Dunwoody mom aims for the shelves

Joi Sumpton remembers the day inspiration hit her. Several years ago, the Dunwoody mother was in a Barnes and Noble bookstore with her two kids.

Like always, it came time to take them to the restroom and then to wash their hands.

The task was always a little difficult with young children, she said. One child would have to be hoisted toward the sink for the hand washing. The other child was inevitably running toward the door.

The kids complained of being wet and uncomfortable after this several-times-a-day task.

So, she wondered to her husband, wouldn't a step - that's safe - allow kids to wash their own hands? Wouldn't that solve the whole issue?

Turns out, the answer is yes. After market research, coming up with a design, then engineering it, then creating a business plan and patenting a step, Sumpton is now the force behind Step‘n Wash.

"No other parent has thought of inventing this before me, or, if they have, they haven't patented it," said Sumpton, who is a part-time flight attendant with Delta.

The steps are manufactured in Alpharetta, but their appeal is beyond just the Peach state's borders.

Wegman's, a large grocery chain based in the Northeast, uses the steps in its stores. The company sends steps to Europe and has 900 customers domestic and international.

Locally, it’s pretty prominent, too. All of the terminals in Atlanta's Jackson-Hartsfield Airport feature the steps. They’re in the Georgia Aquarium.

The step is a seemingly simple innovation. To use it, a parent activates the stainless steel device with their foot. A young kid ascends the step - which has a skid-resistant surface - and then a hydraulic pump allows it to retract underneath the sink after use, so no one trips on it.

To prove the step’s worth, a counting instrument was installed on one of the company’s products inside the Georgia Aquarium, Sumpton said. In 18 months, the stool was used 28,600 times, which works out to more than 52 times per day.

Sumpton, as a bit of a sales pitch, says her device is more useful to mothers than the ubiquitous diaper-changing stations built into many public restrooms.

"Kids have to wash their hands. They play and then eat and you have to do something about germs," she said. "A wet diaper, you say 'I'll wait until I get home.' You can kind of wing it.'

The Dunwoody entrepreneur is now attempting the ultimate sales pitch. She’s trying to get the step marketed by Wal-Mart – the world’s largest retailer.

At a cost of $479 per unit, she thinks that it could catch on as an item absolutely needed by businesses that provide a public restroom – like the diaper-changing tables.

She’s already taken the first step. She entered a Wal-Mart contest with 4,000 others to get a chance to sell her product on the company’s website.  

Sumpton wants to make the final cut. She’s asking for people to vote for her in the “Get on the shelf” contest. Being marketed there would be ultimate success, she said.

“If anyone knows about this stuff, they know how hard it is to get into Wal-Mart,” Sumpton said. “But once you’re validated by Wal-Mart, you’re validated by everyone.”

Voting can be done until April 3. Click this link to vote.