Dollar Car Washes

[mholloway0526]

I have operated self serve car washes in southern California for over thirty years and have always priced our locations fairly. We are currently at $2.50 for four min. in the bays and vacuums at $1.25 for four min. With the downturn in the economy, more and more operators are now going to a $1.00 start up price. Please give me any ideas you may have to deal with these operators

 

[mac]

Short of getting out the old Louisville Slugger bat, There's little you can do, except to try and educate your customers. If you can get them to understand that it's going to take the same amount of time to wash at either location, and you won't have to shovel the quarters in as much. Better yet, add credit card acceptance to your bays.

 

[kentadel]

I have had a dollar start up and am planning on going to a 2 dollar start up, with same or a little less time per coin, believing in the (get what you pay for) theory. I am upgrading to Etowah boxes with CC and adding a dryer, which will give me a reason to bump it up. I am concerned about reaction to this, but in comparison,I can't get a pop or a candy bar from Casey's for a buck anymore. Times have changed and our industry needs to keep up. Going down in start up price seems wrong to me, maybe decreasing time per coin would be better. Hope you get some feedback from others.

 

[robert roman]

By a $1.00 start-up, do you mean $1.00 for 4 minutes or a $1.00 to start followed by another $1.50 to a get a total of 4 minutes?

 

[mholloway0526]

Dollar Car Wash

By a $1.00 start-up, do you mean $1.00 for 4 minutes or a $1.00 to start followed by another $1.50 to a get a total of 4 minutes?

Generally it is $1.00 for four min. or sometimes $1.00 for 3 min.

 

[Kevin James]

I don’t think lowering your price to $1 for 4 minutes is going to attach much business. By lowering your price you’re showing the public that you’re desperate. Why don’t you make it .25 to start for 25 seconds?

 

[robert roman]

In helping people, I always recommend avoiding the kneejerk reaction of lowering price and focus first on cause and effect.

Why did the competition choose to lower price to $1.00 for three minutes?

Are the owners trying to compensate for loss of business due to a downturn in the local economy or because they are poor managers? Have the owner’s gained some cost advantage over you that lowered their variable expenses? Have new competitors entered the market? Has something caused a drop in traffic volumes in the area?

In other words, how to respond to a price war largely depends on what caused it.

Can you identify the root cause?

 

[readydave8]

My startup time is $1.50 and buys 4 1/2 minutes, I was getting a lot of comments from customers due to the other car washes in my area being $1 and $1.25. I did not want to drop price for several reasons. My distributer suggested selling tokens at discount. Minimum purchase is $5, buys $7.50 worth of time (1 token = 6 quarters).

I still get more business in quarters than tokens, hopefully have kept or will regain thriftier customers. Been doing this nearly a year now.

Already had a double bill changer, just switched one side over to tokens.

 

[Greg Pack]

In the metro south I think the days the days of a premium priced SS carwash are over. It cost more to wash it yourself at my SS than it does at the express. This reduces my market share to those who cannot wash or do not like to wash at a conveyor, or those wanting to wash here for convenience instead of driving 5 miles to the express. I believe this is going to continue to be downward pressure on wash pricing in my area, until some express conveyors start to squeal and raise their pricing to seven dollars or more. Some SS operators are experimenting with $1 pricing. One guy I know of has gone to .25 for one minute. He hates the concept of "giving away" his carwash services, but says his gross is higher than it's ever been at that low volume location.

drifting off topic: IMO, the days of exploding growth of SS is over here. This problem will eventually trickle to all markets large enough to support an express. I bet a new construction Taj Mahal SS will be a rare site in the future. We in this industry segment must learn to adapt, or will continue to see revenues stagnate. I'm just not sure what the answer is just yet.

 

[pitzerwm]

cf, you are surly right that you must evaluate your market and make "what if" plans everyday. Things will continue to evolve and at some point you will find yourself out on a thin limb, if you are not making plans for that change. Usually, you are making guess-tmations all the time without enough info. but you still have to do it.

 

[PEI]

I know a fellow self serve operator that was at $2 for four minutes but in September he went to $.25 for 30 seconds. He then promoted the $.25 startup and has had a lot of success in increasing his net. Because the customers think they are getting a deal they never notice that it costs an extra $.50 to a $1 to accomplish the same thing. He gets the increase in the time that is lost putting quarters into the vac or bay while the meter is running. It cost him nothing extra and has actually reduced his water and chemical costs slightly now that if a customer leaves the rinse running and drives off, it shuts off in about 30 seconds. I am waiting to see if it continues to work long term.

 

[BayWatch]

I have owned one and operated another $.25 self serve. The one I operate increased the startup from 45 seconds to $1.5 for 4 minutes about six months ago. It is a part of a larger express tunnel complex and has seen better success with the change. I increased the cost at the one I own three weeks ago to $1 for 4 minutes and wish I had done so years ago. The $.25 start up in my opinion drew in more "unwanted" customers which trashed the bays and vacuum area. Some customers learned they could spray the vehicle for a quarter, run the foam brush for another quarter, and then spray off for one last quarter. They would run each option until the time ran completely out. I was making $.75 per customer. In the past few weeks, I have watched the same customers come in and now not really pay attention to the time. They still let the timer run out, but now I am ahead or they put in another quarter or two so they have enough time to finish. The foam brush is where I was losing money. The timer would run out but the customer still had enough on the brush or vehicle to continue scrubbing. It has has made a difference at the wash I operate in regards to maintenance. Correct me if I'm wrong but a pump and motor is better off running constantly for a few minutes than turning on and off every 30 seconds; almost all customers would let the timer run out before depositing another quarter; wouldn't want to waste one if they didn't have to. It feels like there have been less problems since making the switch. I would stay away from the $.25 temptation. The honeymoon doesn't last forever.

 

[readydave8]

A few years ago I tried the .25 startup idea, it seemed to increase volume at first but then taper off back to where I had been. It made some customers mad when timer stopped after 1 minute, their perception was that I was selling enough time to wash their car, not that I was selling time at a quarter per minute. Other customers let the time run out repeatedly and start it back--is that good for a motor?

The last straw was when a muddy 4wd truck came in, spent a quarter to get the mud off his glass, and left. It took me 20 minutes to shovel and wash that bay.

Now I have one bay ( my slowest) set to start for 2 quarters but only give one minute, advertised as Quick Rinse. The timer will still give 4 1/2 minutes for $1.50 by changing the value of the bonus time (TM-5).