Dread going to the laundromat? Best Wash is working to change that in Memphis and beyond

Corey Davis

Memphis Commercial Appeal

June 9, 2025, 5:01 a.m. CT

• Best Wash Laundromats, a St. Louis-based company, has opened four locations in Memphis since November, with two more planned.

• The company focuses on high-traffic retail areas and aims to provide a modern, clean and family-friendly laundromat experience.

• Best Wash utilizes digital payment systems and large machines, differentiating itself from traditional coin-operated laundromats.

Washing and drying clothes can be a tough chore especially when it involves going to the laundromat.

However, a group of St. Louis businessmen wants to make a trip to a laundromat a much more pleasant experience for Memphians. St. Louis-based Best Wash Laundromats — which has more than 20 locations in St. Louis, Illinois and Kansas City — has expanded into the Bluff City.

Since November, Best Wash Laundromats has opened four locations in Memphis at 3311 Jackson Ave., 3558 S. Mendenhall Road, 6819 Winchester Road and 2887 Covington Pike. Two more locations are expected to open this year: 6045 Shelby Oaks Drive (set to open June 16) and 5049 Summer Ave. (expected to open Oct. 1).

Tom O’Hara, a partner in Best Wash, said the company used the same strategy to pick its Memphis locations that it used in Kansas City and St. Louis.

"We love to be in highly trafficked, dense retail corridors where there are a lot of other retailers there and kind of the whole neighborhood comes to shop," he said. "We want to be in a place where it's kind of a nexus of different neighborhoods where everybody is coming to do grocery shopping or clothing shopping."

Who is behind Best Wash Laundromats?

Best Wash Laundromats was started in 2015 in St. Louis by Brandon Unnerstall. He grew up in the industry, as his father owned a laundromat business in the 1980s. Unnerstall said it was a much tougher industry to succeed in back then because of the challenges of trying to manage multiple stores without today's technology.

“The machines didn’t last as long and there were a lot of people that tried to get into franchising and scaling laundromats, but just were never able to,” he said.

Unnerstall get involved in the laundromat business around 2013 before starting Best Wash Laundromats in 2015.

“It was kind of something I fell into and kind of dumb luck,” he said. “I didn’t really see a ton of potential there, but then the technology started changing. We started getting touchscreen machines. Most or 95% of laundromats in the United States are operated off coins, and we just started to see a huge void in the market on how can we scale it. We opened up one location, then we opened up three locations and then I got quite a few more locations (opening)."

Unnerstall later met and formed a business partnership in Best Wash with brothers Tom O'Hara and David O'Hara, who are also from St. Louis. The three men originally connected in fall 2023, with the official business partnership starting January 2025.

Why did Best Wash Laundromats want to come to Memphis?

Tom O’Hara said his and his brother’s vision was to team up with Unnerstall and replicate Best Wash in other cities — including Memphis. They saw the Bluff City as a market that was missing the modern amenities that Best Wash provides.

Barry Maynard is the senior vice president of brokerage for Gill Properties. Maynard, who along with Frank Dyer of Gill Properties, handles all of Best Wash and the O'Hara brothers' real estate in Memphis, noted it costs about $1.2 million to build each Best Wash location in the Bluff City.

“Where the average laundromat might take a year to build and cost $2 million, we can build a laundromat in four months and at the cost between 33% to 50% of what a competitor can do,” David O’Hara said. “All that means we can open up faster, we can spend less upfront, charge a fair price and then we can use those resources to pay our regional managers better, pay our store managers better and hire better quality people that allow our customers to have just an exceptional time in our stores.”

While there are more than 100 laundromats in the Memphis area, Tom O’Hara said Best Wash saw an opportunity to elevate the customer experience and serve them better.

"We thought that the customers were being underserved by the current laundromats in the market," said Tom O'Hara, who noted they visited Memphis a little more than a year ago. "... We wanted to bring our brand, our customer service and our style of laundromats to Memphis."

What is different about Best Wash Laundromats?

Best Wash wants to change people's perception of laundromats. The business partners said they don't want people in Memphis to think of the stereotypical dirty-looking laundromats with rundown machines that people dread going to do their laundry.

Unnerstall said Best Wash stands strong on being clean, bright, safe and having modern technology. Best Wash uses a digital card system for payments, while customers can also use a laundry card to pay for washes and some machines offer a tray for the card during cycle selection. Best Wash facilities also have large washers and dryers, ideal for handling even the biggest loads.

“What we try to do at Best Wash is make doing laundry something that people look forward to,” David O’Hara said. “Our stores are really a community gathering space. A person go in on a Saturday or Sunday, they will see all the machines are turning, and see 15 to 20 kids in there. We have a kids’ corner for kids to read books and play games. The TVs are going and there’s music that is going, and it’s a family-fun experience.

"And look, at the end of the day, you’re still doing laundry and still a chore. But to put a smile on someone's face and to make them feel welcome, safe and have an elevated customer experience is what we aim to do.”

Will Best Wash open more Memphis laundromats?

Best Wash plans to have a total of six laundromats operating in Memphis in 2025 and looks to add even more locations in the future.

“I truly believe that we have the opportunity to do at least five stores per year for the next few years in a city like Memphis,” Tom O’Hara said. “We love to have 20 to 30 laundromats in the greater Memphis area, and I think we've got the vision and the blueprint on how to do it."

Corey Davis is the Collierville and Germantown reporter with The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at Corey.Davis@commercialappeal.com or 901-293-1610.