Tiburon Laundromat will close its doors after three decades
Updated: Jul 16
Editor’s note — This article won second place for best business story in the National Newspaper Association’s 2024 Better Newspapers Contest.
The Tiburon Laundromat is set to shut its doors after more than 30 years of serving customers out of its downtown storefront.
Owner Michael Gralnick said the combination of the rising costs of doing business and a decrease in customers led to his decision to close the business, located at 1690 Tiburon Blvd.
“The costs are just too much to have a laundromat there, and we didn’t find enough people coming out of their apartment or condo laundry rooms to support the increased costs,” said Gralnick, who owns the business with his wife, Kym.
He said the laundromat, which offers drop-offs, pick-ups and self-service, will remain open until the machinery is sold and removed by the installers, which he guessed would take about three months. The business remains on the hook for the current 18 months left on the lease, unless the building’s owner, the Mantegani family, finds a replacement tenant sooner.
The Tiburon Laundromat first opened in about 1988, and Gralnick bought the business from Fred Collins in 2014. Gralnick also owns the Wash Tub in Corte Madera and Spee-Dee Wash in San Anselmo, as well as Marin Wash and Fold, which offers free pickup and delivery serving Marin, Sonoma and Napa counties and near areas of the East Bay.
For much of the COVID pandemic, the Tiburon Laundromat largely only operated a pick-up and delivery service, in part because Gralnick needed the space for Marin Wash and Fold staff, as those operations had to spread out to abide by COVID restrictions designed to make workplaces safer. However, the Tiburon shop recently reopened for self-service.
Gralnick said that temporary change did not directly contribute to the closure of the business.
Instead, he said, the costs to operate the laundromat have just become insurmountable, including rent increases and rising gas and electric rates. Gralnick also noted the business didn’t see the return on investment he had hoped for when he made a significant upgrade to its machinery in 2018, installing all new washing machines and replacing some of the older dryers.
“I was overly optimistic that when we put in the new machinery to make it better for customers that more new customers would use the store, and that never happened,” he said.
Gralnick said he believes a laundromat is useful in Tiburon, given that it can be a better option than small laundry rooms in apartment and condo complexes. However, he said, a laundromat “probably is no longer the highest and best use of a downtown Tiburon location,” noting the space occupied by the business might see more success with a restaurant or boutique.
While he said he doesn’t want to have to shut the business down, “financially it was the best decision.”
He said he hopes customers will be willing to make the drive to Corte Madera to patronize the Wash Tub.
“We apologize for having to be the ones that took this away from Tiburon, and we hope to serve the people who are willing to go one exit north as well or better in Corte Madera,” he said.
Reach Assistant Editor Emily Lavin, The Ark’s youth and Strawberry reporter, at 415-944-3841.