Tide Cleaners: Detergent Brand To Open 2,000 Dry Cleaning & Laundry Stores By End Of 2020


In 2018, the laundry detergent brand Tide was caught in the middle of an unexpected viral trend, the “Tide Pod Challenge,” in which teenagers dared one another to consume a Tide Pod detergent packet, which contained poisonous substances. This year, Tide is going to reduce your need for keeping the tasty-looking pods around the house by offering on-demand dry cleaning and laundry services nationwide.

Tide Cleaners is the name of the new business venture that is comprised of several different services designed to make cleaning clothes convenient for people with busy lives, reported CNN. By the end of 2020, Tide hopes to have 2,000 outlets where customers can drop off and pick up their laundry.

“Many people believe that in order to get laundry done right, they have to do it themselves,” said Sundar Raman, the vice president of North American Fabric Care for Tide’s parent company, Procter & Gamble, according to a press release posted on Business Wire.

“Tide is taking this challenge head-on and aiming to give people clean, cared-for clothes and some time back. This new service will complement our existing business, and give people the option to get the Tide clean they deserve on their terms, not on their time.”

Tide Cleaners business model is comprised of three parts:

  1. Stores that are open 24 hours a day that can handle multiple laundry concerns all under one roof, including wash-and-fold, dry cleaning, alterations, and wedding dress preservation. Right now, there are more than 125 standalone stores in 22 states.
  2. Drop-boxes in urban locations such as high-rise apartment and office buildings, and in existing retailers, such as supermarkets, which helps consumers save time by consolidating trips. To use this service where drop-boxes are available, consumers have to download the Tide Cleaners app, give instructions as to how they want their laundry cleaned, and list the locker number that they placed their dirty clothes in. The app then sends a notification when the clothes are all clean and ready to be picked up from the same location. There are currently boxes in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Dallas, Denver, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Boston, and Nashville, and about 350 new boxes are being installed each month.
  3. The on-campus van delivery service helps college students cut down on the chore of doing laundry so they can focus their time on studying and being social. The service is paid for in advance and each student gets a customized Tide Cleaners laundry bag. They are notified when the van is coming to their campus (it is usually parked outside of a residence hall), and they can hand over their dirty laundry to an attendant and/or pick up what they previously turned in. The service is currently on more than 20 campuses, including the University of Alabama, Indiana University, and Southern Methodist University.

To grow the Tide Cleaners business, the company will be talking to building managers and retailers about placing drop-off lockers at their locations, and to franchisees about opening full-service stores.

Tide reported that 26 million U.S. households use shared washers and dryers or send their laundry out to the cleaners, and cited a U.S. Department of Labor statistic that said the average American spends more than an hour per day — up to 372 hours every year — sorting, washing, drying, and folding laundry. So, the target consumers for Tide Cleaners are people in urban areas, who rent houses or apartments that do not have washers and dryers on site, and those that want to “spend more time on life and less time doing laundry.”

Tide laundry detergent debuted on the market more than 70 years ago, and the company first began offering dry cleaning in 2010. More information about the services can be found at TideCleaners.com.

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