WASHINGTON, April 18, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:
FIRST LAUNDROMAT
Profile America — Friday, April 18th. For urban dwellers, the difficulty — or at least the expense — of doing their laundry began to ease on this date in 1934 when the first public, self-operated laundry in the U.S. opened its doors in Fort Worth, Texas. The first name was "Washateria," eventually replaced with the now familiar "Laundromat." Early facilities were not necessarily coin-operated, and there was always an attendant on duty. The automatic washing machine came along in 1937, and by the late 1940s, the first unattended, 24-hour Laundromats were opened. Now, there are nearly 11,000 coin-operated Laundromats across the country, and they do nearly $3.4 billion of business annually. You can find current data on the country's economy by downloading the America's Economy mobile application at www.census.gov/mobile.
Sources: Kane's Famous First Facts, 2442
http://www.brainyhistory.com/events/1934/april_18_1934_92823.html
http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ECN_2007_US_81A1&prodType=table NAICS 812310
Profile America is produced by the Center for New Media and Promotions of the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for "Multimedia Gallery" by the "Newsroom" button).
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SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau
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