The Hoboken Blog

This is a small rant but one, I think, a decent amount of people who live in Hoboken share with me and its about our laundromats. The question that prompts the rant is this: Why, when there are so many laundromats in the city and many apartments equipped with their own washer/dryer units, is the cost of wash-and-fold laundry so expensive???

The place I go is a do-it-yourself place where you can do the labor yourself and wash the way you want to for some price. I don’t know what that is because I have them do it for me (I’m too busy, too lazy, and too inept to do it myself). BUT… I what I do know is that I pay 70¢ per pound of dirty laundry. Its outrageous!!! AND… that’s the weekday rate! On the weekends its 80¢ at this place and some other establishments (some do-it-yourselfers and some just drop-off/dry cleaners) charge 85¢/lb! Now in Manhattan, laundromats only charge 60¢ for the most part and some are less. In Queens, they did it all for 50¢/lb and I’m sure there are others places that do it for less.

But what perplexes me is the price difference - and the ratio of it - when comparing New York to Hoboken. Generally, rents are higher in NYC than Hoboken and, as such, the cost of living is noticeably greater (and not just because of the rent). Groceries cost more. Take-out is more. There is a higher tax rate in New York City than in Hoboken (8.675 vs 6.0, respectively). And further compounding my confusion - and I could be generalizing here - the income is greater, compensating for the higher cost of living. So why, when the cost of living and income level are both lower in Hoboken than in Manhattan, is the laundry so much money? Adding insult to injury is the idea that nearly 1/3 to 1/2 of all the occupied units in Hoboken have been renovated and have a washer/dryer unit in the apartment and in the basement if not in the unit itself. You would think that the reduced demand or need to wash clothes at a laundromat would drive the prices lower.

Maybe its that New Jerseyans are more lazy than New Yorkers. Maybe its because we are busier than New Yorkers. I mean, we do, after all, have to take the PATH, ferry, or bus home instead of the subway. Or maybe we just don’t mind the cleaners, well, cleaning us out. I know that I can’t be bothered to do my own laundry at a laundromat because I am never home when they are open. But I can sure as hell tell you that if I had a washer/dryer in my apartment that I’d be doing my laundry - no matter how pink my whites get. I’d be doing wash at 2am if I could just so I didn’t have to lug the 25lbs of socks, underwear, and towels every week (sometimes twice a week).

I suppose its a matter of convenience. There are a lot of laundromats or dry cleaners that do wash-and-fold and they know the shear number of them entices us into taking the lazy way out. But, again, I thought competition from other dry-cleaners or built-in washer/dryers would lower the price. Are we that lazy? Or is our time spent better socializing with friends at any one of the 12 bars on first street (most of them Irish bars at that)? Are we working? Are we struggling to get home because we have an extra connection to make?

Anyway… I think something is wrong in this world when Manhattan prices are actually less than that of its cheaper neighbor to the west (yes, Hoboken is west of Manhattan - WNW to be precise). Personally, I think there is some kind of anti-competitive fix involved. Well, its a loooong stretch anyway but it is possible that a hidden oligopoly exists where two or three large companies own all the laundromats and dry cleaners in town and they, like the trusts of the early 1900’s, need to be broken up. We need a Square Deal for the mile squared city.

Getting back to the beginning of my rant (now no longer short), why is it so expensive? I wonder if something can be done. Is anyone willing to speak with their pockets on this and not get their laundry done?

These prices just stink!