Every laundromat owner who offers wash-dry-fold has the same question on day one: what do I charge per pound?
The most common approach is to Google what other laundromats in the area charge, pick a number in the middle, and hope for the best. That approach has a name: guessing.
Why competitor-based pricing fails
You don't know your competitor's labor cost. You don't know their supply cost, their utility rates, their overhead allocation, or whether they're actually making money on WDF at all. Plenty of operators run WDF at a loss and don't realize it because they've never done the math.
Matching their price means you might be matching their mistake.
The correct approach: cost-up pricing
Your WDF price per pound should be built from four numbers:
- Labor cost per pound. Take your hourly wage, multiply by shift hours, divide by pounds processed per shift. If you pay $13/hr and your team processes 120 lbs in an 8-hour shift, your labor cost is $0.87 per pound. This is almost always the largest cost component.
- Supply cost per pound. Detergent, softener, bags, tags. Typically $0.12–0.18 per pound depending on your products and how carefully you measure.
- Utility cost per pound. Water, gas, and electric per load, divided by average pounds per load. Usually $0.03–0.05 per pound.
- Overhead allocation per pound. A share of your rent, insurance, and fixed costs attributed to WDF. Divide your monthly overhead allocation by your estimated monthly WDF volume. Typically $0.15–0.35 per pound depending on volume.
Add those four numbers and you have your total cost per pound — the absolute minimum you can charge without losing money on every order.
Adding your margin
Your cost per pound is your floor. Your retail price needs to include a profit margin. The formula:
Retail price = Total cost ÷ (1 – target margin)
If your total cost is $1.20/lb and you want a 30% margin: $1.20 ÷ 0.70 = $1.71/lb.
Most profitable WDF operations target 30–40% margins. Below 25% and you're working hard for very little return. Above 40% is achievable at higher volumes where your labor cost per pound drops.
The number that matters most
Labor cost per pound is the lever. If your team can process 150 lbs per shift instead of 120, your labor cost drops from $0.87 to $0.69 per pound. That $0.18 difference across 1,500 lbs/month is $270/month in additional profit — without changing your price.
Training, workflow optimization, and production systems are how you improve this number. It's not about paying people less. It's about processing more efficiently.
One action this week
Run your actual numbers through the WDF Pricing Calculator. Enter your real labor cost, supply costs, and utility rates. Compare the recommended price to what you're currently charging. Most operators who do this find they're underpriced by $0.30–0.75 per pound.