Skagway’s only year-round laundry facility is closing at the end of the month. Winter residents are scrambling to find alternative options, and hoping someone steps in to open a new laundromat.
The new owners of Family Fuel announced that the laundry portion of the business would close, due to financial considerations.
Skagway resident Deb Boettcher was dismayed when she heard the news.
“I right away, kind of panicked, and thought, what am I going to do?” she says. “Because I’ve been using laundromats since I moved here in 1994. So I thought, what am I going to do? What friends can I ask? And can I rotate enough friends to get me through the winter? I don’t think so, because a lot of them leave.”
Boettcher lives in a small cabin in the Dyea area with no sewer system. She does a lot of laundry because one of her dogs has an allergy and requires regularly cleaned bedding.
She says she knows several locals without laundry machines. During the tourist season there is another option – the laundromat at Garden City RV Park. But Boettcher says even with two laundromats open in the summer, it can be hard to get a spot at a machine.
“Sometimes every single machine is full, so it’s really busy with summer people,” Boettcher says. “And there are times when I just go back another day because there’s not a machine available. So what are those people gonna do? You know, all the travelers, and even people off the cruise ships. I’ve seen them bring their suitcases with clothing to wash at the laundromat. So, I don’t know what we’re going to do. I hope somebody opens a laundromat.”
Nils Davis co-owns the distinctive pink building that is Family Fuel with his spouse, Skipper Stovall. They bought the business in April and made some changes. There’s a vending machine outside, the decor underwent an upgrade and coffee and pastries are now available. The auto shop portion of the business shut down. The pair said there was nowhere to store the cars that were being worked on. They’re planning on turning the mechanical bay into a coffee shop.
Recently, a specialist examined Family Fuel’s laundry space and machines.
“He took an evaluation of our equipment and the space we had, and he just said that it really doesn’t make sense,” Davis says. “That we weren’t charging enough money for the service, and that to raise the prices on old machines wasn’t really something we could do either. And then he gave us a price to replace everything.”
Davis says that the price was high and didn’t justify the investment.
“It just isn’t making enough revenue for the space it’s taking up. So we decided that we would just do something different.”
Family Fuel’s laundry machines will be sold to a buyer in Juneau next month.
Davis encourages an entrepreneur to open up a new laundromat in Skagway in a more economical location.
“I think it’d be a great business for someone that was in a smaller space, that wasn’t paying the rent that we pay for that space, and they could make a profit.”
Davis says that tourists often come off the ships and do laundry because of high prices onboard.
“They were telling us they charged $40 a load and even $8 to wash a pair of socks.”
The couple will leave for the winter but be back to re-open the gas station in the spring, where they also operate their car rental business. Gas pumps will remain operational year-round.
Borough Manager Brad Ryan confirmed at Thursday’s assembly meeting that Garden City RV Laundromat was not in good enough shape to stay open during cold weather.
