Is Coin or Card Better for a Laundromat?

By Jason Taken, business broker · HedgeStone Business Advisors · Updated 2026-09-04 · 6 min read

The Short Answer

Both, usually. The CLA's 2024 survey found only 21% of respondents were quarter-only and 12% laundry-card-only — the rest accept some combination. The survey allowed multiple responses, so the percentages describe what stores accept rather than a market share split, and adding them produces a meaningless number.

(Source: Coin Laundry Association, 2024 Laundry Industry Survey, 377 owner respondents.)

What Does Each Actually Buy?

The pricing-flexibility row is underrated. Being able to price in increments other than quarters, or to price by cycle type, gives an operator tools a coin store does not have — and for a buyer intending to reprice, that can matter more than the data.

The Verification Advantage

The reason this question appears on a brokerage site at all.

A card or mobile system produces records the seller did not write: machine-level transaction data that reconciles to processor settlements and to bank deposits. A coin store's equivalent is a collection log, which is a seller-prepared document and therefore corroboration rather than independent evidence.

That difference shortens diligence and reduces a buyer's uncertainty — and uncertainty is what a buyer prices when placing a store within the 2.72x to 4.50x middle half of the closed-sale multiple range (Source: BizBuySell, 2021-2025).

It does not make diligence automatic. Stored-value loads, machine-cycle revenue, promotions, management starts, remaining cash, processing fees, and unsettled transactions all have to be distinguished (Source: Coin Laundry Association, Best Practices for Due Diligence in Laundromat Acquisitions). A card store still needs the water cross-check and the deposit reconciliation.

And a coin store with three consistent years of returns, matching deposits, clean dated count sheets, an observed collection, and a water check that reconciles has good evidence too — assembled differently, and it takes longer.

The Trade-Area Question

Whether customers will use cards is local, not general. The FDIC's household survey documents that a share of U.S. households remain unbanked, with rates varying considerably by income, region, and demographic group (Source: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, 2023 National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households).

Before assuming a conversion will work:

• Watch what competing stores in the trade area use, and whether they are busy
• Watch how customers pay at the target store if it already offers both
• Ask the attendant, if there is one, what customers complain about
• Consider a hybrid, which preserves accessibility while adding data and flexibility

A conversion that loses a meaningful share of customers costs far more than it saves in coin handling.

What a Buyer Should Check on a Card Store

• Processing fees, monthly minimums, and any equipment lease or software subscription
• Reader and kiosk age, since they have a service life and replacement is per machine
• The vendor agreement — term, assignability to you, and what happens if you switch platforms
• Stored-value balances — money customers have loaded but not spent, which transfers as a liability and should be quantified and addressed in the purchase agreement
• Whether the reporting account transfers with the store, along with its history

That last item belongs on the closing checklist next to the merchant account.

Converting After Purchase

If you plan to convert, treat it as a capital project with an honest return calculation.

Costs: hardware per machine, reader or kiosk infrastructure, installation, network setup, and any subscription or processing minimums. Because hardware scales per machine, a full conversion is a five-figure project at most stores.

Benefits, each a separate assumption: less coin handling time, better data, pricing flexibility, potentially higher average tickets, and easier remote oversight for semi-absentee ownership.

Risks: customer loss in a cash-preferring trade area, processing fees permanently in the expense line, and vendor dependence.

And do not underwrite the purchase price on post-conversion economics. Buy the store on what it earns now; keep the conversion as your project and your upside.

What Does the Choice Tell a Buyer?

More about the owner than about the machines, and buyers tend to miss this.

The signal is not coin versus card. It is whether the owner kept the evidence their system was capable of producing. A card store whose owner never exported a report is a worse sign than a coin store whose owner has attended and logged every collection for eight years — because the second owner chose to create records where none were required.

That matters practically, because you are buying the records along with the store. Three years of machine-level history hands you a working baseline on day one. A store with none of that means your first ninety days go on building a picture the previous owner already had and did not write down.

It matters at your own exit too. Whatever evidence exists when you buy is the floor for what exists when you sell, and the period you own the store is the only one you control.

Summary

Neither coin nor card is better in general, and most stores run both. Card and mobile systems buy pricing flexibility, machine-level data, and remote oversight in exchange for processing fees and hardware — with the data being worth real money at sale because it makes revenue verification faster and more conclusive. Whether your customers will use it is a local question, answered by observation rather than by industry averages.

The Next Step

This page is general information about laundromat transactions, not legal, tax, or investment advice, and not a guarantee of sale price, timing, or financing approval. Verify current rules with your own CPA, attorney, lender, and the relevant state or municipal agency before acting.