Advice needed on raising prices

[soonermajic]

I bought this site 3.5 yrs ago. Ripped out touchless & installed Razor Edge 3 yrs ago. Went from 35 up to 40 cpd & raised prices by $3. I am now @ $9 , $11 $13. Town of 4800, below avg income folks. on avg

I m goin to add Cryptopay Swipe & Tap, & install a big nice entry Arch. I'm going to raise prices again. Would you guys go up $2 more on each, or just $1 more on each? I am adding Ceramic , instead of Carnauba.

I'm $2 for 4:00 for SS bays. Adding Cryptopay swipe. I think I will stay at $2, but drop to 3:30...?

 

[gomerpyle]

what are your wash splits. How many use the 9$ versus the $11 and $13. Is Ceramic for all packages?

I'm in a similar boat. I will be adding Ceramic this spring and most of my customers choose my top wash. I think I need to raise the top wash and add the ceramic to differeniate my washes.

 

[washnshine]

$11,$13 and $15 for the automatic. Make sure the top wash is truly the best value for the price. If you add two items from the bottom to the middle wash, add three from the middle to the top so it is clearly the most appealing for the money. Keep your high end products on the top wash.

 

[OurTown]

Why are most IBA wash packages so closely priced yet EEs have a large price spread? A few of the older lower priced IBAs around here have only a $2 gap between low and high. One of the EEs has a spread of $18.

 

[washnshine]

I’m not sure if it’s always tied to IBA vs. tunnel. I find that locations that are generally lower priced have the tighter pricing structure and those in markets that demand a higher price tend to have the bigger pricing spread among packages.

 

[Keno]

They have a lot more stuff they can throw on the car in the same time period, increasing perceived value, even though it may not actually be increased value. Also, most EE are focused on membership, so single wash prices are sometimes ridiculous at very membership driven sites.

 

[Keno]

I bought this site 3.5 yrs ago. Ripped out touchless & installed Razor Edge 3 yrs ago. Went from 35 up to 40 cpd & raised prices by $3. I am now @ $9 , $11 $13. Town of 4800, below avg income folks. on avg

I m goin to add Cryptopay Swipe & Tap, & install a big nice entry Arch. I'm going to raise prices again. Would you guys go up $2 more on each, or just $1 more on each? I am adding Ceramic , instead of Carnauba.

I'm $2 for 4:00 for SS bays. Adding Cryptopay swipe. I think I will stay at $2, but drop to 3:30...?

Do you have competition in town for ss or touch free? That will dictate a lot of how much and how fast you can increase prices. Too big of a gap on touch free prices vs your competitors and you'll lose some customers, even if your wash is better, you'll still lose some. Up to you to determine how much loss and if its acceptable.

On SS Side, I've noticed not too many people notice how much time you give, the start price is the "price" they compare, not time per $. This is just personal observation, ymmv.

I have seen personally, 1 site was $2 for 4mins with paid vacs, another site down the road $3 for 6mins with free vacs. Customers complain and say I'm going down the street, that $2 guy is cheaper...okaaay, if you say so Mr customer, you can pay for your wash and pay more for vac

 

[GoBuckeyes]

Are you saying that you've been cash only on your auto for the past three years or are you just upgrading the credit card acceptance?

 

[Waxman]

I think raising your prices depends largely on your competition in the area. I wouldn't waste money on new signs etc for a measley $1 price increase. Also depends on your %age per pkg. The more top pkgs you sell indicates price can go up.

 

[Keno]

I think raising your prices depends largely on your competition in the area. I wouldn't waste money on new signs etc for a measley $1 price increase. Also depends on your %age per pkg. The more top pkgs you sell indicates price can go up.

$1 increase would be about $15k per year for that property, nothing to sneeze at

 

[Waxman]

id still go for more. $2 isnt alot to the customer imo.

 

[Keno]

I think that is relative to the local market - $2 is probably viewed as a big jump in small town USA

 

[Car Wash Man]

I am in a smaller, lower to middle class town as well for the most part. I am a big believer on having one wash at $10. Makes it really easy for customers to slam a 10 dollar bill in to the wash, and be on their way. If you have a lot of customers paying cash, with $11 be prepared to spit out a lot of change/dollars since a lot of customers don't carry exact cash and will either stick in a $20 or a $10 and a $5.

 

[Waxman]

my town has a population of about 8000. I serve probably 20,000 people between two towns that I draw most of my customers from. It's a lower to middle income area. Mostly lower income. When I reloaded my automatic I raised the price on my top package by seven dollars. The percentage of top package purchased is over 50%. My bottom package is $16. I think it's a mistake to assume too much about the amount of cash and what denomination of bills people keep on their person. I think Everything costs more these days. I never thought I'd be paying over six dollars a dozen for eggs but here we are.

 

[washnshine]

Regarding $1 or $2 price raise - you also will increase prices less frequently if you increase by $2. You might be doing an increase in another year or so if you do $1.

 

[Car Wash Man]

my town has a population of about 8000. I serve probably 20,000 people between two towns that I draw most of my customers from. It's a lower to middle income area. Mostly lower income. When I reloaded my automatic I raised the price on my top package by seven dollars. The percentage of top package purchased is over 50%. My bottom package is $16. I think it's a mistake to assume too much about the amount of cash and what denomination of bills people keep on their person. I think Everything costs more these days. I never thought I'd be paying over six dollars a dozen for eggs but here we are.

Waxman, do you have any competition in your area? I think your wash is an outlier compared to most other IBAs, which is good in your case because I know very little IBA's that have customers willing to pay in the 20's for a wash. I am priced on the high end in my town with $14 top wash. Our area has lots of Kwik Trips which have carwashes and their top wash is $12, they pretty much dominate the area in WI for IBA. My customers tell me we have the best wash in town but the $14 is hard for them to swallow. If I raised my top wash by seven dollars they would fall off their chair. I guess it shows that different markets and areas are acceptable and resistant to different prices.