11-07-2024 4:34pm

Bowie woman turns laundry hassle into fast-growing business

Photo Courtesy of Hyacinth Tucker, owner of The Laundry Basket based in Bowie.

BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT

When her friend began buying extra clothes to avoid doing laundry, Bowie resident Hyacinth Tucker transformed that frustration into The Laundry Basket, a mobile laundry service for her local community.

The Laundry Basket LLC operates seven days a week from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., allowing customers to use its online service to schedule pickups and drop-offs for Maryland, D.C. and Northern Virginia.

Tucker offers one-time services at $35 per bag and monthly subscriptions starting at $30 per bag. She picks up laundry from customers' homes and washes it at a partner laundromat.

When she approaches a laundromat with the idea, “we'll say, ‘Hey, can we utilize your space,’ and then in return, we can offer you wash and fold services…, pick up and delivery, because we have the vans, we have the staff,” Tucker said.

For dry cleaning, customers are charged per item with a $25 order minimum. Each piece goes through a three-step process: stain inspection, cleaned according to the label and pressed. Clothes are then placed on hangers and delivered to the customer.

Local dry cleaners typically provide per-garment pricing and offer traditional pick-up rather than drop-off services. However, longtime customer Shelba Peterson believes the cost of the delivery experience with The Laundry Basket is worth every dollar.

Peterson lives on the third floor of her apartment complex. With her husband having multiple foot surgeries due to diabetes, laundry is difficult. However, she praises Tucker and her husband for going above and beyond to ensure her satisfaction.

While Tucker sees significant demand for her service partly driven by many people’s dislike for laundry, she acknowledged that some potential customers hesitate to use the mobile service because they value their belongings.

“We didn't have ... a presence,” Tucker said. ”We had to, really, I wouldn't say, convince people, but we had to make people feel comfortable with us.”

Yet Peterson trusts Tucker and admires her consistent availability, fast service and personal touch.

“They service a lot of people,” Peterson said. “I could call them on Wednesday … they’re dropping off on a Thursday. How good is that?”

Tucker uses social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook to connect with clients and share testimonials. Customer Anna, who did not want her last name published, explained how she found Tucker's service online: “I’m a Google person, so I was looking for someone to pick up my laundry and deliver it,” she said. “And then I found Laundry Basket, and I really cannot say enough good things about it.”

The Laundry Basket has already begun expanding to Northeast Ohio and Toronto, Canada, but Tucker has even bigger goals.

“We're creating The Laundry Basket Institute,” Tucker said, “a workforce development program aimed at women of color, minorities and veterans, and it's to get them sustainable wage[s] in the laundry and dry cleaning industry”

Tucker’s ultimate goal is to expand the business with plans to start franchising in early 2026. That’s why she obtained trademarks early on so that she could eventually take the same concept to different geographic locations.

As she explained, “with franchising, you need to have at least three separate, on its own models that are working and doing well.”

Peterson admires Tucker’s ambitions but hopes she doesn’t forget about her local community.

“Don’t go nowhere. … because if they do, what am I supposed to do?” she said, adding that she hopes the business will remain in the hands of someone with a similar “caring personality.”

Savannah Grooms covers Bowie as part of the UMD Local News Network.

CORRECTION: This article was updated Nov. 8 to correct the name of Shelba Peterson, whose last name was misspelled in parts of the story.