The world’s biggest laundromat serves pizza, coffee, and donuts, while also featuring an aviary and its own Santa Claus.
The establishment, literally named World’s Largest Laundromat, is located in Berwyn, Illinois. It is 14,000-square-feet, roughly the same size as three NBA basketball courts, and run by Tom Benson who purchased the building in 1999. He is helped by his sons Eric and Mark.
Besides the staggering number of machines, including 140 washers and 170 dryers, it has multiple other novel features not seen at typical laundromats.
They tried to make the laundromat experience “not quite so painful”
The 24/7 laundromat offers free coffee and donuts, as well as pizza on Wednesdays. It also features a bird aviary as part of a research project on finches, a children’s play area and a vending area. During the holiday season, employees dress up like Santa Claus, giving presents to the children.
“We get about 500 kids every year. If you’ve ever looked at those Santas at the mall, you spend 50, 60 bucks real quick,” Eric told The Independent. “It’s crazy. But this is just free for not even just customers, anyone who walks in.”
Eric also spoke about the reason behind the perks. “Families are just stuck here for two hours,” he said. “But we said, well, ‘What if we try to make that time not quite so painful?’”
Tom said that people come from as far as South Korea to visit the laundromat, which also offers free parking and has one of the cleanest energy installations in Illinois.
The laundromat sees over 250 customers in the store on certain occasions. “We get a lot of customers from inside Chicago who probably drive past 10 or 12 other laundromats to get to us,” said Eric.
“But they heard about us from somebody else, or they found us on the internet, or they just ended up here once, and that’s what they do for laundry now.”
The laundromat serves the community where necessary. It even recently stepped in to sponsor Berwyn’s annual 4th of July fireworks show.
For similar stories, check out our coverage of the real-life Five Night’s at Freddy’s pizzeria opening in New Jersey, or the world’s first ever official TMNT pizzeria.
I’m Abhishek Sharma, an author at TigerJek.com. I enjoy exploring games, testing different strategies, and turning what I learn into clear, useful guides. My goal is to help players understand the game better and improve without the usual confusion.
