
Wash.io decimated local businesses, then crashed anyway - Analemma_
https://twitter.com/AndrayDomise/status/770861655123165184
======
manarth
I started wondering how wash.io had seemingly driven out so much local
business, and thought: perhaps they were undercutting the opposition -
cleaning at cost or less - in order to build market share?

Their website is still showing prices:

\- $2.15/lb Wash+Fold (min 15lb, so $32.25 minimum) \- $2.75 shirt \- $6.69
t-shirt \- $7.79 sweater

Plus a $5.99 delivery charge.

I'm not all that familiar with laundromat prices in the USA, but the few
truck-stop laundromats I used were _much_ cheaper than this (admittedly I'd
have to fold my own clothes).

On the face of it, they weren't competing with local laundromat services - not
on price, at any rate. If they were competing for business, it was with the
cash-rich, time-poor market segment. I'm skeptical that wash.io really drove
that many local laundromats out of business, and if a significant number of
laundromats happened to go out of business at the same time, it's worth
exploring whether there were other market forces (such as increased business
rents) at play.

~~~
xg15
One of the tweets links an article that suggests it's more a sign of the
general gentrification/housing crisis - with wash.io more like the cherry on
top than the real cause:

 _So why are San Francisco laundromats actually closing down? Two reasons:
real estate and the tech boom. There is a shortage of housing in San
Francisco, which is a problem exacerbated by the boom in startups and the
influx of highly paid employees. The rich want homes, and they 're willing to
buy the poor out of them._

[https://mic.com/articles/123311/](https://mic.com/articles/123311/)

~~~
bigjimmyk3
If that's the case (and if GP's analysis is correct) then the post title seems
misleading to me.

Further, it sounds like wash.io was doing the natural thing in an environment
of rising real estate prices -- move the big bulky machines somewhere else
(where the real estate is cheaper) and pickup/deliver.

------
Apocryphon
Startups that genuinely care about common good and bettering their communities
need to reclaim the word "disrupt" from the parasites and looters that use it.

------
felipellrocha
This is really unfortunate. Technology should be used to empower local
business, not destroy it...

