# Laundromat Signs

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundromat-signs/391992>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 13, 2007, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundromat-signs/391992 "2007-02-13T06:32:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![toby616](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9bd4f/32.png) [@toby616](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toby616)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundromat-signs/391992/1 "2007-02-13T06:32:14Z")

</div>

Just a quick question here that i can’t find anything on the internet about. Why is it that on Laundromat signs, the word laundry is usually upside down??

Any help with this will be greatly appreciated, it has been bothering me for a while now.

thanks.

toby.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![aktep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f0a364/32.png) [@aktep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aktep)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundromat-signs/391992/2 "2007-02-13T07:05:49Z")

</div>

It’s a trademark (of Kwik Wash). The story goes that when they put up the first sign, it was upside down, and a tradition was born.

> **[D&B Hoovers is Your Sales Accelerator – Dun & Bradstreet](https://www.dnb.com/products/dnb-hoovers.html)**
>
> Speed up sales prospecting with the rich audience targeting capabilities of D&B Hoovers so you can spend more sales time closing.

> **[Yahoo Finance - Stock Market Live, Quotes, Business & Finance News](https://finance.yahoo.com/)**
>
> At Yahoo Finance, you get free stock quotes, up-to-date news, portfolio management resources, international market data, social interaction and mortgage rates that help you manage your financial life.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundromat-signs/391992/3 "2007-02-13T13:13:51Z")

</div>

??

I’ve never seen this or heard of it before. I’ve lived in the Northeast and Utah, and traveled quite a bit (although very little in AZ and TX), and theonly upside-down signs I’ve seen are for businesses that have closed (they put the plastic facing on the signs in upside-down, I think, to cover and protect the fluorescent lamps underneath until a new client moves into the strip mall and springs for a new sign). But in your case the laundromat is still open, of course.

Here in Massachusetts, I used to do my laundry at a place called **The Laundromat**. I was always looking around for Number 6 doing his laundry…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![toby616](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9bd4f/32.png) [@toby616](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toby616)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundromat-signs/391992/4 "2007-02-13T23:11:19Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=aktep]  
It’s a trademark (of Kwik Wash). The story goes that when they put up the first sign, it was upside down, and a tradition was born.

yea thats seems about right. i figured it was just a corporate ploy to be noticable. thanks for the info.