Military Street Laundromat to celebrate 25th anniversary

Pioneer Times photograph/Joseph Cyr
TO CELEBRATE — Military Street Laundromat staff, from left, Pauline Crane, Billie Mitchell and owner Linda Goodridge get ready to celebrate 25 years of service in the Shiretown on March 1 with an Open House.
By Gloria Austin
Staff Writer
    A Military Street business has gone from cleaning your car to cleaning your laundry.
    Linda and Don Goodridge  bought the former Houlton Car Wash at 35 Military Street in Houlton and transformed the building into what is now Military Street Laundromat.
    The Goodridges will celebrate 25 years of business in the Shiretown on March 1 with an Open House.
    There will be coffee and doughnuts throughout the morning and they will have drawings hourly until 2 p.m. The drawings will consist of gift certificates for service, laundry bags and even a roll of quarters.
    When the Goodridges created the Laundromat, they were new on the scene.
    “In high school, my husband drove a delivery truck for a dry cleaning and laundry service in Bangor,” Linda Goodridge  said. “But, we had never really been involved in the industry.”
    Linda remembers some of the early challenges of growing the business such as learning the front load washers because they were all relatively new to the area.
    “Introducing them to the customers, we sort of had to ‘sell it’ because they had never really been here that I knew of,” she said. “Later on, someone had mentioned they had some at one of the other Laundromats that had been closed for years. But, they were new to me. I had never used a front load washer before.”
    Other challenges were learning the wash, dry, fold business and how to take care of stains, which is among the most popular questions asked.
    “The customers feel they have lost the item if they can’t get the stain out,” said Linda. “So, we are fearless in trying many different things to get that stain out for them. We’ve been quite successful many, many times and they are very grateful.”
    Indeed, the most important aspect of the business is how to please the customers.
    “Learning to do their laundry with the care they want,” Linda explained. “We really haven’t had a problem dealing with the public. We enjoy working with the public.”
    Overall, the transition into the laundry industry for the Goodridges was fairly seamless.
    “We’ve had a lot of help,” said Linda. “From the salesmen to the companies who sold us the equipment.”
    A secret to the business’ growth was in the Goodridges not being timid.
    “We knew enough to ask a lot of questions from people in the industry who knew what they were talking about before we made decisions and before we went forward,” said Linda. “We utilized their knowledge. So, we went into it with no fear.”
    Their next investment, the Goodridges added large capacity washers.
    “We had intended to add two of them in two or three years, but we added them in three months,” Linda said. “The demand and the reception in the community was great.”
    Then, the Goodridges expanded their laundromat making sure they had more of the big washers. From there, they took another step to make sure their dryers were handicap accessible by purchasing stack driers.
    “So from a seated position, customers could use those without assistance,” Linda said. “Then we added the top load washers. Again, so they could be used without assistance.”
    Military Street Laundromat can handle most any cleaning chore since they also have three 60-pound washers and four 75-pound capacity dryers, as well.
    “They are industrial,” said Linda. “We have done feather beds, 9×12 rugs and anything that doesn’t fit well into a 35-pound washer. It has increased our ability to do larger items.”
    Military Street Laundromat offers a wash, dry and fold service, along with dry cleaning.
    “We like to tease our customers and say for you to get your laundry done here, it only takes four minutes. Two minutes to drop it off and two minutes to pick it up,” said Linda. “We’ve been a dropoff for dry cleaning since 1987. Just under a year after we opened, we added that service. Accepting drop-off dry cleaning became an asset when our local dry cleaner had to close. Fortunately, we’ve been able to continue that.”
    Military Street Laundromat is fully attended and is open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week.
    “There is always someone here to offer help or suggestions,” Linda said. “From stains and spots to how to do laundry and how much each machine might hold.”
    Overall, the Goodridges and their attendants have a special relationship with their customers.
    “We love to share laundry tips,” Linda said. “And, we’ve learned a lot just from helping them.”