I'd be curious to see this replicated in other cities. I sort of suspect that there are cultural norms specific to New York at work here. For one, space is at a premium in a way that isn't really true elsewhere in the US, even in expensive neighborhoods, in a way that disincents owning your own washing machine.<p>Also, the wash and fold is a huge thing in New York, and lots of people use them. DC, where I live, probably has a few, but most people don't live near one, and I've never used one. For New Yorkers, by contrast, there's a different cultural expectation where paying someone to fold your clothes is much more accepted.<p>Those things together, I think, make laundromats in New York more likely to appeal to non-lower-class people there than elsewhere, and at least anecdotally, lots of laundromats here have closed as neighborhoods have gentrified, and at least a couple of now-affluent neighborhoods I can think of don't have any anymore.