Cashless Car Wash

[uncleb16]

Hi, longtime reader, first time poster. I am looking at a 6 bay self service car wash that has been closed for about one year. It is in a rough area and been vandalized every time that I have looked at it over the years. My thought is to reopen the car wash bays with Cryptopay only and the vacuums with Cryptopay and maybe quarters. At this point, only the vending machine may accept bills (and coins and credit). The main idea is to reduce the threat of vandalism, of course, but this also significantly simplifies the operation. No change machines, one bill acceptor, no sorting tokens, etc. I have found a few operators that have done this and they love it. But, I want to put it out to the forum. Tell me what you think...

 

[MEP001]

Technically it's your second post, but anyway...

In my experience, vending is one of the most vandalized parts of a car wash. My suggestion since you're looking at going cashless as much as you can would be to go with a glass front vendor that takes cards.

 

[robert roman]

You may also want to consider pay-one-price business model (i.e. $5.00).

Here, wall or fence is built around property and self-pay station with automatic entrance/exit gate is installed.

This leaves bays alone, controls access to property, eliminates use of cash, POS technology allows remote management/marketing of business with mobile devices, etc.

You might even save on insurance because business operating risks would be reduced.

People willing to pay $5.00 or $6.00 will appreciate the investment plus it will keep the bums out.

 

[Greg Pack]

The big problem I see is that you describe the wash as in a rough area, which still tends to be heavy cash. It would be an interesting experiment.

If it was in a good area I would recommend gating/flat fee as Robert suggests, but customers in these types of areas often see car washing as a form of recreation and I can envision real throughput problems as you have people camping out in the bays for an hour making sweet love to their car.

You could skip vending altogether. When my vending machine dies I have no plans to replace it. Its the most hassle for the least return on my properties.

Anyway, please keep us posted on your results.

 

[soapy]

I think by going all cashless you would be eliminating 30 to 40% of the potential business. In my experience SS car washes now get around 60% of their business with credit cards and cash makes up the rest. It could be different for others but that is what I see.

 

[chaz]

I think by going all cashless you would be eliminating 30 to 40% of the potential business. In my experience SS car washes now get around 60% of their business with credit cards and cash makes up the rest. It could be different for others but that is what I see.

I’ll go out on a limb here.....but I’d bet if you went cashless, ALL of your business would be credit/debit!

But seriously....my numbers are similar cash vs credit/debit. I’d imagine I’d loose some customers with cashless, but credit/debit customers tend to spend more.