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Jewish World Review August 17, 2005 / 12 Av, 5765 In a big country, dreams stay with you By Jerry Large
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
These days Timothy Barry is living off the fat of the land, taking
advantage of a huge market niche that has been overlooked by other
business people.
Barry sells products that make life easier for people who tip the
scales at more than, say, 300 pounds.
He has lots of potential customers; obesity is a national burden not
likely to be lightened soon. Every year or so a supposed new
solution arises, only to fall short. Millions latched onto the
Atkins diet (lose weight by eating steak and bacon; no bread or
cake), but not many could keep it up. Atkins Nutritionals filed for
bankruptcy protection a few weeks ago.
But while other folks bemoan America's girth-growth, Barry is making
a living from it.
He knows a lot about what heavy people need. Barry himself would
break an ordinary scale. The kind you find at most stores can't
handle more than 300 pounds and Barry weighs 360.
He runs a Web business, SuperSizeWorld.com, out of Vancouver, Wash.,
selling nearly 300 products for really large people.
They sell sturdy scales, of course, and step-stools that can handle
1,000 pounds, along with extra-big towels, toenail clippers with
long handles and a magnifying glass so that a person with certain
obstructions can see the trimmed nails.
I asked Barry about the business and he told me he isn't a fat
activist, just a businessman who thinks being weighty shouldn't have
to be so inconvenient.
I know something of what he's talking about. If I'd only been an
inch taller I'd have a lot easier time buying clothes. My two
brothers are left-handed, which reduces their choices for some
things. Women with hips or anyone who doesn't fit the mid-range mold
in a standardized world knows a bit of what he feels.
Barry has always been a big guy. He's 6-foot-1 and he was a
competitive power-lifter when he was younger. But he says that as he
got older he acquired heft in more and more places, none of which
had to do with weightlifting.
For a number of years he was the president of a Web development
company that had offices in eight states, so he flew a lot.
He says he got bigger as seats got smaller, so half the time he
needed a seat-belt extender to strap himself in. Sometimes, he says,
flight attendants would rudely drop the extender in his lap, or he'd
be embarrassed when they'd say over the speaker system that the
passenger in 14F needed an extender.
Once he was flying out of Boston and there happened to be several
other large people on the plane. There weren't enough extenders, so
the flight was held until the crew could borrow more from another
aircraft.
"Right then, I made up my mind: I would carry my own."
He checked the Internet, but no one sold seat-belt extenders. He
checked with the FAA and they said there was no rule against a
passenger bringing his own, so Barry hooked up with the manufacturer
and put up a Web site, called Extend-it.com, which immediately drew
customers. He's sold thousands of extenders.
That was three years ago. His Web development company was still
hurting from the burst Internet bubble and just as Barry was
thinking there might be some opportunity in making life more
comfortable and convenient for big people, downsizing pushed him
out, giving him incentive to make his ideas concrete.
He started selling heavy-duty scales, and then he went on a cruise and
got another idea. Cruises have lifeboat drills the first day out but
they couldn't find a life vest to fit Barry.
This April he went all the way, with SuperSizeWorld.com, which
carries tons of stuff an average-size person wouldn't think of.
Barry says he buys lots of his merchandise from mainstream companies
that make products for big people, but have a hard time persuading
stores to carry them. It's stuff people have always had to special
order.
Other products are made by small niche producers eager for an
outlet. And there's the world's longest watch band, which Barry
thought up and found a company in Hong Kong to make for him.
Business has been brisk, he says, customers from all over, but
especially the Southeastern part of the country. Can anyone say
fried chicken and gravy? Barry's native Northwest lags behind the
rest of the country, except for life jackets. There's lots of water
around here.
"You can't swing a dead cow without hitting a story about how we're
all getting fatter," he says. "They're all focused on losing
weight." In the meantime, there's no reason for a big person to be
uncomfortable.
Barry's an entrepreneur who knows which side his bread is buttered
on.
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Jerry Large is a Seattle Times columnist. Comment by clicking here. © 2005, Seattle Times; Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services |
Mitch Albom | |||||||||||
