‘I Love the Community’: Meet Heather Washington, the New Owner of Mackenzie’s

Heather Washington had no idea what to expect on the spring day she walked into Mackenzie’s for the first time. Mom to a toddler and a newborn, she and her husband had instructed their commercial real estate broker to find a laundromat, not a candy, party goods and specialty gift shop. Her husband, Sieh Washington, after serving in the U.S. Marines went to work in corporate America for several years when the Middletown couple decided to try opening their own business, “and laundromats are known as good business opportunities,” Heather Washington recalled on a recent afternoon. And in fact, they did buy a laundry business—in Manchester, about 30 minutes from home—at which time the Washingtons phoned their broker to say “we were no longer interested in buying laundromat,” she recalled. “And he [the broker] was like, I have another opportunity for you,” she said.