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Wash Dry and WiFi: Where Stack Meets App (Part 1)

Michigan store embraces straight-line, bottom-top layout

UTICA, Mich. — Michael Kline has an answer to high rent: think cubic feet, not square feet. Here at his Wash Dry and WiFi Laundry Center, get ready to toss your clothes above instead of wheeling ’em around.

Replacing perpendicular rows with a straight-line, bottom-top formation isn’t the only thing that makes this unassuming laundry in a suburban strip center stand out. Here, the currencies of choice are physical coins and virtual credits, transacted with a flick of the wrist or a tap of the smartphone screen.

Bi-level design and dual pay defines Wash Dry and WiFi: where stack meets app.

Before its arrival in the Motor City suburb, the stack multi-load washer-dryer concept went for a test spin on the other side of the globe. What started with good ol’ American ingenuity to elevate vended laundry to a whole new level quickly took hold overseas, chronicled in American Coin-Op with a peek at the two-tiered machinery setup inside the small footprints of Cleanpro Express operations in Malaysia and Singapore (Southeast Asia’s New Spin on an American Concept, April 18 and 20, 2016).

Kline became intrigued with the bunk-bed approach to self-service laundry while attending a 2015 gathering of Dexter Laundry distributors following his appointment as a dealer. There, he met with his overseas counterparts and came away thinking the concept had potential back in his region.

“My goal was to start a stack washer-dryer Laundromat so that I wasn’t paying an excessive amount of rent,” says Kline, who showcases his prototype in a 20-foot-wide storefront northeast of Detroit. “We almost built a 2,400-square-foot Laundromat, but we’ve got about three-quarters of that equipment into 1,200 square feet so it made a lot more sense for us.”

Tiering machines is nothing new. Tumbler baskets have a long history of being placed on top of each other in a bid to save space and have become ubiquitous in the industry. And now the stack washer-dryer, long familiar in domestic and apartment complex laundry rooms, has gone multi-load and found floor space where by-the-square-foot usually comes with a hefty price tag.

Kline’s project is an all-stacked affair with the exception of a pair of solo 90-pound washers. Unlike the ultra-compact stores dotting the map across Asia, this Americanized version boasts greater capacity laid out in spacious, well-appointed surroundings.

‘COFFEE HOUSE’ FEEL

Off the bustling Hall Road thoroughfare, Wash Dry and WiFi fits the description of thousands of strip center coin-ops. But stepping inside, it quickly breaks the mold. The laundry takes full advantage of its southern exposure to soak in natural light through full-length glass, and welcoming patrons with a sliding power-door entry — a rarity for partially attended stores.

Once inside, the place has a decidedly “coffee house” feel, where one would expect a hot cup of joe, not gallons of hot water. The rich, earth tone of the west demising wall’s thin brick delivers an upscale statement without overpowering the main event on the opposite side. Kline and wife Deborah devoted eight days to the masonry project, bringing a taste of their own home’s self-described “Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware décor” to the business.

“The whole place looks great because of my wife. I don’t have any taste,” Kline smiles.

“She wanted to design a laundry that was as nice as our own home,” he says, noting that going upscale fosters good housekeeping. “Customers want to make sure they take care of it and make sure they help others take care as well because it becomes their laundry room.”

The porcelain tile floor, four back-to-back folding tables, a comfy sofa, and soft overhead lamp lighting help carry the package and set the stage for the stainless steel and chrome-finished equipment on offer.

Closest to the front entry stands the lion’s share of the store’s big iron. First in the lineup are two 90-pound front loaders—the only non-stacked machines—vending at $11 for a default warm wash, and $12 and $10, respectively, for hot- and cold-cycle settings. The pair, which the owner reports generates one-third of total revenue, are teamed with 200 pounds of stack dry capacity spread over four pockets immediately to the left and priced at five minutes per quarter.

The 13 stack washer-dryer models are presented in a 4-5-4 configuration, with the five 30-pound combo units flanked on each side by four 50-pound sets. A 6-inch steel base installed below the mid-size units facilitates loading and contributes to the equipment layout sight line.

A 50-pound warm wash vends at $6.50, adjustable up or down 50 cents for hot or cold cycles. The front loaders serve as the foundation for the equal load capacity tumbler above. The five 30-pound stack models, priced at $4-$5 per individual wash selection setting, along with a seven-minute-per-quarter dry vend, round out the mix.

Free dry is promoted Tuesdays and Thursdays to both attract new trade and incentivize mid-week patronage, Kline says.

In total, Wash Dry and WiFi boasts 730 and 750 pounds of wash and dry capacity, respectively, along a single wall of the 20-foot-by-60-foot store.

While shotgunning washers on one side and dryers down the other could accommodate similar poundage, the owner stresses that the stack configuration enhances the customer experience by eliminating congestion and allowing a generous open corridor from front to back.

Kline notes traditional small-store layouts create bottlenecks as patrons ferry loads from machine to machine, maneuvering carts around occupied folding tables in narrow aisles. Stacking, he points out, translates into more personal work space.

When someone occupies three machines, they’re the only one standing in front of those three. The customers absolutely love it. They can just take the laundry from the machine below and place it in the dryer above without going across the store.”

When asked if patrons intuitively transfer loads from bottom washer cylinder to top dryer basket, Kline says he observes that nearly all follow the unwritten protocol, with the exception of a few who opt — for reasons unknown — to fill the same-capacity tumbler a few pockets down the aisle.

Check back Thursday for the conclusion!

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Store owner and distributor Michael Kline believes a two-tiered approach to laundry layout can minimize rent and enhance the customer experience. (Photos by Laurance Cohen)

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Natural sunlight floods the southern exposed storefront equipped with a customer-friendly power-door entryway.

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Wash Dry and WiFi Laundry Center’s 13 stack washer-dryers are presented in a 4-5-4 configuration, with the five 30-pound combo units flanked on each side by four 50-pound models.

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