BALDWIN — A mobile laundromat could soon be coming to Northern Michigan, helping out people who don’t have easy access to a commodity many of us take for granted, a washer and dryer.
Hayden Park is the owner and founder of a mobile mechanic service, ‘Shieldwall Fleet and Auto Solutions’. Park said he came up with the idea after buying land in the Baldwin area.
“I noticed that a lot of people didn’t have access to washers and dryers. And I was thinking, how can I bring the same level of service that I bring with the automotive side to those customers and fill a need?” said Park.
He said he’s in the midst of moving to the Baldwin area from Morley and noticed several neighbors living in campers, having limited choices to do their laundry.
He said going to the laundromat can add up
“I’ve got four children, and I can’t even imagine spending $10 per load of laundry. So, I wanted to find a way to make it more convenient, save them the gas money, save them the time, and potentially even make it a little bit cheaper than the traditional laundromat cost,” said Park.
Based on his research, going to a laundromat would cost an average of $80 a month. He said he plans to charge $10 less for weekly service or $50 for every other week.
He said he has noticed some doing their laundry by hand, which also has downsides
“A lot of people will get water hauled in because digging a well is just so expensive. So, a lot of people will get water delivered. Then they have to waste their drinking water and their bathing water, on washing laundry. And it’s just not good for anybody, obviously,” said Park.
He said he already has the infrastructure in place to adapt to include a mobile laundromat.
“I’ve already got a lot of the systems in place as far as the ability to, you know, obviously take payments, the ability to buy scheduling software. I’ve noticed that there’s a lot of overlap between this and that. So, I also have vehicles that I can use to convert to the mobile laundromats,” said Park.
He said he hopes to launch the business in the next 2 to 3 weeks.
