Laundries

Laundries are commercial establishments where clothes are washed, dry cleaned, ironed, and folded.

Commercial laundries are facilities where any customer can drop off clothing and other items to be cleaned. These types of services operate on an ad hoc basis, with business flow depending on passing trade. Businesses may offer discounts for the cleaning or multiple items or loads, or may offer discounts to repeat customers. Commercial laundries will often incorporate dry-cleaning facilities in-house and may also provide minor mending and alteration services.

Some laundries operate in conjunction with self-service laundry facilities, more commonly known as laundromats. Laundromats may also operate without any form of commercial laundry service. Laundromats will generally open for longer trading hours than commercial laundries and in some areas are open 24 hours a day. Laundromat facilities will sometimes try to attract business by providing television or music for patrons and can often feature community notice boards and promotions for local venues.

Large institutions that require a constant flow of clean linen, work clothing, or uniform, will often employ the services of an industrial laundry. Commercial and industrial laundries which cater to restaurants, hotels and other forms of commercial residence are also known as linen services. Other commercial and industrial laundries may process hospital linens, prison uniforms or armed forces laundry requirements. These services are supplied on an ongoing contractual basis.