Today we’d like to introduce you to Leah Schulte.
Hi Leah, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I never planned to own a laundromat, but my life unfolded and here I am at Midtown Washboard in St. Charles! I’d been living and working in Montana when I made the decision to move back to Missouri to be involved in the caregiving of my elderly parents. At that time I was weary of working in health care and open to a career pivot. An older brother had been with a laundry distributorship for decades and proclaimed that laundromats were not sexy but recession proof businesses and offered to guide any family member interested in embarking. A younger brother (we are 8 siblings total) who was well-established in his aviation career was looking to invest in a side business, so we partnered up. After scouting around St. Charles and St. Peters for a suitable location and a painful build-out process, we finally opened Midtown Washboard in September 2018. We are located next to Midtown Market not far from Lindenwood University with easy access from I-70 or I-370.
Our mat is open 6am to 9pm with last load at 8pm and has 26 washers in 2-, 4-, 6- and 8-loaders and 28 dryers in 3 sizes. Machines operate by coin, credit card and an app with 10% discount. We have a drop off counter where residential and commercial customers can drop off laundry for our attendants to wash, dry and fold. We are known for being clean, safe and well-maintained. Because of that, we have customers that come to our mat from Maryland Heights, north county and as far as Belleville. There is ample parking, and truckers have discovered us due to bob-tail parking. Travelers like us for same day service while they explore the area.
Because we are attended from 10 am on, staff can provide customer service to those new to our mat or modern machines and offer advice on spot treatment, good local restaurants and more. We have free Wi-Fi with a study area in the back, and a Kid’s Corner up front. We keep our mat clean, bright and pleasant. We have lots of plants and do some seasonal decorations. We’ve done some unusual activities over the years: a poetry/open mike event (flopped but fun for me!), in our early years we held laundromat birthday parties with laundry games (e.g. sock matching contests, flip-fold t-shirt folding duels, fitted sheet folding races and more) and have handed out free homemade dog treats on National Pet Day. We also provided instructions and free use of rug-making frames for woven rugs (ala those childhood potholders) from abandoned t-shirts in our lost and found so interested customers could repurpose their own old t-shirts into rugs. For 2+ years we hosted Laundry Love funded by local church groups to help cover laundry costs for customers in need.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Like all other businesses we’ve had our share of lows and highs. Covid was our first big challenge, and it hit us hard during our early growing years. As we were an essential business and stayed open, we battled staff sickness, cleaning product supply shortages, and friction between customers with opposing views on masking. While initially we had hunted for a business space with smaller square footage, I was never more grateful for our spacious size so everyone was not right on top of each other. Revenue still plummeted but we survived unlike other businesses, especially restaurants, which was heartbreaking. During Covid we operated a pick-up and delivery service but as we are not in a demographically dense area, this was not profitable. Over the years we’ve had staffing challenges. We are an industry that is utility dependent so the constantly increasing price of water, gas and electricity are big hits to our bottom line. Our current challenges we believe are related to perceived economic downturn as customers watch their wallets and are cutting back. Sadly, we’ve also lost our Hispanic clientele who worked in the trades as they have vanished.
But the flip side of the business has been how my career pivot has brought me closer to my family and allowed for some flexibility, (though not in the early years when I worked the floor as an attendant.) I appreciate that operating a laundromat allows me to do a variety of tasks during the day: some bookwork, some machine repairs, some cleaning or assisting in different capacities. There are also some regular customers that I adore and look forward to seeing at the mat.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’ve done different things over my working years, unlike some who know exactly what they want to be and do that for their entire career. That is NOT me!! By training I’m a physical therapist. I’ve worked out East and West. I went back to graduate school for an advanced degree and briefly taught as an adjunct professor. On a trip overseas, I fell in love with Nepal, went back as a volunteer teacher in a remote village and with the help of family and friends started a nonprofit. For nearly 15 years we did development projects there and I traveled back and forth supporting myself as a contract PT. I love to read and write and have been a member of various creative writing groups over the years. At the laundromat I jotted down poems in a small notebook kept in my apron pocket when I worked. These eventually developed into a self-published book, Laundromat Detour. It was a labor of love, plus cheap therapy as I dealt with customer headaches, staffing issues, machine issues, number crunching and more. During those years I collected detritus, the debris or miscellaneous items caught in our machines or left on folding tables. I created artwork from these unusual items and included photos in the book.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
Some good luck has been family support (a brother-laundromat guru and a brother-business partner and a brother-lawyer). I also learned I have a grandmother that took in laundry for work. She was was an incredible homemaker and did laundry religiously on Monday. I have one of her rinse tubs that we use for a planter at the mat. I heard a great-grandmother was also “in the laundry business” so maybe there is some laundry in my DNA. For bad luck I would say hands down the economic challenges of Covid and our current downturn. Overall it has been a challenging but good opportunity. No one knows what the future holds but I only hope to be a better co-owner, manager and citizen in these turbulent times. I also want to continue to push myself to be creative, in all my endeavors. At some point, I will retire and turn Midtown Washboard over to the next enterprising person!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.midtownwashboard.com and www.leahmschulte.com
