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30 minutes for 6$ @SS

No way I would do that!
1) leaving $ on the table
2) when busy I dont want people in there that long
3) he is probably banking on the fact that nobody can spend that long washing unless they
 
Yeah, when I was there, some people did leave because they didn’t wanna wait. but they’re always busy though. Most people spend around 15 to 20 minutes
 
I know someone who does this by giving a bunch of bonus time when they reach $5. He put a detector plate in the bay floor so if the car moves the time clears. He tried it because the wash was practically dead all day, and it's busy now.
 
I know someone who does this by giving a bunch of bonus time when they reach $5. He put a detector plate in the bay floor so if the car moves the time clears. He tried it because the wash was practically dead all day, and it's busy now.
You have a link for the detector plate?
 
One of the washes closest to me does 20 minutes for $6.00 for credit cards. His cash price is more reasonable. A customer, who had just finished telling me how nice it was to have a car wash in town that actually uses soap, mentioned his pricing. I asked him if he'd rather have ten eight minutes with soap, or twenty minutes without. That wash was pretty busy until I opened and he does still have a few cars there when I drive by.
 
I know a wash in Pennsylvania that does this. What are you thoughts on the price structure?
Way too much time for $6. I get the point, but generally speaking, self serve washes are already undervalued and this goes even further in my opinion. I also think any “extended” start up time, like anything over 10 minutes, should have a shut off built in if the car moves out of the bay.
 
There was a wash that did this by my first wash I bought. After I reopened mine (purchased out of foreclosure) he was out of business within 6 months. My wash is newer, nicer, and better run than his was. He did $5 for 30 mins in 2 or 4 of his 8 bays total. A few of my customers told me they went there until I opened up and said it was always a dump. They also said would much rather pay for a clean well run facility then go to a cheap, run down, dump.

Another model is gated entry and everything is push button start. I believe Greg has a friend that is having good success with this model. I would try it but I don't have the stack room for a gated pay station.
 
Dixmor can help you with that if you want to do it, but I'd do $10, or at least $9. I wouldn't do it at a wash that was already turning good numbers though, only an under performer with a lot of dry bays.

The old SSCWN in the 90's had articles by Bob Clements (wonder wash in WI). He had great research/numbers to back up the concept.
 
The only way I could see this working is if you bought the place cheap, it has cheap property taxes, cheap water available and you use the cheapest chemicals known to man. I understand the idea that a lot of people only spend $6 anyway but I obviously want the big spenders too.
 
Bob averaged 4 + cars per hour, at $4.00 for as long as you want (max time was 60 minutes) in the 90's. if I remember correctly his standard bays were 75 cents and $1.00 for 3 or 4 minutes to start. He put loop detectors around the grates to reset as someone pulled out. Bob only put the "Wash as long as you want" in 1 or 2 bays, depending on the location. His tech Don Bruce figured out how to make it work and had IDX build them a special plug-in timer. today Don and his sons still equip washes that way today using a plc and a display only.
 
Bob averaged 4 + cars per hour, at $4.00 for as long as you want (max time was 60 minutes) in the 90's. if I remember correctly his standard bays were 75 cents and $1.00 for 3 or 4 minutes to start. He put loop detectors around the grates to reset as someone pulled out. Bob only put the "Wash as long as you want" in 1 or 2 bays, depending on the location. His tech Don Bruce figured out how to make it work and had IDX build them a special plug-in timer. today Don and his sons still equip washes that way today using a plc and a display only.


If it was $4.00 30 years ago how much is it today?
 
I checked to see where they are priced at today. They have a 2-tear pricing set up $4.00 to start for 3 minutes or $10.00 for 30 minutes. Pushing most customer over to the IBA's.
 
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