- Laundromat vending and ATM income together often grosses roughly $500-$1,500 a month in a busy store and much less in a quiet one.
- A snack and drink pair typically grosses about $120-$700 a month in laundromats; operators usually pay 20%-25% commission there.
- An ATM in a laundromat commonly sees about 60-200 withdrawals a month, and far fewer if the washers run on a card or app.
- Soap vending is almost always owner-run: high margin percentage, small dollar total.
- Documented add-on profit can raise sale price because laundromats sell on a multiple of earnings, often 3x-5x SDE.
Laundromat vending and ATM income is real but modest: in a busy store, snack and drink machines, soap vending and an ATM together often gross somewhere around $500 to $1,500 a month, and far less in a quiet one. None of them replaces wash revenue. What they do is add margin to rent you already pay, and documented add-on income can show up in the price when you sell.
Part of our complete guide: how much do vending machines make.
This post is written for two readers: the laundromat owner deciding what to put along the wall, and the vending or ATM operator deciding whether a laundromat is worth a pitch. The math is the same from both sides; only the split changes. If you are an operator, the placement tactics are in how to get vending machines into laundromats. Here we stay on the numbers.
Why laundromats support add-ons at all
A wash and dry cycle keeps a customer in the store for roughly an hour, often longer. They arrive with quarters or a loaded card, they have nothing to do, and many of them forgot something: detergent, dryer sheets, cash for the pool table next door, a drink for the kid. That captive hour is the entire asset. Headcount matters less than how long people stay and whether they have a way to pay.
The flip side: laundromat traffic is modest compared to an office tower or a hospital. A neighborhood store might see 40 to 70 customers a day and a large busy store 150 or more. Every add-on below scales with that number, so run it with your own counts, not a brochure’s.
Add-on by add-on: the honest ranges
| Add-on | Typical gross / month | Up-front cost | What actually drives it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Snack + drink pair | About $120–$280 in a small store; $300–$700 busy; up to ~$1,100 in large stores with wash-dry-fold | A few thousand dollars for a refurbished pair, or $0 if an operator places them | Dwell time, card acceptance, whether there is a store next door |
| Soap and laundry-product vending | Illustratively $150–$600 | A coin soap vender is a small purchase; product bought by the case | Share of customers who forget detergent; vend price |
| ATM | About 60–200 withdrawals × a $2.50–$3.50 surcharge, so roughly $150–$700 | About $2,400–$2,900 for a new retail ATM, or $0 with a third-party placement | How cash-heavy the store is; drops hard if machines run on a card or app |
| Card readers on washers and dryers | Not a separate line; it captures sales you are losing | Reader hardware plus monthly and per-transaction fees | How many customers show up without coins |
| Bill changer | None directly | A real equipment cost; buy through a laundry distributor | Keeps coin machines fed; enables every other cash add-on |
Snack ranges are from our own laundromat placement data; ATM withdrawal counts are screening ranges from our best ATM locations ranking; soap figures are an illustration using the formula below. Your store can land well outside any row.
Snack and drink machines
Cold drinks first, salty snacks second, and nothing that melts near a hot dryer wall. If the owner runs the machine himself, he keeps the whole margin but does the buying, hauling, filling and counting. Product usually costs somewhere around half of the shelf price, and card processing takes a slice of every tap. If an operator places the machine, the owner does no work and typically collects a commission of around 20% to 25% of gross in laundromats, which is higher than most venues because floor space in a laundromat is revenue.
Soap and laundry-product vending
This is the add-on the owner almost always keeps. Coin soap venders from makers like Vend-Rite commonly vend at $0.25 to $1.25 per item, with upgrades that allow up to about $2.00; newer spiral machines with card readers can charge more and carry dryer sheets, stain sticks and bags. The formula is simple: monthly visits × share who buy × average price. As an illustration, 3,000 visits a month × 5% to 10% buyers × $1.00 to $2.00 lands between $150 and $600. The margin percentage is high; the dollar total is small. Its real value is that it removes a reason for a customer to go elsewhere.
The ATM
Laundromats rank in the middle of our ATM venue list, which surprises people. The reason is the payment system. A coin-only store with a cash-leaning clientele can be a solid ATM site. A store that moved every washer to a card or app can be a poor one, because customers no longer need cash. Before anyone buys an ATM for a laundromat, look at what the washers take. The full income formula (withdrawals × surcharge, plus a little interchange, minus the venue share and fixed costs) is in how much ATM machines make.
Card readers on the machines
Card acceptance is not an add-on business, but it belongs in this math because it decides whether your other add-ons get paid. A customer who spent their last quarters on the dryer cannot buy a soda from a coin-only machine. Retrofit readers solve this on older equipment. Nayax, for example, sells readers that retrofit onto washers and dryers, and its multi-pulse setup lets one reader start up to six machines. Nayax markets revenue lifts of up to 30%; treat that as a vendor claim and measure your own. The fees are covered in vending machine card reader fees.
Picture the machines paying you while you sleep
That’s the real promise of vending — income that doesn’t cost you your time, and a life on your own terms. VendBuddy turns this guide into a step-by-step plan so you actually build it instead of just reading about it. Start free today.
Start building free →Own it or let an operator run it
For a laundromat owner, this is the whole decision, and there is no universal answer.
- Own it if you or an attendant are already in the store several times a week, you have a warehouse club on your normal route, and you want the full margin. Soap vending is almost always in this bucket.
- Let an operator place it if the store is unattended, you own several stores, or your time is worth more than the margin. A 20% to 25% commission on a machine you never touch is a clean deal.
- ATMs split the same way. Owning one means buying the machine, signing with a processor and loading your own cash. A third-party placement means you get a share of surcharge, commonly a fifth to a half, or a flat amount per withdrawal, and none of the work.
For an operator, a laundromat is usually a fill-in stop rather than an anchor. The stop gets interesting when one visit services both a vending machine and an ATM; our ATM and vending combo route post shows why shared stops are the efficient way to run both.
The stacked math in one illustrative store
Take Keisha, an illustrative owner of a single 30-washer, attended, mostly coin store. None of these figures are a real customer’s, and every one sits inside the ranges above.
| Add-on (owner-run) | Gross / month | Rough net / month |
|---|---|---|
| Snack + drink pair | $400 | About $150 after product and card fees |
| Soap vending | $300 | About $200 after product |
| ATM, 110 withdrawals at $3.00 | $330 | About $200–$250 after wireless and processing |
| Total | $1,030 | About $550–$600 |
Call it roughly $6,600 to $7,200 a year, before her own time. That will not change her life on its own. Two things make it matter. First, the cost is mostly already paid: rent, lighting and the attendant exist with or without the machines. Second, laundromats sell on a multiple of earnings, commonly around 3x to 5x seller’s discretionary earnings. If Keisha keeps clean records of that add-on income, a buyer can credit it. At 3.5x, about $7,000 a year of verified add-on profit is worth something like $24,000 of sale price. Undocumented cash from a snack machine is worth close to nothing to a buyer, so keep the records.
That is the stack in practice: the wash business carries the rent, the add-ons lift the margin, and the extra earnings plus a clean set of books become the down payment conversation for the second store. Buying that second store well is its own skill; start with our existing laundromat buying checklist.
Mistakes that quietly kill add-on income
- Coin-only machines in a card store. If the washers take cards, the vending machine has to as well.
- Glass-front machines in an unattended 24-hour store. Use steel-front equipment, bolt it down, and confirm what the cameras actually record.
- An ATM in a store that just went cashless. Withdrawal counts fall with coin use.
- Chocolate on the dryer wall. Heat ruins product and refunds eat margin.
- A changer that is always empty or broken. Every cash add-on depends on it.
- No records. Cash add-ons that never hit the books do not help a lender or a buyer.
Where to go next
If you own a store, count your daily customers for a week, check what share arrive without coins, and price the three add-ons against those numbers. If you are an operator, build a list of every laundromat in your area and qualify them by payment type and hours before you pitch. VendBuddy pulls laundromats in any ZIP with owner contact details, and credits come in one-time packs, so you can buy just enough for one town. For finding and approaching the owners themselves, see how to find laundromat owners to pitch.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does an ATM make in a laundromat?
A laundromat ATM commonly sees somewhere around 60 to 200 withdrawals a month. At a $2.50-$3.50 surcharge that is roughly $150 to $700 gross before the venue share, wireless and processing. Coin-only stores with cash-leaning customers sit at the high end; stores whose washers run on a card or app system can fall well below the range.
Should a laundromat owner own the vending machines or let an operator place them?
Own them if you or an attendant are in the store several times a week and you want the full margin; soap vending almost always fits here. Let an operator place snack and drink machines if the store is unattended, you own several stores, or your time is worth more than the margin. In laundromats, operators typically pay around 20% to 25% of gross as commission.
Is soap vending in a laundromat worth it?
Usually yes, but for convenience more than income. Coin soap venders commonly vend at $0.25 to $1.25 per item, with upgrades to about $2.00, and the dollar total depends on how many customers forget detergent. As an illustration, 3,000 monthly visits with 5% to 10% buying at $1 to $2 is about $150 to $600 a month gross.
Do laundromat vending machines need card readers?
In most stores, yes. Customers often spend their last quarters on washers and dryers, and stores that moved machines to cards or apps may have customers with no coins at all. Accepting taps alongside coins captures sales a coin-only machine loses. Retrofit readers also exist for older washers and dryers.
Does vending income increase the value of a laundromat when you sell?
It can, if it is documented. Laundromats commonly sell for roughly 3x to 5x seller discretionary earnings (SDE), so verified add-on profit adds to the price. Cash from machines that never shows up in the books is hard for a buyer or lender to credit, so keep clean records from the start.