65% of laundromat owners raised prices in 2022-2023 with zero price transparency

The Coin Laundry Association's 2022 survey found 65% of laundromat owners planned price increases within 12 months, up from 20% in 2019. But unlike grocery stores or gas stations, laundromats have no requirement to post per-load prices visibly before a customer commits to a visit. A customer drives to a laundromat, loads dirty clothes out of their car, walks inside, and only then discovers prices have increased by $0.50-$1.00 per load since their last visit. With switching costs (driving to another laundromat, reloading the car, finding one with availability), most customers absorb the increase. For the median laundromat customer household earning $28,000/year doing 8 loads/month, a $1/load increase is $96/year, or 0.34% of gross income. This persists because laundromats operate as local monopolies or duopolies with minimal competition in most neighborhoods, there's no Yelp-equivalent with real-time pricing, and coin-increment pricing ($0.25 jumps) means each increase is a 6-12% step change rather than a smooth adjustment.