CNBC Mr Clean Car Wash

[soapy]

Tonight on a show called Behind the Counter on CNbc a segment was dedicated to the Mr clean Car Wash franchise. It painted a rosie picture of getting into the car wash or dry cleaning business based on using P&G franchise system. They claimed that operating expenses for a carwash is only 6% of the total revenue. WOW. You can buy water, sewer, electricity, chemicals, labor etc. for only 6% of what you collect on wash. Does anyone else see anything wrong with that figure? P&G will do you a favor by only taking 10% after you pay the bills. Other research revealed in the segment is that a carwash should take 12 minutes and that damp towels should be used to dry a car.

 

[Greg Pack]

They claimed that operating expenses for a carwash is only 6% of the total revenue.

Looks like some reporter left a zero off their notes.

I used to watch CNBC a lot. It is a dangerous place to get business or investing advice.

 

[rph9168]

There were several inaccuracies in that show regarding car washing and Mr. Clean. That was really sloppy reporting.

 

[Jimmy Buffett]

It's best to watch cnbc with the sound off imo.

 

[rph9168]

Mr Clean Blog

Here is an interesting take on Mr Clean.

http://franchising.phoenix-blogs.com/tag/carwash/

 

[Earl Weiss]

Here is an interesting take on Mr Clean.

http://franchising.phoenix-blogs.com/tag/carwash/

I love the slam at the MBA types. I was a busines major . Stopped at a bachelors. Felt the teachers were mostly ivory tower POS and didn't know what the real world was like. Did my final case study on gasoline / car wash retailing (family business) and Prof. graded me off for not doing an inventory turnover benchmark analysis even though I pointed out it was largely inapplicable to this type of business since gasoline inventory storage was largely restricted due to site constraints and deliveries were scheduled as needed. (This was before the Just in Time inventory practice became all the rage). Deliveries of full olads is also a consideration.

Later, one of my favorite movies was Rodney Dangerfield's "Back to School" where he, as a succesful developer points out that the professor's proforma is full of wholes lacking real world considerations I won't go in to here.

I think Mr. Clean is doomed to fail. But I thought a chain selling fancy coffee was stupid and if anyone told me 15 years ago they had an idea to push buttons on a phone to spell out words for messages I would have said they were nuts too, it would never sell.

 

[pitzerwm]

My business plan in college was a whore house in NV. My teacher loved it so much he almost quick teaching and moved to NV, with my business plan.

 

[phred113]

My business plan in college was a whore house in NV. My teacher loved it so much he almost quick teaching and moved to NV, with my business plan.

I cannot decide if you improved your goals with the car wash biz or not?

 

[mac]

Speaking of houses of ill repute, I heard that the famous Chicken Ranch got into trouble with the IRS for back taxes and was foreclosed on by the IRS. After a year or so they sold it because they couldn't turn a profit. Only our imperial government could lose money selling liquor and sex.

 

[pitzerwm]

Actually, Mac it was the Mustang Ranch and you are right as usual the government can not run anything and make a profit.

Years ago, the State of WA had to outsource passing out food stamps because they were being fined $100K a month by USDA for screwing it up. I wrote a program to do the job, in which I could dispense them in 21 sec, while welfare took over 5 minutes. 3 years later their programmer finished his program and it shortened their time to 3 minutes.

Then because, I was catching and reporting fraud, they tried to cancel my contract. To make a long story short, to avoid a lot of ugly press they demoted the local administrator and sent her to Siberia, and renewed my contract.

 

[Whale of a Wash]

That show was sure a piece of fiction. For me in this cold weather it's more like costing 90% for everything. Almost everyday i feel like i'm at the mustang ranch,it seems like i am am getting screwed by someone. I would like another location, but the cost of land, building, and equipment is so high for the return with all the days i lose to bad weather, I should put a TV in the entry with that show on a loop, and maybe someone will build me a new location that i can buy from their bank for alot less.

 

[el jefe]

Why in the world would they not go EE???

 

[Greg Pack]

Why in the world would they not go EE???

Mr Clean was born out of Georgia-based Carnett's Car Washes, a successful full serve chain. A well run full serve in the proper market can be very profitable.

 

[el jefe]

Sounds like to me the only one winning is the Carnetts... If P&G would have done their research they would have seen the tremendous trend in the industry.... anyone with any sense knows where its headed... Especially on a franchise... Full serve management takes years upon years to cultivate and is extremely difficult to manage... The express on the other hand is a whole lot easier and can be just as profitable without all the headaches... I know I'm a 3rd gen carwasher and have owned or operated 5 different operations... I guess its good that the big guy P&G doesn't really know what they are doing? Good for the little guys like us

 

[MEP001]

If they can make as much profit with full serve and create more jobs, what's wrong with that? It's a big company, they don't care how hard the individual washes are to run. They pay someone to do that.