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Multi-store owner Ken Barrett is as comfortable behind his washers as he is behind a computer keyboard. (Photo: Laurance Cohen)

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Washin Oxford Coin Laundry is the latest addition to Ken Barrett’s group of Alabama stores. (Photo: Courtesy Ken Barrett)

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An unorthodox ascending and descending stairstep washer configuration at Washin Oxford maximizes customer maneuverability. (Photo: Courtesy Ken Barrett)

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Bringing Back the Human Element (Part 1)

Alabama store owner Barrett builds chain, resource base

OXFORD, Ala. — Laundry owners sometimes get so caught up in equipment automation that they neglect how people interact with the machinery on the floor. Not Ken Barrett. His holistic approach puts the oft-forgotten human element back into the self-service equation.

While Barrett’s YouTube videos offer views of his newest coin-op from the trenches up, I wanted an up-close and personal perspective of the finished project and the man behind it. After journeying along Interstate 20 through Alabama’s picturesque Talladega National Forest, I pulled up to an unassuming strip mall housing his Washin Oxford Coin Laundry on a busy Sunday afternoon and knew this wasn’t your run-of-the-mill unattended store.

Sure, the front-of-the-house kids’ corner, well-appointed restroom, free Wi-Fi, and twin 55-inch TVs were creature comforts not often seen in an unsupervised coin-op, but what really caught my eye was how smoothly things flowed.

DEPARTING FROM CONVENTIONAL WISDOM

The layout is a departure from conventional wisdom by offering a new twist on symmetrical and pyramid machine configurations. Two back-to-back bulkheads with three washer capacities on each side ascend and descend in a stairstep fashion. The dryer wall, running perpendicular to the washers, features a mid-section of four 45-pound stack dryers flanked on the left and right by three 30-pound stacks.

All 23 washers and 20 full-cycle vend tumblers are priced at dollar increments, with larger-denomination coins as the preferred — but not exclusive — form of payment. While the dual-hopper, $1-$20 changer dispenses only dollar coins, quarter-toting patrons are welcome to activate or top-up machines. A wall-mounted ATM complements the changer. Barrett’s self-described “dollar coin mostly” system operates without a single in-house instruction sign, relying instead on customer intuition and LED countdowns built into the washers and dryers.

Over the course of the past seven years, Barrett has renovated three existing laundries — retaining two — and, most recently, built one from scratch. He quickly discovered that coin-op management is a stream of big and small projects, each with its own learning curve. And while information on machinery was readily available, sourcing the intangible nuts and bolts of the business posed a challenge.

“I went in with the idea that there’s no inventory and no employees. You show up and collect the money and everyone’s happy — which is what most of the people going into this industry think,” he remarks. “This is my full-time job, but it’s as much of a full-time job as I want to make it. It’s a business, not a hobby. A lot of the little projects I do make things better and easier for me.”

Barrett found his niche in east-central Alabama, where he continues to pursue parallel paths: developing his own successful chain while simultaneously building up a resource base sharing tips with those already in the industry or looking to enter.

Lessons were learned early on. “My wife told me if she won’t go in there at night, nobody else will,” he remembers.

Barrett heeded the advice and up went the new lighting and down came all the window graphics. Later, following late-night incidents of motion detector alarms being set off by wandering vagrants sneaking in before closing, he informally polled customers as to their desire for 24-hour operations. The door locks were disengaged the next week.

PROVING GROUND

A young and eager Barrett approached projects using both his hands and mind. At 34, he put his skills to work as a carpenter, welder and electrician to build himself a 2,900-square-foot log home near his Ontario, Canada, boyhood farm. His passion for electronics led to a career in automotive industrial robotics with a major international manufacturer.

It was during development of an assembly plant that Barrett took notice of the value of time-lapse photography to document a project’s progression. When he later decided to switch paths and “change the face” of central Alabama’s coin-op market, he chronicled each step. More importantly, he spent countless hours in his stores studying each laundry’s flow by observing customer habits and how they gravitate to machines within a self-directed, automated environment.

His first acquisition — a long-shuttered location in Oxford’s neighbor, Anniston — was a proving ground for the then-44-year-old novice operator back in 2010.

He retained the existing homestyle tandem small-chassis washer-dryer arrangement, but dramatically boosted poundage with a nearby bank of large front-loaders and multi-load tumblers. Barrett quickly realized small-load patrons were creating a bottleneck by competing with family trade for the quarter-vended high-capacity dryers. The congestion was remedied by implementing full-cycle dry pricing — a scheme carried over to the new Washin Oxford venue.

While monitoring traffic flow, he also examined cashbox collections, revealing the customer propensity to use little and big washers positioned in close proximity to one another.

“They proved right there that’s the layout they want,” Barrett emphasizes.

MAXIMUM MANUEVERABILITY 24/7

When he contemplated his Oxford build-out last year, the initial rendering of a single, straight-line washer bulkhead was nixed in favor of a twin design incorporating an alternating stairstep. The result: maximum aisle maneuverability and a beeline down the middle to the largest dryers.

“By positioning the largest 60-pound washer opposite the smallest 25-pounder, your aisle is at a 15- to 20-degree angle and you can walk through, even if all the doors are open,” Barrett points out.

Not only can patrons toss clothes inside up to three varying washers with ease, they can remain within in their comfort zone.

“Some want big machines and others just want a small one at the end of a row,” the owner shares. “Some want to be the center of attention and be right in front while others want to be back in a corner.”

Being around the corner from the world’s largest retailer draws wash patrons to his newest laundry day and night from up to 30 miles, Barrett claims: “They have a Piggly Wiggly grocery in their town, but once a week they’re making the journey to Walmart and this is part of the trip.”

With a Walmart Supercenter anchor and other 24-hour outlets at the nearby I-20 interchange, the operator says a steady flow of families opt for less-congested overnight hours to wash multiple loads while enjoying a carry-in meal from a local eatery.

Check back Tuesday for the conclusion.

Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Bruce Beggs at [email protected].