New laundry company bringing ‘big city convenience’ to Macon with new service

Mitchell Perry felt like he, his wife and their two children always had an endless supply of laundry, so Perry started looking for solutions to their problem.

“I thought there’s just got to be a better way. Why isn’t there somewhere where I can just throw it and have it cleaned and brought back to me?” Perry said.

In our fast-paced world today, you can have your dinner delivered from your favorite restaurant. Someone will pick up your car and take it to the shop to be fixed. And you can order your groceries online and someone will do the shopping for you.

So why not have someone do your laundry?

In larger cities, Perry said he found laundry and dry cleaning services that deliver to people’s homes, and he decided to bring those services to Macon.

Perry, of Macon, founded the Independent Laundry Company, a delivery service that provides dry cleaning and wash and fold services, in August. The business is catching on.

“We wanted to bring a big city convenience here to Macon, and I believe we’ve done that,” he said.

To use the service, people can sign up on the Independent Laundry Company app or online at www.independentlaundry.com and decide whether they want home pick-up and delivery or to use the company’s locker service.

The locker service allows customers to drop off their laundry in a locker and come back later to pick up clean clothes, Perry said.

The company has two public locker locations at Z Beans Coffee in Mercer Village and on Cotton Avenue in downtown Macon, along with four private locations.

“The lockers are perfect for people on the go,” he said.

There is a 15-pound minimum for the wash-and-fold service, but dry cleaning services don’t have a minimum amount.

Wash-and-fold laundry services start at $1.25 per pound of clothes, and people can request upgrades to different laundry detergents such as Molly’s Suds and All Free & Clear, according to the company’s website.

Perry said they offer referral incentives and frequent use programs as well.

The company focuses on the delivery side of the business and partners with local dry cleaners and laundromats to clean the clothes, Perry said.

The Mercer Innovation Center at Mercer University selected the Independent Laundry Company as one of its companies-in-residence, which provides support to the company in various ways such as office space and interns, according to a news release.

Although the Independent Laundry Company doesn’t have a physical location, Perry said the “independent” name describes the company’s goal to meet people where they are.

“It also plays into the desire to be where you live, work and play, be independent of any brick and mortar store, so it all ties in together,” he said.

NewTown Macon, a nonprofit organization that works to revitalize downtown Macon, provided a small business loan to the Independent Laundry Company and was the home of the first locker location the company installed.

“I think Independent Laundry is one of those great services that provides an amenity for downtown residents and employees, so for that reason alone, it’s a really good place for us to be investing,” said Josh Rogers, NewTown Macon’s president and chief executive officer. “In addition to that, I think we’ve found an opportunity where we could provide support for a startup entrepreneur that really wasn’t available anywhere else in Macon.”

Rogers uses the locker service at NewTown Macon because he said it is extremely convenient.

“Before he opened, I probably had a pile of dry cleaning that was sitting on my dresser for six months just because it’s one more thing to remember to do,” he said with a laugh. “If you use Independent Laundry Company, there’s a locker somewhere near where you’re going to be anyway.”

Because Perry grew up in Middle Georgia, he said he has seen firsthand the transformation of downtown Macon.

“I believe we’ve scratched the surface of where downtown is going to go, and I want to be along for the ride,” he said. “We’re excited about the downtown growth and want to be a part of that.”