Fern Gillespie
While most retirees downsize their lives, Victor and Sharon Holliday decided to clean up with a new business career–laundromats. Launched in 2019, their laundromat chain, Stuy Wash N Dry, now has seven stores in Brooklyn.
It began as a retirement project to go into real estate. “We went to the city auction to buy this building. We didn’t know the history of the building. When you go to a city auction, you buy the property sight unseen,” said Sharon. “When we got the keys and pulled up the gate, we didn’t know there was a laundromat. It was a full-service laundromat from the 1990s. We gutted it out and put new equipment in it. There was no other laundromat in that area to serve the community.”
The couple had been preparing for retirement after long careers with the City. Victor was a transit manager at New York City Transit Authority. Sharon had spent 31 years as an elementary school computer teacher with the New York City Department of Education.
“We bought the building right before I retired,” said Victor, who grew up in Bed Stuy. “It took us over a year and a half, because the building itself was in bad shape. We did a gut renovation.
Poured a lot of money into the apartments and incorporated the laundry business with it.”
The first Stuy Wash N Dry is located on Stuyvesant Avenue in Bed Stuy. A laundromat business owner mentored the couple on management techniques. They had a UPS drop off point so that people would be aware of the laundromat. Instead of coins, the new stainless-steel washer and dryer machines had updated technology, using a card and an online app system. Stuy Wash N Dry began to expand with new locations.
“Brokers would call me about existing laundromats. That’s how we ended up opening up laundromat on Marcus Garvey,” said Victor. “Just about every year we would open up another location.” Today, Stuy Wash N Dry has commercial accounts, wash and fold, and dry cleaner services.
The laundromat also specializes in cleaning footwear—boots, UGGS and sneakers. Sneakers are a personal passion for Victor. “As a youngster, I was always cleaning my sneakers. I always liked nice sneakers and wanted to keep them clean. Now, I have the equipment to do that. I learned different techniques and chemicals to clean sneakers,” said Victor.
“A lot of time the sneakers are very expensive. If you’re not careful and you don’t know what you’re doing, you can ruin a $2000 pair of sneakers. So, you really have to understand how to clean them. It’s not just throwing them in soap and water. A lot of them are very delicate and old. If you’re not sure what you’re doing, they can come apart on you. You have to understand how to treat certain sneakers.”
Each of the Stuy Wash N Dry locations had a stylized décor. “We have a certain style that we incorporated, a certain brand and a certain logo that is represented in all of the laundromats,” said Sharon. “We have black tables with diamond plate mirrors. We had a carpenter build tables for us. The logo is also painted on some walls. You will see the Sty Wash N Dry logo—’Clean laundry. Peace of Mind. Established in 2019’. Some say ‘Spread Love. It’s the Brooklyn Way.’ We incorporate some of the things that we experience as Brooklynites. Like Biggie and putting his words up on the wall. Most locations have music. We try to incorporate that into the environment so that people will have a positive experience coming to do a chore.”
In the East New York location, there is sometimes free soap on Wednesdays. “It was an ad campaign to get people to come in to see the space. Also, sometimes people come in and they don’t have soap,” said Victor. “To help the community, if that’s the barrier to stop you from coming in, come in and we can help you with the soap.”
Another unique feature is the children’s library at each location. “What we’re trying to implement in every store is having books available that the children can read. A lot of time parents bring their children to the laundromat. So, we provide books in the store that they can read while they’re in the laundromat. Also, they can take the books home and keep them. We’ve been replenishing the books through a nonprofit in Long Island called Book Fairies.”
Victor agrees. “We are telling the kids any book you like you can have it. Every week that you come in here, you can build your own library,” he said. “We are trying to encourage the kids to read. We especially want them to learn about Black History.”
It’s important for the Holliday family to be seen as a Black-owned family and women-owned business. “People in the community need to see representation. It’s everything. When you see somebody that’s doing something then you think it’s possible it’s possibly something that you can do. People come in and they’re happy that someone that looks like them has been able to set up a business and servicing in the community,” said Sharon. “People ask us about how to get into business in general. How to get funding. How to put together a business plan. How to set up an LLC. How to meet with suppliers.”
“We provide jobs for people in the community, who sometimes can’t get a job because of their background,” said Victor. “We take on those people. By giving them a chance, they turn out to be really good employees. They really want to prove themselves.” “We understand our people. We understand our culture.”
Both Victor and Sharon are native New Yorkers. “I grew up in the South Bronx. The home of hip-hop,” said Sharon. “We both grew up in these inner-city communities and we understand what it is to live here day to day and not be from somewhere else.”
Victor finds it significant that they launched the first Stuy Wash N Dry in Bed Stuy. “We understand our people. We understand our culture,” said Victor. “I understand my neighborhood. I belong to the neighborhood. It makes me feel proud as a person who was raised in the neighborhood to be able to provide a service.”
photos/Courtesy Stuy Wash N Dry