The database Entry no. 003
The zombie mat
After 25 bank rejections, Dave Menz bought a failing laundromat off Craigslist for $85,000 in 2010. He and his wife Carla renovated it, reinvested nearly everything for five years, and built Queen City Laundry into four Cincinnati stores reporting over $2 million a year.
The industry has a name for what Dave Menz bought in 2010: a zombie mat. A run-down, money-losing laundromat whose informal security was a local homeless man. Menz, a Cincinnati phone company worker who grew up poor in Flint, Michigan, paid $85,000 for it after 25 banks declined to lend to him. It was the only business he could afford, which turned out to be the point.
The playbook he and his wife Carla ran is now semi-famous in the industry because Menz wrote a book about it. Renovate the store into somewhere clean and safe. Staff it instead of leaving it unattended. Treat customers in underserved neighborhoods like customers. And take almost nothing out: for roughly the first five years, the couple reinvested nearly every dollar while Dave kept his day job.
The acquisition ladder
Growth came in cheap, ugly steps rather than one bold one. With the first two stores producing about $7,000 a month in combined profit, Menz bought a third laundromat for $75,000 plus $170,000 for its building; after renovation it added another $3,000 to $4,000 a month. A fourth location cost about $35,000. He added wash-and-fold service across the chain, launched pickup and delivery in 2016, and eventually replaced the original store with a large flagship nearby. Only after the third store could he leave the phone company.
Two structural decisions matter more than any renovation. Menz buys the real estate where he can, holding it in a separate company that rents to his own laundromats, making him his own landlord. And he runs the stores fully attended, which he credits with cutting incidents and insurance headaches to nearly zero. Reporting on the business puts recent revenue above $2 million a year at roughly 40 percent margins, with a team of around 40 across four locations.
Set standards at perfection, he says, and be "willing to settle for excellence." Dave Menz, Queen City Laundry
Why laundromats, specifically
Menz's thesis is that laundry is a utility. Clothes get dirty in every economy, the customer base in modest neighborhoods is durable, and the industry's mom-and-pop ownership means a disciplined operator competes mostly against neglect. The business made the family financially independent, with reported net worth in the mid seven figures, and produced the second-business pattern this database keeps finding: a book, a podcast, and coaching under the Laundromat Millionaire name.
Common questions
How much do laundromats make?
Queen City Laundry's four stores report over $2 million a year at roughly 40 percent margins; Business Insider reporting put 2022 revenue at $1.8 million. A single average store is far smaller, which is why Menz's model is renovation plus added services, not passive coin collection.
What did the first laundromat cost?
$85,000, found on Craigslist in 2010, after 25 banks said no. The lesson he draws: the deal you can afford is often a broken store, and the value is created in the renovation and the operating standard, not the purchase.
Are laundromats passive income?
Menz is blunt that his are not. He runs fully attended stores, employs about 40 people, and kept his day job for years while reinvesting. The passive version exists, but it is the zombie mat he bought, not the chain he built.
Sources
- Benzinga, citing Business Insider: The Laundromat Millionaire's four locations and $1.8M revenue
- Wash-Dry-Fold POS: From poverty to laundromat millionaires, with Dave and Carla Menz
- About Franchising: How Dave Menz turned an $85,000 Craigslist find into a multi-million-dollar business
- UpFlip: interview with Dave Menz on starting a laundromat
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