A Williams Lake laundromat has made major changes during to the COVID-19 pandemic and hopes they will be permanent.
Owner Elisna de Swardt, who purchased Williams Lake Drycleaners and Laundromat in January, said customers are dropping laundry off. It is washed, dried and returned to them to pick up later.
“A few customers have been a bit skittish against the idea of us handling their laundry, but we have a mesh bag thing going where they drop their laundry in the bag, and we are not really touching it,” she explained. “Laundry is kind of a personal thing for some people.”
With changes to tree planting meaning planters cannot come into town, companies have been dropping off as many as 116 bags at a time or more and return the next morning to pick them up.
Read more: B.C. tree planting season ramping up with COVID-19 measures in place
“It makes me happy though because I can control the cleaning and cross contamination and anything like that, which is great.”
Walk-in customers can drop off the laundry and come back an hour and a half later and it’s done.
Coin machines are used and the owners keep track of how much money a load costs the customers and do not charge anything extra.
She said she thinks they will stick to the concept for the future.
“It’s a win-win situation. I don’t see how it’s not. A lot of people personally waste time waiting for laundry to wash and dry.”
Everyone is welcome, she noted, adding the changes have been so positive she does not think they will go back to the way things were.
Originally from South Africa, she moved to Williams Lake 12 years ago. A few years ago she attended BCIT to study sonography to become an ultrasound technician.
She worked for 18 months doing that at the hospital, loved it and misses it, but said it was hard on her shoulders.
“I couldn’t see myself doing it for long, not with my body withstanding it. I decided to take a break and we used to bring our clothes to the dry cleaners at the time and I met Karen, the owner, who asked if she knew anyone interested in buying the business.”
De Swardt grew up in a dry cleaner family as her parents owned an industrial dry cleaning business in South Africa and she knew how much work was involved.
At first she kept saying, ‘no, no, no,” but her husband and mom, Elsabe Groler, who moved here six years ago, kept saying, it was a great opportunity.
Laughing, she added she thinks she still underestimated how much work it was going to be, especially now.
“It is good and people surely appreciate us. We have Tracy and Shirley — our other two employees helping us most days so it doesn’t only come down to us. We have a great team.”
While it’s quite a change from working in the medical field to owning a laundromat, she said it makes her happy because she knows a lot about viruses and bacteria and how they spread.
They were open to the public and limiting the amount of people that came in, but when people don’t follow instructions, it is difficult, she added.
“I decided to make it easier. This has a better flow to it, it’s more efficient, we take care of the machines better and there is less contact. Everything, just says ‘yes.’”
Read more: B.C.’s COVID-19 modelling on track for next phase of reopening
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