country, so the pack uses the one property price that IS published for 32,330 places -- what people pay to rent |
| A small commercial bay, per month | 1,520 $/month | derived | — This is a derivation, not a local quote: a national published figure scaled by a published local index. Nobody publishes what a 1,500 square foot bay lets for in a town this size, because small commercial bays let privat |
| What this utility's business customers pay on average | 0.1075 $/kWh | derived | — The same calculation for the commercial class, which is the one a leased bay with a charger would be billed on. |
| Average business electricity price in this state | 0.1147 $/kWh | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A |
| Electric utility | Florida Power & Light Co | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861 2024, service territory and sales to ultimate customers |
| Annual visitors | 2,710,700 visitors/year | estimated | — Visit Sarasota County's FY 2025 figure (October 1, 2024–September 30, 2025): 2,710,700 visitors to Sarasota County, not the City of Sarasota, and not a calendar year — the CVB does not publish a calendar-year total. Incl |
| Average visiting party size | 2.9 people | estimated | — Visit Sarasota County FY 2025 visitor profile: 2.9 people per party for visitors staying in paid accommodations. Couples are 43% of parties; only 15% travel single. A party shares one car, so visitors ≠ rides. Unconfirme |
| What a household here earns in a year | 72,105 $/year | sourced | US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table B19013 |
| College enrollment | 5,509 students | estimated | — Sum of IPEDS-reported enrollment at schools listed in Sarasota plus the ~1,000 USF students still finishing degrees on the campus New College took over in July 2026. |
Pack researched 2026-09-12 · federal cross-check of this pack: 7 confirmed, 0 disputed, 0 unconfirmed, 5 not checked · the full pack (80 records) · this town on the Cybercab ladder · the fast-charger sim for Sarasota, FL · Change the assumptions for Sarasota, FL ↓
Does not pay Buffalo, NY — 274,613 people · payback 14.7 yr · unattended 3.0 yr
Who would wash here. A 1.50-mile radius covers 18% of the town’s 40.4 square miles, so 20,943 of its 119,630 households are inside it: 4,732 with no car (50% of them counted as laundromat households → 2,366), 7,887 renters with a car (25% → 1,972) and 8,325 owners with a car (3% → 250). That is 4,588 laundromat households doing 3.0 loads a week each → 13,763 loads a week, plus 942.9 from visitors (7,600,000 a year, 2.0% of parties doing one load). Split evenly with the 3 other stores we assume inside the radius → 3,676 loads a week of demand for this store — more than 20 washers can turn, so the store is full at 560 loads a week.
The money. 560 loads a week × 52 × $6.00 a load = revenue $174,720. Electricity −$20,582 (3.0 kWh a load at 23.6¢ state average); water and sewer −$10,483 (30 gal a load at $12.00 per 1,000); card fees −$3,494. An attendant on the floor 84 hours a week at the pack’s local wage of $16.13 an hour (+12% payroll burden) = −$78,911; rent −$18,880 (2,500 sq ft, from the pack’s $944-a-month 1,500 sq ft bay); repairs −$12,000; insurance −$4,000; everything else −$6,000. Net $20,370 a year. Break-even is 578 loads a week once the $300,000 opening cost is written off over 12 years. Payback: 14.7 years. Unattended (attendant hours set to 0, nothing else changed): net $99,280, payback 3.0 years.
The numbers this town supplied, and where each came from — Buffalo, NY
| Input | Value | Basis | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| People living here | 274,613 people | sourced | US Census Bureau, Subcounty Population Estimates |
| How big the city is | 40.38 sq mi | sourced | US Census Bureau Gazetteer |
| People per square mile | 6,801 people/sq mi | derived | — How tightly packed the town is, which is what decides how far an average trip runs and how much empty driving there is between fares. |
| Occupied households | 119,630 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Renter-occupied households | 68,134 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Households with no vehicle | 27,030 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Share of households with no car | 0.2259 share | derived | — Households in Buffalo, NY with no vehicle available. This is the strongest published local signal there is for who has to hire a ride, and it is the one number in this pack that most directly separates a town where every |
| Renter households that do have a vehicle | 45,050 households | derived | — Renters with a car: the second-strongest laundromat customer group -- an apartment without hookups, but they can drive to the store. |
| Owner households that do have a vehicle | 47,550 households | derived | — Nearly all own a washer; a few use a laundromat for bulky loads or when a machine breaks. |
| What a car cleaner is paid here | 16.13 $/hour | sourced | US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024 |
| How this town's labour costs compare with the country | 0.951 x national | derived | — Everything a person does by hand costs roughly what a person costs here. This one ratio scales every cleaning price in the pack, and it is measured rather than guessed. |
| How this town's property costs compare with the country | 0.74 x national | derived | — Rent is the other half of a local cost. There is no published rent for small commercial bays anywhere in the country, so the pack uses the one property price that IS published for 32,330 places -- what people pay to rent |
| A small commercial bay, per month | 944 $/month | derived | — This is a derivation, not a local quote: a national published figure scaled by a published local index. Nobody publishes what a 1,500 square foot bay lets for in a town this size, because small commercial bays let privat |
| Average business electricity price in this state | 0.2356 $/kWh | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A |
| Electric utility | National Grid (Niagara Mohawk Power Corp.) | sourced | NYSERDA GridConnect, National Grid profile |
| Annual visitors | 7,600,000 visitors/year | sourced | Visit Buffalo |
| Average visiting party size | 3.1 people | estimated | — Only published party-size figure from a Visit Buffalo Niagara–commissioned Longwoods study. It is overnight Canadian shoppers surveyed in February 2012, not all 2025 domestic visitors — family shopping parties run larger |
| What a household here earns in a year | 50,041 $/year | sourced | US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table B19013 |
| City college enrollment | 11,439 students | derived | — Sum of the three four-year campuses that sit inside the city limits. UB's 30,400 is mostly the Amherst North Campus, so including it would count suburban students as city demand. |
Gaps in this town's inputs: The pack has no commercial rate for the town's own utility, so the model prices electricity at the state's commercial average (23.6¢ a kWh).
Pack researched 2026-09-13 · federal cross-check of this pack: 3 confirmed, 0 disputed, 2 unconfirmed, 2 not checked · the full pack (77 records) · this town on the Cybercab ladder · the fast-charger sim for Buffalo, NY · Change the assumptions for Buffalo, NY ↓
Does not pay Boise City, ID — 238,429 people · payback 15.6 yr · unattended 2.9 yr
Who would wash here. A 1.50-mile radius covers 8% of the town’s 86.1 square miles, so 8,306 of its 101,178 households are inside it: 416 with no car (50% of them counted as laundromat households → 208), 2,756 renters with a car (25% → 689) and 5,134 owners with a car (3% → 154). That is 1,051 laundromat households doing 3.0 loads a week each → 3,153 loads a week, plus 297.8 from visitors (2,400,000 a year, 2.0% of parties doing one load). Split evenly with the 3 other stores we assume inside the radius → 863 loads a week of demand for this store — more than 20 washers can turn, so the store is full at 560 loads a week.
The money. 560 loads a week × 52 × $6.00 a load = revenue $174,720. Electricity −$7,993 (3.0 kWh a load at 9.2¢); water and sewer −$10,483 (30 gal a load at $12.00 per 1,000); card fees −$3,494. An attendant on the floor 84 hours a week at the pack’s local wage of $17.45 an hour (+12% payroll burden) = −$85,368; rent −$26,100 (2,500 sq ft, from the pack’s $1,305-a-month 1,500 sq ft bay); repairs −$12,000; insurance −$4,000; everything else −$6,000. Net $19,281 a year. Break-even is 581 loads a week once the $300,000 opening cost is written off over 12 years. Payback: 15.6 years. Unattended (attendant hours set to 0, nothing else changed): net $104,649, payback 2.9 years.
The numbers this town supplied, and where each came from — Boise City, ID
| Input | Value | Basis | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| People living here | 238,429 people | sourced | US Census Bureau, Subcounty Population Estimates |
| How big the city is | 86.1 sq mi | sourced | US Census Bureau Gazetteer |
| People per square mile | 2,769 people/sq mi | derived | — How tightly packed the town is, which is what decides how far an average trip runs and how much empty driving there is between fares. |
| Occupied households | 101,178 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Renter-occupied households | 37,268 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Households with no vehicle | 5,070 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Share of households with no car | 0.0501 share | derived | — Households in Boise City, ID with no vehicle available. This is the strongest published local signal there is for who has to hire a ride, and it is the one number in this pack that most directly separates a town where ev |
| Renter households that do have a vehicle | 33,568 households | derived | — Renters with a car: the second-strongest laundromat customer group -- an apartment without hookups, but they can drive to the store. |
| Owner households that do have a vehicle | 62,540 households | derived | — Nearly all own a washer; a few use a laundromat for bulky loads or when a machine breaks. |
| What a car cleaner is paid here | 17.45 $/hour | sourced | US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024 |
| How this town's labour costs compare with the country | 1.029 x national | derived | — Everything a person does by hand costs roughly what a person costs here. This one ratio scales every cleaning price in the pack, and it is measured rather than guessed. |
| How this town's property costs compare with the country | 1.023 x national | derived | — Rent is the other half of a local cost. There is no published rent for small commercial bays anywhere in the country, so the pack uses the one property price that IS published for 32,330 places -- what people pay to rent |
| A small commercial bay, per month | 1,305 $/month | derived | — This is a derivation, not a local quote: a national published figure scaled by a published local index. Nobody publishes what a 1,500 square foot bay lets for in a town this size, because small commercial bays let privat |
| What this utility's business customers pay on average | 0.0915 $/kWh | derived | — The same calculation for the commercial class, which is the one a leased bay with a charger would be billed on. |
| Average business electricity price in this state | 0.0992 $/kWh | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A |
| Electric utility | Idaho Power Co | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861 2024, service territory and sales to ultimate customers |
| Annual visitors | 2,400,000 visitors/year | sourced | Visit Boise federal cross-check: disputed |
| Average visiting party size | 3.1 people | sourced | Southwest Idaho Travel Association |
| What a household here earns in a year | 83,904 $/year | sourced | US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table B19013 |
| College enrollment | 28,519 students | sourced | Boise State University |
Pack researched 2026-09-14 · federal cross-check of this pack: 5 confirmed, 1 disputed, 0 unconfirmed, 3 not checked · the full pack (78 records) · this town on the Cybercab ladder · the fast-charger sim for Boise City, ID · Change the assumptions for Boise City, ID ↓
Does not pay Chicago, IL — 2,731,585 people · payback 15.8 yr · unattended 2.9 yr
Who would wash here. A 1.50-mile radius covers 3% of the town’s 227.7 square miles, so 36,009 of its 1,160,205 households are inside it: 9,575 with no car (50% of them counted as laundromat households → 4,787), 11,645 renters with a car (25% → 2,911) and 14,790 owners with a car (3% → 444). That is 8,142 laundromat households doing 3.0 loads a week each → 24,427 loads a week, plus 11,378.2 from visitors (56,800,000 a year, 2.0% of parties doing one load). Split evenly with the 3 other stores we assume inside the radius → 8,951 loads a week of demand for this store — more than 20 washers can turn, so the store is full at 560 loads a week.
The money. 560 loads a week × 52 × $6.00 a load = revenue $174,720. Electricity −$10,754 (3.0 kWh a load at 12.3¢); water and sewer −$10,483 (30 gal a load at $12.00 per 1,000); card fees −$3,494. An attendant on the floor 84 hours a week at the pack’s local wage of $16.96 an hour (+12% payroll burden) = −$82,971; rent −$25,980 (2,500 sq ft, from the pack’s $1,299-a-month 1,500 sq ft bay); repairs −$12,000; insurance −$4,000; everything else −$6,000. Net $19,037 a year. Break-even is 582 loads a week once the $300,000 opening cost is written off over 12 years. Payback: 15.8 years. Unattended (attendant hours set to 0, nothing else changed): net $102,008, payback 2.9 years.
The numbers this town supplied, and where each came from — Chicago, IL
| Input | Value | Basis | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| People living here | 2,731,585 people | sourced | US Census Bureau, Subcounty Population Estimates |
| How big the city is | 227.7 sq mi | sourced | US Census Bureau Gazetteer |
| People per square mile | 11,994 people/sq mi | derived | — How tightly packed the town is, which is what decides how far an average trip runs and how much empty driving there is between fares. |
| Occupied households | 1,160,205 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Renter-occupied households | 626,193 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Households with no vehicle | 308,497 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Share of households with no car | 0.2659 share | derived | — Households in Chicago, IL with no vehicle available. This is the strongest published local signal there is for who has to hire a ride, and it is the one number in this pack that most directly separates a town where every |
| Renter households that do have a vehicle | 375,185 households | derived | — Renters with a car: the second-strongest laundromat customer group -- an apartment without hookups, but they can drive to the store. |
| Owner households that do have a vehicle | 476,523 households | derived | — Nearly all own a washer; a few use a laundromat for bulky loads or when a machine breaks. |
| What a car cleaner is paid here | 16.96 $/hour | sourced | US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024 |
| How this town's labour costs compare with the country | 1 x national | derived | — Everything a person does by hand costs roughly what a person costs here. This one ratio scales every cleaning price in the pack, and it is measured rather than guessed. |
| How this town's property costs compare with the country | 1.019 x national | derived | — Rent is the other half of a local cost. There is no published rent for small commercial bays anywhere in the country, so the pack uses the one property price that IS published for 32,330 places -- what people pay to rent |
| A small commercial bay, per month | 1,299 $/month | derived | — This is a derivation, not a local quote: a national published figure scaled by a published local index. Nobody publishes what a 1,500 square foot bay lets for in a town this size, because small commercial bays let privat |
| What this utility's business customers pay on average | 0.1231 $/kWh | derived | — The same calculation for the commercial class, which is the one a leased bay with a charger would be billed on. |
| Average business electricity price in this state | 0.1453 $/kWh | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A |
| Electric utility | Commonwealth Edison Co | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861 2024, service territory and sales to ultimate customers |
| Annual visitors | 56,800,000 visitors/year | sourced | Choose Chicago |
| Average visiting party size | 1.92 people | sourced | Illinois Office of Tourism / Choose Chicago (MMGY) |
| What a household here earns in a year | 77,902 $/year | sourced | US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table B19013 |
| City college enrollment | 175,000 students | estimated | — Headcount across colleges physically in the City of Chicago (not the metro, so Evanston's Northwestern is excluded); eight sourced institutions sum to 148,285 and remaining in-city privates push the total near 175,000. |
Pack researched 2026-09-09 · federal cross-check of this pack: 3 confirmed, 0 disputed, 0 unconfirmed, 3 not checked · the full pack (81 records) · this town on the Cybercab ladder · the fast-charger sim for Chicago, IL · Change the assumptions for Chicago, IL ↓
Does not pay Nashville, TN — 721,074 people · payback 24.2 yr · unattended 3.0 yr
Who would wash here. A 1.50-mile radius covers 1% of the town’s 475.6 square miles, so 4,659 of its 313,513 households are inside it: 310 with no car (50% of them counted as laundromat households → 155), 1,968 renters with a car (25% → 492) and 2,382 owners with a car (3% → 71). That is 718 laundromat households doing 3.0 loads a week each → 2,155 loads a week, plus 2,954.5 from visitors (16,900,000 a year, 2.0% of parties doing one load). Split evenly with the 3 other stores we assume inside the radius → 1,277 loads a week of demand for this store — more than 20 washers can turn, so the store is full at 560 loads a week.
The money. 560 loads a week × 52 × $6.00 a load = revenue $174,720. Electricity −$10,509 (3.0 kWh a load at 12.0¢); water and sewer −$10,483 (30 gal a load at $12.00 per 1,000); card fees −$3,494. An attendant on the floor 84 hours a week at the pack’s local wage of $17.83 an hour (+12% payroll burden) = −$87,227; rent −$28,620 (2,500 sq ft, from the pack’s $1,431-a-month 1,500 sq ft bay); repairs −$12,000; insurance −$4,000; everything else −$6,000. Net $12,386 a year. Break-even is 607 loads a week once the $300,000 opening cost is written off over 12 years. Payback: 24.2 years. Unattended (attendant hours set to 0, nothing else changed): net $99,613, payback 3.0 years.
The numbers this town supplied, and where each came from — Nashville, TN
| Input | Value | Basis | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| People living here | 721,074 people | sourced | US Census Bureau, Subcounty Population Estimates |
| How big the city is | 475.6 sq mi | sourced | US Census Bureau Gazetteer |
| People per square mile | 1,516 people/sq mi | derived | — How tightly packed the town is, which is what decides how far an average trip runs and how much empty driving there is between fares. |
| Occupied households | 313,513 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Renter-occupied households | 149,179 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Households with no vehicle | 20,848 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Share of households with no car | 0.0665 share | derived | — Households in Nashville, TN with no vehicle available. This is the strongest published local signal there is for who has to hire a ride, and it is the one number in this pack that most directly separates a town where eve |
| Renter households that do have a vehicle | 132,422 households | derived | — Renters with a car: the second-strongest laundromat customer group -- an apartment without hookups, but they can drive to the store. |
| Owner households that do have a vehicle | 160,243 households | derived | — Nearly all own a washer; a few use a laundromat for bulky loads or when a machine breaks. |
| What a car cleaner is paid here | 17.83 $/hour | sourced | US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024 |
| How this town's labour costs compare with the country | 1.051 x national | derived | — Everything a person does by hand costs roughly what a person costs here. This one ratio scales every cleaning price in the pack, and it is measured rather than guessed. |
| How this town's property costs compare with the country | 1.122 x national | derived | — Rent is the other half of a local cost. There is no published rent for small commercial bays anywhere in the country, so the pack uses the one property price that IS published for 32,330 places -- what people pay to rent |
| A small commercial bay, per month | 1,431 $/month | derived | — This is a derivation, not a local quote: a national published figure scaled by a published local index. Nobody publishes what a 1,500 square foot bay lets for in a town this size, because small commercial bays let privat |
| What this utility's business customers pay on average | 0.1203 $/kWh | derived | — The same calculation for the commercial class, which is the one a leased bay with a charger would be billed on. |
| Average business electricity price in this state | 0.1394 $/kWh | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A |
| Electric utility | Nashville Electric Service | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861 2024, service territory and sales to ultimate customers |
| Annual visitors | 16,900,000 visitors/year | estimated | — Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp / Tourism Economics figure for calendar year 2024, the most recent complete year the authority has published; 2025’s ~17 million has appeared only as meeting chatter, not a finished r |
| Average visiting party size | 2.2 people | estimated | — NCVC does not publish a citywide party size; CMA Fest’s 3.4 is an event high, not the mix of couples, bachelorette groups, and convention singles that actually share cars here. |
| What a household here earns in a year | 77,371 $/year | sourced | US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table B19013 |
| College enrollment | 47,650 students | derived | — Sum of the colleges physically in Nashville/Davidson County from each school's latest published headcount, or the Chamber's 2026 table where a school has no newer official release. |
Pack researched 2026-09-13 · federal cross-check of this pack: 6 confirmed, 0 disputed, 0 unconfirmed, 3 not checked · the full pack (77 records) · this town on the Cybercab ladder · the fast-charger sim for Nashville, TN · Change the assumptions for Nashville, TN ↓
Does not pay Colorado Springs, CO — 494,743 people · payback 30.0 yr · unattended 3.0 yr
Who would wash here. A 1.50-mile radius covers 3% of the town’s 202.2 square miles, so 7,079 of its 202,515 households are inside it: 311 with no car (50% of them counted as laundromat households → 156), 2,509 renters with a car (25% → 627) and 4,258 owners with a car (3% → 128). That is 911 laundromat households doing 3.0 loads a week each → 2,732 loads a week, plus 3,282.1 from visitors (25,600,000 a year, 2.0% of parties doing one load). Split evenly with the 3 other stores we assume inside the radius → 1,503 loads a week of demand for this store — more than 20 washers can turn, so the store is full at 560 loads a week.
The money. 560 loads a week × 52 × $6.00 a load = revenue $174,720. Electricity −$10,343 (3.0 kWh a load at 11.8¢); water and sewer −$10,483 (30 gal a load at $12.00 per 1,000); card fees −$3,494. An attendant on the floor 84 hours a week at the pack’s local wage of $18.12 an hour (+12% payroll burden) = −$88,646; rent −$29,740 (2,500 sq ft, from the pack’s $1,487-a-month 1,500 sq ft bay); repairs −$12,000; insurance −$4,000; everything else −$6,000. Net $10,013 a year. Break-even is 616 loads a week once the $300,000 opening cost is written off over 12 years. Payback: 30.0 years. Unattended (attendant hours set to 0, nothing else changed): net $98,659, payback 3.0 years.
The numbers this town supplied, and where each came from — Colorado Springs, CO
| Input | Value | Basis | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| People living here | 494,743 people | sourced | US Census Bureau, Subcounty Population Estimates |
| How big the city is | 202.2 sq mi | sourced | US Census Bureau Gazetteer |
| People per square mile | 2,446 people/sq mi | derived | — How tightly packed the town is, which is what decides how far an average trip runs and how much empty driving there is between fares. |
| Occupied households | 202,515 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Renter-occupied households | 79,251 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Households with no vehicle | 8,903 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Share of households with no car | 0.044 share | derived | — Households in Colorado Springs, CO with no vehicle available. This is the strongest published local signal there is for who has to hire a ride, and it is the one number in this pack that most directly separates a town wh |
| Renter households that do have a vehicle | 71,779 households | derived | — Renters with a car: the second-strongest laundromat customer group -- an apartment without hookups, but they can drive to the store. |
| Owner households that do have a vehicle | 121,833 households | derived | — Nearly all own a washer; a few use a laundromat for bulky loads or when a machine breaks. |
| What a car cleaner is paid here | 18.12 $/hour | sourced | US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024 |
| How this town's labour costs compare with the country | 1.068 x national | derived | — Everything a person does by hand costs roughly what a person costs here. This one ratio scales every cleaning price in the pack, and it is measured rather than guessed. |
| How this town's property costs compare with the country | 1.166 x national | derived | — Rent is the other half of a local cost. There is no published rent for small commercial bays anywhere in the country, so the pack uses the one property price that IS published for 32,330 places -- what people pay to rent |
| A small commercial bay, per month | 1,487 $/month | derived | — This is a derivation, not a local quote: a national published figure scaled by a published local index. Nobody publishes what a 1,500 square foot bay lets for in a town this size, because small commercial bays let privat |
| What this utility's business customers pay on average | 0.1184 $/kWh | derived | — The same calculation for the commercial class, which is the one a leased bay with a charger would be billed on. |
| Average business electricity price in this state | 0.1419 $/kWh | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A |
| Electric utility | Public Service Co of Colorado | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861 2024, service territory and sales to ultimate customers |
| Annual visitors | 25,600,000 visitors/year | sourced | Visit Colorado Springs |
| Average visiting party size | 3 people | sourced | Visit Colorado Springs |
| What a household here earns in a year | 84,818 $/year | sourced | US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table B19013 |
| College enrollment | 30,607 students | derived | — Sum of Fall 2024 campus headcounts for the city's colleges, including USAFA cadets immediately north of town and excluding Colorado Technical University's mostly-online 31,830. |
Pack researched 2026-09-13 · federal cross-check of this pack: 4 confirmed, 0 disputed, 0 unconfirmed, 5 not checked · the full pack (80 records) · this town on the Cybercab ladder · the fast-charger sim for Colorado Springs, CO · Change the assumptions for Colorado Springs, CO ↓
Does not pay Bend, OR — 107,342 people · payback 37.8 yr · unattended 3.1 yr
Who would wash here. A 1.50-mile radius covers 20% of the town’s 35.2 square miles, so 8,922 of its 44,436 households are inside it: 432 with no car (50% of them counted as laundromat households → 216), 3,076 renters with a car (25% → 769) and 5,414 owners with a car (3% → 162). That is 1,148 laundromat households doing 3.0 loads a week each → 3,443 loads a week, plus 143.1 from visitors (978,600 a year, 2.0% of parties doing one load). Split evenly with the 3 other stores we assume inside the radius → 897 loads a week of demand for this store — more than 20 washers can turn, so the store is full at 560 loads a week.
The money. 560 loads a week × 52 × $6.00 a load = revenue $174,720. Electricity −$9,295 (3.0 kWh a load at 10.6¢); water and sewer −$10,483 (30 gal a load at $12.00 per 1,000); card fees −$3,494. An attendant on the floor 84 hours a week at the pack’s local wage of $17.89 an hour (+12% payroll burden) = −$87,521; rent −$33,980 (2,500 sq ft, from the pack’s $1,699-a-month 1,500 sq ft bay); repairs −$12,000; insurance −$4,000; everything else −$6,000. Net $7,947 a year. Break-even is 623 loads a week once the $300,000 opening cost is written off over 12 years. Payback: 37.8 years. Unattended (attendant hours set to 0, nothing else changed): net $95,467, payback 3.1 years.
The numbers this town supplied, and where each came from — Bend, OR
| Input | Value | Basis | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| People living here | 107,342 people | sourced | US Census Bureau, Subcounty Population Estimates |
| How big the city is | 35.2 sq mi | sourced | US Census Bureau Gazetteer |
| People per square mile | 3,049 people/sq mi | derived | — How tightly packed the town is, which is what decides how far an average trip runs and how much empty driving there is between fares. |
| Occupied households | 44,436 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Renter-occupied households | 17,030 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Households with no vehicle | 2,154 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Share of households with no car | 0.0485 share | derived | — Households in Bend, OR with no vehicle available. This is the strongest published local signal there is for who has to hire a ride, and it is the one number in this pack that most directly separates a town where everyone |
| Renter households that do have a vehicle | 15,319 households | derived | — Renters with a car: the second-strongest laundromat customer group -- an apartment without hookups, but they can drive to the store. |
| Owner households that do have a vehicle | 26,963 households | derived | — Nearly all own a washer; a few use a laundromat for bulky loads or when a machine breaks. |
| What a car cleaner is paid here | 17.89 $/hour | sourced | US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024 |
| How this town's labour costs compare with the country | 1.055 x national | derived | — Everything a person does by hand costs roughly what a person costs here. This one ratio scales every cleaning price in the pack, and it is measured rather than guessed. |
| How this town's property costs compare with the country | 1.333 x national | derived | — Rent is the other half of a local cost. There is no published rent for small commercial bays anywhere in the country, so the pack uses the one property price that IS published for 32,330 places -- what people pay to rent |
| A small commercial bay, per month | 1,699 $/month | derived | — This is a derivation, not a local quote: a national published figure scaled by a published local index. Nobody publishes what a 1,500 square foot bay lets for in a town this size, because small commercial bays let privat |
| What this utility's business customers pay on average | 0.1064 $/kWh | derived | — The same calculation for the commercial class, which is the one a leased bay with a charger would be billed on. |
| Average business electricity price in this state | 0.1059 $/kWh | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A |
| Electric utility | PacifiCorp | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861 2024, service territory and sales to ultimate customers |
| Annual overnight visitors | 978,600 person-trips/year | estimated | — Dean Runyan's Visit Bend 2025 preliminary report (March 2026) is the visitor authority's most recent complete calendar-year overnight person-trip count: 978,600 in 2025. This is overnight visitors only; the same report d |
| Average visiting party size | 2.63 people | estimated | — Same Dean Runyan 2025 Bend table that gives 978,600 overnight person-trips also gives 372,800 overnight party-trips; people per party is the ratio. Parties share cars, so this—not headcount—is the visitor-ride denominato |
| What a household here earns in a year | 96,394 $/year | sourced | US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table B19013 |
| College enrollment | 7,247 students | derived | — Sum of the two colleges in the city: OSU-Cascades (Bend campus of Oregon State) plus Central Oregon Community College. COCC's main campus is on Awbrey Butte in Bend; the HECC fall headcount is the official state figure. |
Pack researched 2026-09-14 · federal cross-check of this pack: 6 confirmed, 0 disputed, 0 unconfirmed, 2 not checked · the full pack (80 records) · this town on the Cybercab ladder · the fast-charger sim for Bend, OR · Change the assumptions for Bend, OR ↓
Does not pay Portland, ME — 69,911 people · payback 59.1 yr · unattended 3.3 yr
Who would wash here. A 1.50-mile radius covers 33% of the town’s 21.5 square miles, so 10,818 of its 32,965 households are inside it: 1,666 with no car (50% of them counted as laundromat households → 833), 4,284 renters with a car (25% → 1,071) and 4,868 owners with a car (3% → 146). That is 2,050 laundromat households doing 3.0 loads a week each → 6,150 loads a week, plus 378.0 from visitors (2,653,500 a year, 2.0% of parties doing one load). Split evenly with the 3 other stores we assume inside the radius → 1,632 loads a week of demand for this store — more than 20 washers can turn, so the store is full at 560 loads a week.
The money. 560 loads a week × 52 × $6.00 a load = revenue $174,720. Electricity −$18,415 (3.0 kWh a load at 21.1¢); water and sewer −$10,483 (30 gal a load at $12.00 per 1,000); card fees −$3,494. An attendant on the floor 84 hours a week at the pack’s local wage of $17.74 an hour (+12% payroll burden) = −$86,787; rent −$28,460 (2,500 sq ft, from the pack’s $1,423-a-month 1,500 sq ft bay); repairs −$12,000; insurance −$4,000; everything else −$6,000. Net $5,080 a year. Break-even is 638 loads a week once the $300,000 opening cost is written off over 12 years. Payback: 59.1 years. Unattended (attendant hours set to 0, nothing else changed): net $91,867, payback 3.3 years.
The numbers this town supplied, and where each came from — Portland, ME
| Input | Value | Basis | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| People living here | 69,911 people | sourced | US Census Bureau, Subcounty Population Estimates |
| How big the city is | 21.54 sq mi | sourced | US Census Bureau Gazetteer |
| People per square mile | 3,246 people/sq mi | derived | — How tightly packed the town is, which is what decides how far an average trip runs and how much empty driving there is between fares. |
| Occupied households | 32,965 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Renter-occupied households | 17,520 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Households with no vehicle | 5,077 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Share of households with no car | 0.154 share | derived | — Households in Portland, ME with no vehicle available. This is the strongest published local signal there is for who has to hire a ride, and it is the one number in this pack that most directly separates a town where ever |
| Renter households that do have a vehicle | 13,054 households | derived | — Renters with a car: the second-strongest laundromat customer group -- an apartment without hookups, but they can drive to the store. |
| Owner households that do have a vehicle | 14,834 households | derived | — Nearly all own a washer; a few use a laundromat for bulky loads or when a machine breaks. |
| What a car cleaner is paid here | 17.74 $/hour | sourced | US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024 |
| How this town's labour costs compare with the country | 1.046 x national | derived | — Everything a person does by hand costs roughly what a person costs here. This one ratio scales every cleaning price in the pack, and it is measured rather than guessed. |
| How this town's property costs compare with the country | 1.116 x national | derived | — Rent is the other half of a local cost. There is no published rent for small commercial bays anywhere in the country, so the pack uses the one property price that IS published for 32,330 places -- what people pay to rent |
| A small commercial bay, per month | 1,423 $/month | derived | — This is a derivation, not a local quote: a national published figure scaled by a published local index. Nobody publishes what a 1,500 square foot bay lets for in a town this size, because small commercial bays let privat |
| What this utility's business customers pay on average | 0.2108 $/kWh | derived | — The same calculation for the commercial class, which is the one a leased bay with a charger would be billed on. |
| Average business electricity price in this state | 0.2224 $/kWh | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A |
| Electric utility | Central Maine Power Co | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861 2024, service territory and sales to ultimate customers |
| Annual visitors | 2,653,500 visitors/year | sourced | Maine Office of Tourism (Downs & St. Germain) |
| Average visiting party size | 2.7 people | sourced | Maine Office of Tourism (Downs & St. Germain) |
| What a household here earns in a year | 79,540 $/year | sourced | US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table B19013 |
| College enrollment | 9,579 students | derived | — Headcount of colleges actually sitting in the city: USM (IPEDS, Portland-headquartered but multi-campus), MECA, Roux, and UNE's medical school now on the Portland health-sciences campus. |
Pack researched 2026-09-14 · federal cross-check of this pack: 5 confirmed, 0 disputed, 0 unconfirmed, 5 not checked · the full pack (80 records) · this town on the Cybercab ladder · the fast-charger sim for Portland, ME · Change the assumptions for Portland, ME ↓
Does not pay Burlington, VT — 44,019 people · payback 82.9 yr · unattended 3.3 yr
Who would wash here. A 1.50-mile radius covers 69% of the town’s 10.3 square miles, so 12,009 of its 17,504 households are inside it: 1,581 with no car (50% of them counted as laundromat households → 791), 5,631 renters with a car (25% → 1,408) and 4,797 owners with a car (3% → 144). That is 2,342 laundromat households doing 3.0 loads a week each → 7,027 loads a week, plus 278.2 from visitors (1,960,000 a year, 2.0% of parties doing one load). Split evenly with the 3 other stores we assume inside the radius → 1,826 loads a week of demand for this store — more than 20 washers can turn, so the store is full at 560 loads a week.
The money. 560 loads a week × 52 × $6.00 a load = revenue $174,720. Electricity −$16,817 (3.0 kWh a load at 19.2¢); water and sewer −$10,483 (30 gal a load at $12.00 per 1,000); card fees −$3,494. An attendant on the floor 84 hours a week at the pack’s local wage of $18.10 an hour (+12% payroll burden) = −$88,548; rent −$29,760 (2,500 sq ft, from the pack’s $1,488-a-month 1,500 sq ft bay); repairs −$12,000; insurance −$4,000; everything else −$6,000. Net $3,618 a year. Break-even is 643 loads a week once the $300,000 opening cost is written off over 12 years. Payback: 82.9 years. Unattended (attendant hours set to 0, nothing else changed): net $92,166, payback 3.3 years.
The numbers this town supplied, and where each came from — Burlington, VT
| Input | Value | Basis | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| People living here | 44,019 people | sourced | US Census Bureau, Subcounty Population Estimates |
| How big the city is | 10.3 sq mi | sourced | US Census Bureau Gazetteer |
| People per square mile | 4,272 people/sq mi | derived | — How tightly packed the town is, which is what decides how far an average trip runs and how much empty driving there is between fares. |
| Occupied households | 17,504 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Renter-occupied households | 10,237 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Households with no vehicle | 2,305 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Share of households with no car | 0.1317 share | derived | — Households in Burlington, VT with no vehicle available. This is the strongest published local signal there is for who has to hire a ride, and it is the one number in this pack that most directly separates a town where ev |
| Renter households that do have a vehicle | 8,207 households | derived | — Renters with a car: the second-strongest laundromat customer group -- an apartment without hookups, but they can drive to the store. |
| Owner households that do have a vehicle | 6,992 households | derived | — Nearly all own a washer; a few use a laundromat for bulky loads or when a machine breaks. |
| What a car cleaner is paid here | 18.1 $/hour | sourced | US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024 |
| How this town's labour costs compare with the country | 1.067 x national | derived | — Everything a person does by hand costs roughly what a person costs here. This one ratio scales every cleaning price in the pack, and it is measured rather than guessed. |
| How this town's property costs compare with the country | 1.167 x national | derived | — Rent is the other half of a local cost. There is no published rent for small commercial bays anywhere in the country, so the pack uses the one property price that IS published for 32,330 places -- what people pay to rent |
| A small commercial bay, per month | 1,488 $/month | derived | — This is a derivation, not a local quote: a national published figure scaled by a published local index. Nobody publishes what a 1,500 square foot bay lets for in a town this size, because small commercial bays let privat |
| What this utility's business customers pay on average | 0.1925 $/kWh | derived | — The same calculation for the commercial class, which is the one a leased bay with a charger would be billed on. |
| Average business electricity price in this state | 0.2122 $/kWh | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A |
| Electric utility | Green Mountain Power Corp | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861 2024, service territory and sales to ultimate customers |
| Annual visitors | 1,960,000 visitors/year | derived | — Calendar year 2024 (most recent complete year the state has published). Hello Burlington does not publish a city visitor count; Vermont’s official 16 million statewide visitors and Chittenden’s 24.5% of visitor spending |
| Average visiting party size | 2.71 people | sourced | Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing, Annual Visitor Tracking Report |
| What a household here earns in a year | 71,109 $/year | sourced | US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table B19013 |
| College enrollment | 17,684 students | derived | — Sum of the two colleges inside city limits: UVM's own Fall 2025 headcount plus Champlain College's IPEDS 2024-25 total. Saint Michael's is in Colchester and is not counted. Champlain's 1,570 exclusively-online students a |
Pack researched 2026-09-14 · federal cross-check of this pack: 7 confirmed, 0 disputed, 0 unconfirmed, 4 not checked · the full pack (79 records) · this town on the Cybercab ladder · the fast-charger sim for Burlington, VT · Change the assumptions for Burlington, VT ↓
Does not pay Cody, WY — 10,377 people · payback never · unattended 9.1 yr
Who would wash here. A 1.50-mile radius covers 69% of the town’s 10.2 square miles, so 3,294 of its 4,774 households are inside it: 86 with no car (50% of them counted as laundromat households → 43), 950 renters with a car (25% → 238) and 2,258 owners with a car (3% → 68). That is 348 laundromat households doing 3.0 loads a week each → 1,044 loads a week, plus 48.3 from visitors (339,000 a year, 2.0% of parties doing one load). Split evenly with the 3 other stores we assume inside the radius → 273 loads a week of demand for this store.
The money. 273 loads a week × 52 × $6.00 a load = revenue $85,216. Electricity −$4,487 (3.0 kWh a load at 10.5¢); water and sewer −$5,113 (30 gal a load at $12.00 per 1,000); card fees −$1,704. An attendant on the floor 84 hours a week at the pack’s local wage of $14.28 an hour (+12% payroll burden) = −$69,860; rent −$18,960 (2,500 sq ft, from the pack’s $948-a-month 1,500 sq ft bay); repairs −$12,000; insurance −$4,000; everything else −$6,000. Net −$36,908 a year. Break-even is 502 loads a week once the $300,000 opening cost is written off over 12 years. Payback: never — the store loses money every year. Unattended (attendant hours set to 0, nothing else changed): net $32,952, payback 9.1 years.
The numbers this town supplied, and where each came from — Cody, WY
| Input | Value | Basis | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| People living here | 10,377 people | sourced | US Census Bureau, Subcounty Population Estimates |
| How big the city is | 10.24 sq mi | sourced | US Census Bureau Gazetteer |
| People per square mile | 1,013 people/sq mi | derived | — How tightly packed the town is, which is what decides how far an average trip runs and how much empty driving there is between fares. |
| Occupied households | 4,774 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Renter-occupied households | 1,457 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Households with no vehicle | 124 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Share of households with no car | 0.026 share | derived | — Households in Cody, WY with no vehicle available. This is the strongest published local signal there is for who has to hire a ride, and it is the one number in this pack that most directly separates a town where everyone |
| Renter households that do have a vehicle | 1,377 households | derived | — Renters with a car: the second-strongest laundromat customer group -- an apartment without hookups, but they can drive to the store. |
| Owner households that do have a vehicle | 3,273 households | derived | — Nearly all own a washer; a few use a laundromat for bulky loads or when a machine breaks. |
| What a car cleaner is paid here | 14.28 $/hour | sourced | US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024 |
| How this town's labour costs compare with the country | 0.842 x national | derived | — Everything a person does by hand costs roughly what a person costs here. This one ratio scales every cleaning price in the pack, and it is measured rather than guessed. |
| How this town's property costs compare with the country | 0.744 x national | derived | — Rent is the other half of a local cost. There is no published rent for small commercial bays anywhere in the country, so the pack uses the one property price that IS published for 32,330 places -- what people pay to rent |
| A small commercial bay, per month | 948 $/month | derived | — This is a derivation, not a local quote: a national published figure scaled by a published local index. Nobody publishes what a 1,500 square foot bay lets for in a town this size, because small commercial bays let privat |
| What this utility's business customers pay on average | 0.1053 $/kWh | derived | — The same calculation for the commercial class, which is the one a leased bay with a charger would be billed on. |
| Average business electricity price in this state | 0.1001 $/kWh | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A |
| Electric utility | PacifiCorp | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861 2024, service territory and sales to ultimate customers |
| Annual visitors | 339,000 person-trips/year | estimated | — Calendar year 2025, Wyoming Office of Tourism / Dean Runyan: 339,000 hotel, motel, and STVR overnight person-trips in Park County. Cody holds essentially all of that lodging (the DMO director has said Cody has about 2,80 |
| Average visiting party size | 2.7 people | sourced | Wyoming Office of Tourism / Dean Runyan Associates, 2025 Wyoming Travel Impacts (Park County average party size) |
| What a household here earns in a year | 72,570 $/year | sourced | US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table B19013 |
| College enrollment in the city | 35 students | estimated | — Cody has no standalone college. Northwest College's main campus (1,383 credit students, fall 2025) is in Powell, ~22 miles away; only the Cody Center satellite sits in city limits. |
Pack researched 2026-09-11 · federal cross-check of this pack: 7 confirmed, 0 disputed, 0 unconfirmed, 6 not checked · the full pack (80 records) · this town on the Cybercab ladder · the fast-charger sim for Cody, WY · Change the assumptions for Cody, WY ↓
Does not pay Worland, WY — 4,730 people · payback never · unattended 21.6 yr
Who would wash here. A 1.50-mile radius covers all of the town’s 4.6 square miles, so 2,215 of its 2,215 households are inside it: 67 with no car (50% of them counted as laundromat households → 34), 628 renters with a car (25% → 157) and 1,520 owners with a car (3% → 46). That is 236 laundromat households doing 3.0 loads a week each → 708 loads a week, plus 9.6 from visitors (60,000 a year, 2.0% of parties doing one load). Split evenly with the 3 other stores we assume inside the radius → 179 loads a week of demand for this store.
The money. 179 loads a week × 52 × $6.00 a load = revenue $55,997. Electricity −$2,948 (3.0 kWh a load at 10.5¢); water and sewer −$3,360 (30 gal a load at $12.00 per 1,000); card fees −$1,120. An attendant on the floor 84 hours a week at the pack’s local wage of $14.28 an hour (+12% payroll burden) = −$69,860; rent −$12,680 (2,500 sq ft, from the pack’s $634-a-month 1,500 sq ft bay); repairs −$12,000; insurance −$4,000; everything else −$6,000. Net −$55,971 a year. Break-even is 479 loads a week once the $300,000 opening cost is written off over 12 years. Payback: never — the store loses money every year. Unattended (attendant hours set to 0, nothing else changed): net $13,889, payback 21.6 years.
The numbers this town supplied, and where each came from — Worland, WY
| Input | Value | Basis | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| People living here | 4,730 people | sourced | US Census Bureau, Subcounty Population Estimates |
| How big the city is | 4.588 sq mi | sourced | US Census Bureau Gazetteer |
| People per square mile | 1,031 people/sq mi | derived | — How tightly packed the town is, which is what decides how far an average trip runs and how much empty driving there is between fares. |
| Occupied households | 2,215 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Renter-occupied households | 648 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Households with no vehicle | 67 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Share of households with no car | 0.0302 share | derived | — Households in Worland, WY with no vehicle available. This is the strongest published local signal there is for who has to hire a ride, and it is the one number in this pack that most directly separates a town where every |
| Renter households that do have a vehicle | 628 households | derived | — Renters with a car: the second-strongest laundromat customer group -- an apartment without hookups, but they can drive to the store. |
| Owner households that do have a vehicle | 1,520 households | derived | — Nearly all own a washer; a few use a laundromat for bulky loads or when a machine breaks. |
| What a car cleaner is paid here | 14.28 $/hour | sourced | US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024 |
| How this town's labour costs compare with the country | 0.842 x national | derived | — Everything a person does by hand costs roughly what a person costs here. This one ratio scales every cleaning price in the pack, and it is measured rather than guessed. |
| How this town's property costs compare with the country | 0.498 x national | derived | — Rent is the other half of a local cost. There is no published rent for small commercial bays anywhere in the country, so the pack uses the one property price that IS published for 32,330 places -- what people pay to rent |
| A small commercial bay, per month | 634 $/month | derived | — This is a derivation, not a local quote: a national published figure scaled by a published local index. Nobody publishes what a 1,500 square foot bay lets for in a town this size, because small commercial bays let privat |
| What this utility's business customers pay on average | 0.1053 $/kWh | derived | — The same calculation for the commercial class, which is the one a leased bay with a charger would be billed on. |
| Average business electricity price in this state | 0.1001 $/kWh | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A |
| Electric utility | PacifiCorp | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861 2024, service territory and sales to ultimate customers |
| Annual overnight visitors | 60,000 person-trips/year | estimated | — Wyoming Office of Tourism / Dean Runyan, calendar year 2025 (report dated April 2026): Washakie County overnight person-trips = 60,000. This is the county, not the city; Worland is the seat and motel hub, but camping/oth |
| Average visiting party size | 2.4 people | sourced | Wyoming Office of Tourism / Dean Runyan Associates, The Economic Impact of Travel in Wyoming, Calendar Year 2025 |
| What a household here earns in a year | 63,357 $/year | sourced | US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table B19013 |
| College enrollment | 0 students | sourced | CollegeSimply |
Pack researched 2026-09-11 · federal cross-check of this pack: 10 confirmed, 0 disputed, 0 unconfirmed, 4 not checked · the full pack (80 records) · this town on the Cybercab ladder · the fast-charger sim for Worland, WY · Change the assumptions for Worland, WY ↓
Does not pay Presidio, TX — 2,909 people · payback never · unattended never
Who would wash here. A 1.50-mile radius covers all of the town’s 2.6 square miles, so 1,066 of its 1,066 households are inside it: 42 with no car (50% of them counted as laundromat households → 21), 255 renters with a car (25% → 64) and 769 owners with a car (3% → 23). That is 108 laundromat households doing 3.0 loads a week each → 323 loads a week, plus 3.3 from visitors (17,000 a year, 2.0% of parties doing one load). Split evenly with the 3 other stores we assume inside the radius → 82 loads a week of demand for this store.
The money. 82 loads a week × 52 × $6.00 a load = revenue $25,485. Electricity −$1,809 (3.0 kWh a load at 14.2¢); water and sewer −$1,529 (30 gal a load at $12.00 per 1,000); card fees −$510. An attendant on the floor 84 hours a week at the pack’s local wage of $12.56 an hour (+12% payroll burden) = −$61,446; rent −$7,820 (2,500 sq ft, from the pack’s $391-a-month 1,500 sq ft bay); repairs −$12,000; insurance −$4,000; everything else −$6,000. Net −$69,629 a year. Break-even is 439 loads a week once the $300,000 opening cost is written off over 12 years. Payback: never — the store loses money every year. Unattended (attendant hours set to 0, nothing else changed): net −$8,183, payback never.
The numbers this town supplied, and where each came from — Presidio, TX
| Input | Value | Basis | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| People living here | 2,909 people | sourced | US Census Bureau, Subcounty Population Estimates |
| How big the city is | 2.575 sq mi | sourced | US Census Bureau Gazetteer |
| People per square mile | 1,130 people/sq mi | derived | — How tightly packed the town is, which is what decides how far an average trip runs and how much empty driving there is between fares. |
| Occupied households | 1,066 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Renter-occupied households | 255 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Households with no vehicle | 42 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Share of households with no car | 0.0394 share | derived | — Households in Presidio, TX with no vehicle available. This is the strongest published local signal there is for who has to hire a ride, and it is the one number in this pack that most directly separates a town where ever |
| Renter households that do have a vehicle | 255 households | derived | — Renters with a car: the second-strongest laundromat customer group -- an apartment without hookups, but they can drive to the store. |
| Owner households that do have a vehicle | 769 households | derived | — Nearly all own a washer; a few use a laundromat for bulky loads or when a machine breaks. |
| What a car cleaner is paid here | 12.56 $/hour | sourced | US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024 |
| How this town's labour costs compare with the country | 0.741 x national | derived | — Everything a person does by hand costs roughly what a person costs here. This one ratio scales every cleaning price in the pack, and it is measured rather than guessed. |
| How this town's property costs compare with the country | 0.306 x national | derived | — Rent is the other half of a local cost. There is no published rent for small commercial bays anywhere in the country, so the pack uses the one property price that IS published for 32,330 places -- what people pay to rent |
| A small commercial bay, per month | 391 $/month | derived | — This is a derivation, not a local quote: a national published figure scaled by a published local index. Nobody publishes what a 1,500 square foot bay lets for in a town this size, because small commercial bays let privat |
| What this utility's business customers pay on average | 0.142 $/kWh | derived | — The same calculation for the commercial class, which is the one a leased bay with a charger would be billed on. |
| Average business electricity price in this state | 0.0866 $/kWh | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A |
| Electric utility | Rio Grande Electric Coop, Inc | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861 2024, service territory and sales to ultimate customers |
| Annual visitors | 17,000 people/year | estimated | — No convention-and-visitor authority publishes a city headcount; this estimate is anchored to the City of Presidio’s FY2023 hotel occupancy tax (the latest complete year the city published) and cross-checked against calen |
| Average visiting party size | 2 people | estimated | — No visitor authority publishes a Presidio party size; motels sell two-queen family rooms and serve a mix of workers, couples, hunters, and motorcyclists, so parties are not mostly solo. |
| What a household here earns in a year | 40,800 $/year | sourced | US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table B19013 |
| College enrollment | 0 students | estimated | — No college campus in the city; Presidio ISD only offers distance-learning college courses through Odessa College and UT Permian Basin. |
Pack researched 2026-09-09 · federal cross-check of this pack: 4 confirmed, 1 disputed, 0 unconfirmed, 0 not checked · the full pack (74 records) · this town on the Cybercab ladder · the fast-charger sim for Presidio, TX · Change the assumptions for Presidio, TX ↓
Does not pay Winner, SD — 2,969 people · payback never · unattended never
Who would wash here. A 1.50-mile radius covers all of the town’s 2.3 square miles, so 1,146 of its 1,146 households are inside it: 144 with no car (50% of them counted as laundromat households → 72), 304 renters with a car (25% → 76) and 698 owners with a car (3% → 21). That is 169 laundromat households doing 3.0 loads a week each → 507 loads a week, plus 10.9 from visitors (74,000 a year, 2.0% of parties doing one load). Split evenly with the 3 other stores we assume inside the radius → 129 loads a week of demand for this store.
The money. 129 loads a week × 52 × $6.00 a load = revenue $40,386. Electricity −$2,292 (3.0 kWh a load at 11.3¢ state average); water and sewer −$2,423 (30 gal a load at $12.00 per 1,000); card fees −$808. An attendant on the floor 84 hours a week at the pack’s local wage of $15.00 an hour (+12% payroll burden) = −$73,382; rent −$13,900 (2,500 sq ft, from the pack’s $695-a-month 1,500 sq ft bay); repairs −$12,000; insurance −$4,000; everything else −$6,000. Net −$74,419 a year. Break-even is 499 loads a week once the $300,000 opening cost is written off over 12 years. Payback: never — the store loses money every year. Unattended (attendant hours set to 0, nothing else changed): net −$1,037, payback never.
The numbers this town supplied, and where each came from — Winner, SD
| Input | Value | Basis | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| People living here | 2,969 people | sourced | US Census Bureau, Subcounty Population Estimates |
| How big the city is | 2.292 sq mi | sourced | US Census Bureau Gazetteer |
| People per square mile | 1,295 people/sq mi | derived | — How tightly packed the town is, which is what decides how far an average trip runs and how much empty driving there is between fares. |
| Occupied households | 1,146 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Renter-occupied households | 433 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Households with no vehicle | 144 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Share of households with no car | 0.1257 share | derived | — Households in Winner, SD with no vehicle available. This is the strongest published local signal there is for who has to hire a ride, and it is the one number in this pack that most directly separates a town where everyo |
| Renter households that do have a vehicle | 304 households | derived | — Renters with a car: the second-strongest laundromat customer group -- an apartment without hookups, but they can drive to the store. |
| Owner households that do have a vehicle | 698 households | derived | — Nearly all own a washer; a few use a laundromat for bulky loads or when a machine breaks. |
| What a car cleaner is paid here | 15 $/hour | sourced | US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024 |
| How this town's labour costs compare with the country | 0.884 x national | derived | — Everything a person does by hand costs roughly what a person costs here. This one ratio scales every cleaning price in the pack, and it is measured rather than guessed. |
| How this town's property costs compare with the country | 0.545 x national | derived | — Rent is the other half of a local cost. There is no published rent for small commercial bays anywhere in the country, so the pack uses the one property price that IS published for 32,330 places -- what people pay to rent |
| A small commercial bay, per month | 695 $/month | derived | — This is a derivation, not a local quote: a national published figure scaled by a published local index. Nobody publishes what a 1,500 square foot bay lets for in a town this size, because small commercial bays let privat |
| Average business electricity price in this state | 0.1135 $/kWh | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A |
| Electric utility | Winner Municipal Electric | sourced | South Dakota Public Utilities Commission |
| Annual visitors | 74,000 visitors/year | derived | — Calendar year 2025: Travel South Dakota/Tourism Economics published 14.97 million statewide visitors and $25.6 million of visitor spending in Tripp County; Winner is the county's lodging and retail hub so almost all of t |
| Average visiting party size | 2.6 people | estimated | — Travel South Dakota's 2024 visitor profile (latest published party-size survey) reports a typical South Dakota travel party of 2.6 people; Winner has no local CVB figure, and hunting parties here may run a bit larger. Un |
| What a household here earns in a year | 47,381 $/year | sourced | US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table B19013 |
| College enrollment | 0 students | sourced | CollegeSimply |
Gaps in this town's inputs: The pack has no commercial rate for the town's own utility, so the model prices electricity at the state's commercial average (11.3¢ a kWh).
Pack researched 2026-09-09 · federal cross-check of this pack: 9 confirmed, 1 disputed, 0 unconfirmed, 6 not checked · the full pack (77 records) · this town on the Cybercab ladder · the fast-charger sim for Winner, SD · Change the assumptions for Winner, SD ↓
Does not pay Ely, NV — 3,946 people · payback never · unattended never
Who would wash here. A 1.50-mile radius covers 93% of the town’s 7.6 square miles, so 1,503 of its 1,622 households are inside it: 41 with no car (50% of them counted as laundromat households → 20), 495 renters with a car (25% → 124) and 968 owners with a car (3% → 29). That is 173 laundromat households doing 3.0 loads a week each → 519 loads a week, plus 53.5 from visitors (306,000 a year, 2.0% of parties doing one load). Split evenly with the 3 other stores we assume inside the radius → 143 loads a week of demand for this store.
The money. 143 loads a week × 52 × $6.00 a load = revenue $44,693. Electricity −$2,139 (3.0 kWh a load at 9.6¢); water and sewer −$2,682 (30 gal a load at $12.00 per 1,000); card fees −$894. An attendant on the floor 84 hours a week at the pack’s local wage of $17.28 an hour (+12% payroll burden) = −$84,537; rent −$17,140 (2,500 sq ft, from the pack’s $857-a-month 1,500 sq ft bay); repairs −$12,000; insurance −$4,000; everything else −$6,000. Net −$84,697 a year. Break-even is 546 loads a week once the $300,000 opening cost is written off over 12 years. Payback: never — the store loses money every year. Unattended (attendant hours set to 0, nothing else changed): net −$161, payback never.
The numbers this town supplied, and where each came from — Ely, NV
| Input | Value | Basis | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| People living here | 3,946 people | sourced | US Census Bureau, Subcounty Population Estimates |
| How big the city is | 7.626 sq mi | sourced | US Census Bureau Gazetteer |
| People per square mile | 517 people/sq mi | derived | — How tightly packed the town is, which is what decides how far an average trip runs and how much empty driving there is between fares. |
| Occupied households | 1,622 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Renter-occupied households | 562 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Households with no vehicle | 44 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Share of households with no car | 0.0271 share | derived | — Households in Ely, NV with no vehicle available. This is the strongest published local signal there is for who has to hire a ride, and it is the one number in this pack that most directly separates a town where everyone |
| Renter households that do have a vehicle | 534 households | derived | — Renters with a car: the second-strongest laundromat customer group -- an apartment without hookups, but they can drive to the store. |
| Owner households that do have a vehicle | 1,044 households | derived | — Nearly all own a washer; a few use a laundromat for bulky loads or when a machine breaks. |
| What a car cleaner is paid here | 17.28 $/hour | sourced | US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024 |
| How this town's labour costs compare with the country | 1.019 x national | derived | — Everything a person does by hand costs roughly what a person costs here. This one ratio scales every cleaning price in the pack, and it is measured rather than guessed. |
| How this town's property costs compare with the country | 0.672 x national | derived | — Rent is the other half of a local cost. There is no published rent for small commercial bays anywhere in the country, so the pack uses the one property price that IS published for 32,330 places -- what people pay to rent |
| A small commercial bay, per month | 857 $/month | derived | — This is a derivation, not a local quote: a national published figure scaled by a published local index. Nobody publishes what a 1,500 square foot bay lets for in a town this size, because small commercial bays let privat |
| What this utility's business customers pay on average | 0.0957 $/kWh | derived | — The same calculation for the commercial class, which is the one a leased bay with a charger would be billed on. |
| Average business electricity price in this state | 0.0983 $/kWh | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A |
| Electric utility | Mt Wheeler Power, Inc | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861 2024, service territory and sales to ultimate customers |
| Annual visitors | 306,000 visitors/year | sourced | White Pine County Tourism and Recreation Board (via Citizen Portal meeting summary) |
| Average visiting party size | 2.2 people | estimated | — No White Pine CVB party-size figure was published; outdoor and highway visitors here are mostly couples, not solo business travelers. |
| What a household here earns in a year | 77,500 $/year | sourced | US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table B19013 |
| City college enrollment | 100 students | estimated | — GBC Ely Center is the only college in town and does not publish a campus headcount; 100 is a local on-site estimate, not the 3,320 system-wide figure. |
Pack researched 2026-09-09 · federal cross-check of this pack: 6 confirmed, 0 disputed, 0 unconfirmed, 3 not checked · the full pack (78 records) · this town on the Cybercab ladder · the fast-charger sim for Ely, NV · Change the assumptions for Ely, NV ↓
Does not pay Clifton, AZ — 3,752 people · payback never · unattended never
Who would wash here. A 1.50-mile radius covers 48% of the town’s 14.7 square miles, so 605 of its 1,256 households are inside it: 0 with no car (50% of them counted as laundromat households → 0), 373 renters with a car (25% → 93) and 232 owners with a car (3% → 7). That is 100 laundromat households doing 3.0 loads a week each → 300 loads a week, plus 5.9 from visitors (26,000 a year, 2.0% of parties doing one load). Split evenly with the 3 other stores we assume inside the radius → 77 loads a week of demand for this store.
The money. 77 loads a week × 52 × $6.00 a load = revenue $23,894. Electricity −$1,581 (3.0 kWh a load at 13.2¢); water and sewer −$1,434 (30 gal a load at $12.00 per 1,000); card fees −$478. An attendant on the floor 84 hours a week at the pack’s local wage of $15.26 an hour (+12% payroll burden) = −$74,654; rent −$10,960 (2,500 sq ft, from the pack’s $548-a-month 1,500 sq ft bay); repairs −$12,000; insurance −$4,000; everything else −$6,000. Net −$87,213 a year. Break-even is 498 loads a week once the $300,000 opening cost is written off over 12 years. Payback: never — the store loses money every year. Unattended (attendant hours set to 0, nothing else changed): net −$12,558, payback never.
The numbers this town supplied, and where each came from — Clifton, AZ
| Input | Value | Basis | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| People living here | 3,752 people | sourced | US Census Bureau, Subcounty Population Estimates |
| How big the city is | 14.68 sq mi | sourced | US Census Bureau Gazetteer |
| People per square mile | 256 people/sq mi | derived | — How tightly packed the town is, which is what decides how far an average trip runs and how much empty driving there is between fares. |
| Occupied households | 1,256 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Renter-occupied households | 774 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Households with no vehicle | 0 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Share of households with no car | 0 share | derived | — Households in Clifton, AZ with no vehicle available. This is the strongest published local signal there is for who has to hire a ride, and it is the one number in this pack that most directly separates a town where every |
| Renter households that do have a vehicle | 774 households | derived | — Renters with a car: the second-strongest laundromat customer group -- an apartment without hookups, but they can drive to the store. |
| Owner households that do have a vehicle | 482 households | derived | — Nearly all own a washer; a few use a laundromat for bulky loads or when a machine breaks. |
| What a car cleaner is paid here | 15.26 $/hour | sourced | US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024 |
| How this town's labour costs compare with the country | 0.9 x national | derived | — Everything a person does by hand costs roughly what a person costs here. This one ratio scales every cleaning price in the pack, and it is measured rather than guessed. |
| How this town's property costs compare with the country | 0.43 x national | derived | — Rent is the other half of a local cost. There is no published rent for small commercial bays anywhere in the country, so the pack uses the one property price that IS published for 32,330 places -- what people pay to rent |
| A small commercial bay, per month | 548 $/month | derived | — This is a derivation, not a local quote: a national published figure scaled by a published local index. Nobody publishes what a 1,500 square foot bay lets for in a town this size, because small commercial bays let privat |
| What this utility's business customers pay on average | 0.1323 $/kWh | derived | — The same calculation for the commercial class, which is the one a leased bay with a charger would be billed on. |
| Average business electricity price in this state | 0.1247 $/kWh | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A |
| Electric utility | Arizona Public Service Co | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861 2024, service territory and sales to ultimate customers |
| Annual visitors | 26,000 visitors/year | estimated | — 2024 is the latest complete calendar year in the Arizona Office of Tourism / Dean Runyan county tables; no DMO publishes a Clifton head-count, and Greenlee is a mining county with a small visitor economy, not a tourist c |
| Average visiting party size | 1.7 people | estimated | — Visitor authorities do not publish a Clifton or Greenlee party size; motel demand here is mostly mine contractors who often travel alone, not leisure families. |
| What a household here earns in a year | 78,480 $/year | sourced | US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table B19013 |
| College enrolment in city | 0 | estimated | — No college or university campus operates in Clifton; the former Clifton Unified district closed in 2010 and students now attend Morenci USD or Eastern Arizona College 31 miles away. |
Gaps in this town's inputs: The ACS estimate of households with no vehicle here is zero — the published cell for a very small place, not a missing one. Demand comes from renter and owner households only.
Pack researched 2026-09-09 · federal cross-check of this pack: 9 confirmed, 0 disputed, 0 unconfirmed, 2 not checked · the full pack (80 records) · this town on the Cybercab ladder · the fast-charger sim for Clifton, AZ · Change the assumptions for Clifton, AZ ↓
Does not pay Dover, TN — 1,918 people · payback never · unattended never
Who would wash here. A 1.50-mile radius covers all of the town’s 3.9 square miles, so 689 of its 689 households are inside it: 34 with no car (50% of them counted as laundromat households → 17), 169 renters with a car (25% → 42) and 486 owners with a car (3% → 15). That is 74 laundromat households doing 3.0 loads a week each → 221 loads a week, plus 18.8 from visitors (151,151 a year, 2.0% of parties doing one load). Split evenly with the 3 other stores we assume inside the radius → 60 loads a week of demand for this store.
The money. 60 loads a week × 52 × $6.00 a load = revenue $18,739. Electricity −$1,212 (3.0 kWh a load at 12.9¢); water and sewer −$1,124 (30 gal a load at $12.00 per 1,000); card fees −$375. An attendant on the floor 84 hours a week at the pack’s local wage of $14.06 an hour (+12% payroll burden) = −$68,784; rent −$13,400 (2,500 sq ft, from the pack’s $670-a-month 1,500 sq ft bay); repairs −$12,000; insurance −$4,000; everything else −$6,000. Net −$88,156 a year. Break-even is 484 loads a week once the $300,000 opening cost is written off over 12 years. Payback: never — the store loses money every year. Unattended (attendant hours set to 0, nothing else changed): net −$19,373, payback never.
The numbers this town supplied, and where each came from — Dover, TN
| Input | Value | Basis | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| People living here | 1,918 people | sourced | US Census Bureau, Subcounty Population Estimates |
| How big the city is | 3.867 sq mi | sourced | US Census Bureau Gazetteer |
| People per square mile | 496 people/sq mi | derived | — How tightly packed the town is, which is what decides how far an average trip runs and how much empty driving there is between fares. |
| Occupied households | 689 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Renter-occupied households | 195 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Households with no vehicle | 34 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Share of households with no car | 0.0493 share | derived | — Households in Dover, TN with no vehicle available. This is the strongest published local signal there is for who has to hire a ride, and it is the one number in this pack that most directly separates a town where everyon |
| Renter households that do have a vehicle | 169 households | derived | — Renters with a car: the second-strongest laundromat customer group -- an apartment without hookups, but they can drive to the store. |
| Owner households that do have a vehicle | 486 households | derived | — Nearly all own a washer; a few use a laundromat for bulky loads or when a machine breaks. |
| What a car cleaner is paid here | 14.06 $/hour | sourced | US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024 |
| How this town's labour costs compare with the country | 0.829 x national | derived | — Everything a person does by hand costs roughly what a person costs here. This one ratio scales every cleaning price in the pack, and it is measured rather than guessed. |
| How this town's property costs compare with the country | 0.526 x national | derived | — Rent is the other half of a local cost. There is no published rent for small commercial bays anywhere in the country, so the pack uses the one property price that IS published for 32,330 places -- what people pay to rent |
| A small commercial bay, per month | 670 $/month | derived | — This is a derivation, not a local quote: a national published figure scaled by a published local index. Nobody publishes what a 1,500 square foot bay lets for in a town this size, because small commercial bays let privat |
| What this utility's business customers pay on average | 0.1294 $/kWh | derived | — The same calculation for the commercial class, which is the one a leased bay with a charger would be billed on. |
| Average business electricity price in this state | 0.1394 $/kWh | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A |
| Electric utility | Cumberland Elec Member Corp | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861 2024, service territory and sales to ultimate customers |
| Annual visitors | 151,151 visits/year | sourced | National Park Service (via Wikipedia) |
| Average visiting party size | 3.1 people | derived | — Only published on-site visitor survey for this park; parties share one vehicle so headcount is not ride count. |
| What a household here earns in a year | 75,190 $/year | sourced | US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table B19013 |
| College enrollment | 0 students | estimated | — Dover has no college or university campus; Stewart County’s ECD profile lists no regional higher-education institution with enrollment. |
Pack researched 2026-09-09 · federal cross-check of this pack: 10 confirmed, 0 disputed, 0 unconfirmed, 2 not checked · the full pack (79 records) · this town on the Cybercab ladder · the fast-charger sim for Dover, TN · Change the assumptions for Dover, TN ↓
Does not pay Scott City, KS — 3,855 people · payback never · unattended 66.0 yr
Who would wash here. A 1.50-mile radius covers all of the town’s 2.7 square miles, so 1,837 of its 1,837 households are inside it: 0 with no car (50% of them counted as laundromat households → 0), 599 renters with a car (25% → 150) and 1,238 owners with a car (3% → 37). That is 187 laundromat households doing 3.0 loads a week each → 561 loads a week, plus 10.6 from visitors (55,300 a year, 2.0% of parties doing one load). Split evenly with the 3 other stores we assume inside the radius → 143 loads a week of demand for this store.
The money. 143 loads a week × 52 × $6.00 a load = revenue $44,562. Electricity −$2,734 (3.0 kWh a load at 12.3¢ state average); water and sewer −$2,674 (30 gal a load at $12.00 per 1,000); card fees −$891. An attendant on the floor 84 hours a week at the pack’s local wage of $19.72 an hour (+12% payroll burden) = −$96,473; rent −$11,720 (2,500 sq ft, from the pack’s $586-a-month 1,500 sq ft bay); repairs −$12,000; insurance −$4,000; everything else −$6,000. Net −$91,930 a year. Break-even is 579 loads a week once the $300,000 opening cost is written off over 12 years. Payback: never — the store loses money every year. Unattended (attendant hours set to 0, nothing else changed): net $4,543, payback 66.0 years.
The numbers this town supplied, and where each came from — Scott City, KS
| Input | Value | Basis | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| People living here | 3,855 people | sourced | US Census Bureau, Subcounty Population Estimates |
| How big the city is | 2.713 sq mi | sourced | US Census Bureau Gazetteer |
| People per square mile | 1,421 people/sq mi | derived | — How tightly packed the town is, which is what decides how far an average trip runs and how much empty driving there is between fares. |
| Occupied households | 1,837 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Renter-occupied households | 599 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Households with no vehicle | 0 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Share of households with no car | 0 share | derived | — Households in Scott City, KS with no vehicle available. This is the strongest published local signal there is for who has to hire a ride, and it is the one number in this pack that most directly separates a town where ev |
| Renter households that do have a vehicle | 599 households | derived | — Renters with a car: the second-strongest laundromat customer group -- an apartment without hookups, but they can drive to the store. |
| Owner households that do have a vehicle | 1,238 households | derived | — Nearly all own a washer; a few use a laundromat for bulky loads or when a machine breaks. |
| What a car cleaner is paid here | 19.72 $/hour | sourced | US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024 |
| How this town's labour costs compare with the country | 1.163 x national | derived | — Everything a person does by hand costs roughly what a person costs here. This one ratio scales every cleaning price in the pack, and it is measured rather than guessed. |
| How this town's property costs compare with the country | 0.459 x national | derived | — Rent is the other half of a local cost. There is no published rent for small commercial bays anywhere in the country, so the pack uses the one property price that IS published for 32,330 places -- what people pay to rent |
| A small commercial bay, per month | 586 $/month | derived | — This is a derivation, not a local quote: a national published figure scaled by a published local index. Nobody publishes what a 1,500 square foot bay lets for in a town this size, because small commercial bays let privat |
| Average business electricity price in this state | 0.1227 $/kWh | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A |
| Electric utility serving Scott City | Wheatland Electric Cooperative, Inc. | estimated | — The City of Scott City's official Other Utilities page lists Wheatland Electric (101 Main, Scott City) as the electricity provider for the city; Lane-Scott Electric serves only parts of the surrounding county. Unconfirme |
| Annual visitors | 55,300 visitors/year | derived | — 2024 is the latest complete calendar year in Tourism Economics county spending (via the Dodge City STAR study) combined with the 2024 Kansas statewide visitor volume and spending report; no city CVB publishes a Scott Cit |
| Average visiting party size | 2 people | estimated | — Kansas's 2021 statewide visitor profile puts average party size at about 2; Scott City is a couple-and-family highway/park stop, not a solo-business market. |
| What a household here earns in a year | 54,880 $/year | sourced | US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table B19013 |
| College enrollment | 0 students | sourced | Kansas State University Extension, First Impressions Scott City |
Gaps in this town's inputs: The pack has no commercial rate for the town's own utility, so the model prices electricity at the state's commercial average (12.3¢ a kWh). · The ACS estimate of households with no vehicle here is zero — the published cell for a very small place, not a missing one. Demand comes from renter and owner households only.
Pack researched 2026-09-09 · federal cross-check of this pack: 7 confirmed, 1 disputed, 0 unconfirmed, 2 not checked · the full pack (77 records) · this town on the Cybercab ladder · the fast-charger sim for Scott City, KS · Change the assumptions for Scott City, KS ↓
Does not pay Malta, MT — 1,846 people · payback never · unattended never
Who would wash here. A 1.50-mile radius covers all of the town’s 1.1 square miles, so 854 of its 854 households are inside it: 0 with no car (50% of them counted as laundromat households → 0), 326 renters with a car (25% → 82) and 528 owners with a car (3% → 16). That is 97 laundromat households doing 3.0 loads a week each → 292 loads a week, plus 4.2 from visitors (25,000 a year, 2.0% of parties doing one load). Split evenly with the 3 other stores we assume inside the radius → 74 loads a week of demand for this store.
The money. 74 loads a week × 52 × $6.00 a load = revenue $23,105. Electricity −$1,555 (3.0 kWh a load at 13.5¢); water and sewer −$1,386 (30 gal a load at $12.00 per 1,000); card fees −$462. An attendant on the floor 84 hours a week at the pack’s local wage of $16.89 an hour (+12% payroll burden) = −$82,629; rent −$11,380 (2,500 sq ft, from the pack’s $569-a-month 1,500 sq ft bay); repairs −$12,000; insurance −$4,000; everything else −$6,000. Net −$96,307 a year. Break-even is 530 loads a week once the $300,000 opening cost is written off over 12 years. Payback: never — the store loses money every year. Unattended (attendant hours set to 0, nothing else changed): net −$13,678, payback never.
The numbers this town supplied, and where each came from — Malta, MT
| Input | Value | Basis | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| People living here | 1,846 people | sourced | US Census Bureau, Subcounty Population Estimates |
| How big the city is | 1.074 sq mi | sourced | US Census Bureau Gazetteer |
| People per square mile | 1,719 people/sq mi | derived | — How tightly packed the town is, which is what decides how far an average trip runs and how much empty driving there is between fares. |
| Occupied households | 854 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Renter-occupied households | 326 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Households with no vehicle | 0 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Share of households with no car | 0 share | derived | — Households in Malta, MT with no vehicle available. This is the strongest published local signal there is for who has to hire a ride, and it is the one number in this pack that most directly separates a town where everyon |
| Renter households that do have a vehicle | 326 households | derived | — Renters with a car: the second-strongest laundromat customer group -- an apartment without hookups, but they can drive to the store. |
| Owner households that do have a vehicle | 528 households | derived | — Nearly all own a washer; a few use a laundromat for bulky loads or when a machine breaks. |
| What a car cleaner is paid here | 16.89 $/hour | sourced | US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024 |
| How this town's labour costs compare with the country | 0.996 x national | derived | — Everything a person does by hand costs roughly what a person costs here. This one ratio scales every cleaning price in the pack, and it is measured rather than guessed. |
| How this town's property costs compare with the country | 0.447 x national | derived | — Rent is the other half of a local cost. There is no published rent for small commercial bays anywhere in the country, so the pack uses the one property price that IS published for 32,330 places -- what people pay to rent |
| A small commercial bay, per month | 569 $/month | derived | — This is a derivation, not a local quote: a national published figure scaled by a published local index. Nobody publishes what a 1,500 square foot bay lets for in a town this size, because small commercial bays let privat |
| What this utility's business customers pay on average | 0.1346 $/kWh | derived | — The same calculation for the commercial class, which is the one a leased bay with a charger would be billed on. |
| Average business electricity price in this state | 0.1348 $/kWh | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A |
| Electric utility | NorthWestern Energy LLC - (MT) | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861 2024, service territory and sales to ultimate customers |
| Annual visitors | 25,000 visitors/year | estimated | — No city or Missouri River Country CVA publishes a Malta calendar-year visitor total; this 2024–25 composite is built from the dinosaur museum, Bowdoin NWR FY2024 visits, and known lodging, not from a single authority yea |
| Average visiting party size | 2.29 people | sourced | Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research |
| What a household here earns in a year | 54,483 $/year | sourced | US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table B19013 |
| College enrollment | 0 students | estimated | — No college or university sits in Malta; the K-12 district is the only campus in town. |
Gaps in this town's inputs: The ACS estimate of households with no vehicle here is zero — the published cell for a very small place, not a missing one. Demand comes from renter and owner households only.
Pack researched 2026-09-09 · federal cross-check of this pack: 5 confirmed, 0 disputed, 0 unconfirmed, 9 not checked · the full pack (80 records) · this town on the Cybercab ladder · the fast-charger sim for Malta, MT · Change the assumptions for Malta, MT ↓
Does not pay Alturas, CA — 2,634 people · payback never · unattended never
Who would wash here. A 1.50-mile radius covers all of the town’s 2.8 square miles, so 1,073 of its 1,073 households are inside it: 135 with no car (50% of them counted as laundromat households → 68), 311 renters with a car (25% → 78) and 627 owners with a car (3% → 19). That is 164 laundromat households doing 3.0 loads a week each → 492 loads a week, plus 7.3 from visitors (42,000 a year, 2.0% of parties doing one load). Split evenly with the 3 other stores we assume inside the radius → 125 loads a week of demand for this store.
The money. 125 loads a week × 52 × $6.00 a load = revenue $38,963. Electricity −$7,687 (3.0 kWh a load at 39.5¢); water and sewer −$2,338 (30 gal a load at $12.00 per 1,000); card fees −$779. An attendant on the floor 84 hours a week at the pack’s local wage of $18.03 an hour (+12% payroll burden) = −$88,206; rent −$15,040 (2,500 sq ft, from the pack’s $752-a-month 1,500 sq ft bay); repairs −$12,000; insurance −$4,000; everything else −$6,000. Net −$97,087 a year. Break-even is 666 loads a week once the $300,000 opening cost is written off over 12 years. Payback: never — the store loses money every year. Unattended (attendant hours set to 0, nothing else changed): net −$8,882, payback never.
The numbers this town supplied, and where each came from — Alturas, CA
| Input | Value | Basis | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| People living here | 2,634 people | sourced | US Census Bureau, Subcounty Population Estimates |
| How big the city is | 2.839 sq mi | sourced | US Census Bureau Gazetteer |
| People per square mile | 928 people/sq mi | derived | — How tightly packed the town is, which is what decides how far an average trip runs and how much empty driving there is between fares. |
| Occupied households | 1,073 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Renter-occupied households | 354 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Households with no vehicle | 135 households | sourced | US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25044 (tenure by vehicles available) |
| Share of households with no car | 0.1258 share | derived | — Households in Alturas, CA with no vehicle available. This is the strongest published local signal there is for who has to hire a ride, and it is the one number in this pack that most directly separates a town where every |
| Renter households that do have a vehicle | 311 households | derived | — Renters with a car: the second-strongest laundromat customer group -- an apartment without hookups, but they can drive to the store. |
| Owner households that do have a vehicle | 627 households | derived | — Nearly all own a washer; a few use a laundromat for bulky loads or when a machine breaks. |
| What a car cleaner is paid here | 18.03 $/hour | sourced | US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024 |
| How this town's labour costs compare with the country | 1.063 x national | derived | — Everything a person does by hand costs roughly what a person costs here. This one ratio scales every cleaning price in the pack, and it is measured rather than guessed. |
| How this town's property costs compare with the country | 0.59 x national | derived | — Rent is the other half of a local cost. There is no published rent for small commercial bays anywhere in the country, so the pack uses the one property price that IS published for 32,330 places -- what people pay to rent |
| A small commercial bay, per month | 752 $/month | derived | — This is a derivation, not a local quote: a national published figure scaled by a published local index. Nobody publishes what a 1,500 square foot bay lets for in a town this size, because small commercial bays let privat |
| What this utility's business customers pay on average | 0.3946 $/kWh | derived | — The same calculation for the commercial class, which is the one a leased bay with a charger would be billed on. |
| Average business electricity price in this state | 0.2733 $/kWh | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A |
| Electric utility | Pacific Gas & Electric Co. | sourced | US Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861 2024, service territory and sales to ultimate customers |
| Annual visitors | 42,000 visitors/year | estimated | — Calendar year 2023, the most recent complete year whose county table was actually opened. Visit California/Dean Runyan do not publish a person-trip count for Modoc or Alturas; they publish spending. This is not a tourist |
| Average visiting party size | 2.2 people | estimated | — No Modoc CVB publishes party size. Outdoor-recreation parties on national forests in this region average 2.5 people (NVUM Pacific Southwest); Alturas motels also serve solo truckers and one-night highway travelers, which |
| What a household here earns in a year | 59,896 $/year | sourced | US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table B19013 |
| College enrollment in the city | 0 students | estimated | — There is no college campus in Alturas; dual-enrollment at Modoc High is high-school students, not a city college. |
Pack researched 2026-09-09 · federal cross-check of this pack: 10 confirmed, 0 disputed, 0 unconfirmed, 5 not checked · the full pack (80 records) · this town on the Cybercab ladder · the fast-charger sim for Alturas, CA · Change the assumptions for Alturas, CA ↓
Change the assumptions
The register — what the model brings of its own
| Assumption | Default | Why this number |
|---|---|---|
| Washers in the store | 20 machines | A mid-size store: about twenty washers of mixed sizes and as many dryer pockets. The washers set the capacity; a dryer cycle is shorter than a wash. |
| Floor area | 2,500 sq ft | Twenty washers, twenty dryer pockets, folding tables, a restroom and a back room. Our estimate; rent below is the pack’s 1,500 sq ft bay figure scaled to this area. |
| Cost to open the store | 300,000 $ | Twenty washers and twenty dryer pockets, plus the plumbing, electrical and gas work, water heater, floor drains, build-out and signage. Our estimate; equipment alone runs roughly $120k to $200k for this count and the build-out depends on what the bay already has. No grant or seller financing assumed. |
| Years the equipment lasts | 12 years | Commercial washers and dryers are built for ten to fifteen years of daily use. Straight-line write-off, used for the break-even line. Our estimate. |
| Radius the store draws from | 1.5 miles | A household with no car walks or takes a bus with its laundry; a renter with a car drives a few minutes. A mile and a half is our estimate of the trade area. Households inside it are counted as the town’s households times the share of its land area inside the circle -- the pack’s density is the proxy, because we have no block-level map. |
| Share of no-car households that use a laundromat | 0.5 share | No car usually means an apartment, and an older apartment usually means no washer of your own. Half is our estimate; the other half have a shared laundry room in the building. |
| Share of renter households with a car that use a laundromat | 0.25 share | Renters are far likelier than owners to lack hookups, but many rentals have a washer or a laundry room. A quarter is our estimate. |
| Share of owner households that use a laundromat | 0.03 share | Nearly every owner-occupied home has its own washer; a few percent come in for comforters, a broken machine, or a big week. Our estimate. |
| Loads a laundromat household does in a week | 3 loads | A household that does its laundry away from home does it in one trip: two or three big loads a week. Our estimate. |
| Share of visiting parties that do one load in town | 0.02 share | Hotel guests do not; people on a long road trip, campers and RV travellers do. Two percent of all visiting parties is our estimate -- small on purpose, because the pack’s visitor counts are the softest number it carries. |
| Other laundromats already inside the radius | 3 stores | No federal file lists laundromats and the research packs do not carry one, but OpenStreetMap does: American Adventurer holds 9,658 mapped laundromats, and each town page now prints the count inside this radius with the date it was harvested. That count is NOT this number, and deliberately so -- it is a floor on what somebody has MAPPED, and fifteen of these twenty-nine towns map zero at 1.5 miles. Quincy, Illinois is one of them, and a town of forty thousand people is not a town with no laundromat. So this stays an estimate: three for a town of twenty to fifty thousand; a town of two thousand may have none and a big-city neighborhood has more. Demand is split evenly with them. Move this first for the town you know -- and the mapped count on the town page is the best hint you have about which way. |
| Most loads one washer can run in a day | 4 loads | A cycle is about half an hour plus loading and waiting for a dryer; over a twelve-hour day a washer that is never idle runs far more than four, but the trade is concentrated in evenings and weekends. Four a day, seven days a week, is our estimate of what a full store actually turns. |
| What a customer pays per load, wash and dry together | 6 $ | A top-loader runs about $2.50 to $4.50 a wash, a 30 lb front-loader $5 to $8, and drying about $1.50 to $2.50 a load on 2025 price lists; $6 for wash and dry on a mixed store is our middle estimate. We hold no local wash price for any town, so this is flat across all 29 -- move it for the town you know. |
| Electricity per load | 3 kWh | Washer motor about 0.3 kWh, water heating about 0.7, an electric dryer about 2. Our estimate. Most stores dry on gas, which is cheaper -- but the packs carry a commercial electricity rate and no gas rate, so the model prices all the energy as electricity and says so in the limits. |
| Water per load | 30 gallons | A top-loader uses about 30 to 40 gallons a cycle, a front-loader about 15 to 25. Thirty is our estimate for a mixed store. |
| Water and sewer, per 1,000 gallons | 12 $ | The packs carry no water or sewer rate and no federal file holds one for every town. Combined commercial water and sewer runs from about $6 to $20 per thousand gallons across US cities; $12 is our middle estimate. It is a real cost here -- move it for the town you know. |
| Hours an attendant is on the floor each week | 84 hours | Twelve hours a day, seven days a week, one person on the floor, shared between two attendants. THE cost that decides most towns: set it to 0 for an unattended store and watch the ladder move. |
| Payroll taxes and insurance on top of wages | 0.12 share | Employer FICA, unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation. Our estimate. |
| Repairs and parts, as a share of the opening cost each year | 0.04 share | Bearings, belts, coin mechanisms, a dryer motor a year. Our estimate. |
| Insurance | 4,000 $/year | Property and liability for a public-facing store with hot water and gas. Our estimate. |
| Card and payment fees on every dollar | 0.02 share | Card readers take about three percent on the card share of sales; coins take nothing. Two percent across all sales is our estimate. |
| Everything else fixed: supplies, trash, phone, accounting, signage | 6,000 $/year | Our estimate for a small store. Advertising and a wash-and-fold service are NOT assumed; both help. |
| Payback that counts as a pass | 7 years | The verdict line. Under this many years the ladder calls the store viable; under twice this, marginal; beyond that, or never, it fails. The same line the fast-charger sim uses. |
What this model cannot see
- No laundromat count. We hold no list of the stores already in any town, so the competition is a typed assumption (three inside the radius) and the split with them is even. In a town of two thousand it is probably zero; in a city neighborhood it is probably more.
- No traffic count, no block map. Households are counted by the share of the town’s land area inside the radius, so the pack’s density stands in for where people actually live. No-car households cluster near a downtown; the model spreads them evenly.
- No local price. The wash-and-dry price is one flat national estimate for all 29 towns; a real store prices to its market.
- No water or sewer rate and no gas rate for any town. Water and sewer is one flat estimate per thousand gallons; all energy is priced at the pack’s commercial electricity rate although most stores dry on gas.
- The attendant wage is the pack’s BLS figure for Cleaners of Vehicles and Equipment in the town’s labor area -- the closest published local wage the pack carries, used as a proxy for a laundromat attendant.
- Three towns (Clifton AZ, Malta MT, Scott City KS) have an ACS estimate of zero households with no vehicle. That is the published cell for a very small place, not a gap; those towns run on their renter and owner households alone.
- No wash-and-fold service, no vending, no advertising, no growth in households, no seller financing or grant. Every one of those helps the store.
- The town packs’ visitor counts are themselves estimates in most towns; the pack says so record by record, and the visitor channel is deliberately small.
Built 2026-09-22 by fleet/laundromat/_build.py from inputs.json (packs read 2026-09-18) through model.js 0.1.0 under node; the calculator above runs the same file in your browser. Town packs: /api/fleet/cities. How the packs are made and checked: the methodology. Your town is not here? Ask for it — one request researches the town once, and every sim reads the pack.