High soap and wax prices

[OLFOT]

Hey all, the prices on 5 gallon self serve concentrates is getting ridiculous. In particular, wax has gone sky high. Anybody know why wax has gotten so high?
Any recommendations on 5 gallon self serve concentrates? I'm currently ordering with free shipping, but the wax price has jumped to nearly $150 a bucket with tax. Thats way too much.

 

[washnshine]

What brand? what concentration? What vendor? There are a lot of variables to “5 gallons of self serve wax”

 

[OLFOT]

I'm using Stone Soap Rainbow products currently which are high price and high quality. BUT the prices, especially the wax, have gotten out of hand. It's looking like I may have to start using a different product line. I didn't really want to name them because they are sponsors here, but the cats out the bag now.

 

[washnshine]

Aren’t they selling on Amazon now? Won’t a Prime Membership get you free shipping? Also - judge your price by how many cars you are getting out of a container - not the cost of the container. I understand prices are going up, that is inevitable, but you may be getting a lot for your money - especially since you are happy with the quality too.

 

[Earl Weiss]

Years ago save a Chunk of $ with KR but instead of their SS Pre Soak and HP soap which had gelling issues I used to Low PH Product. Cherry Blossom for FB Kleen White for Wheels and Engine, and Just Peachy for Sealer wax. Also used their Anti Freeze FB .

 

[STXCW]

I pay more than that for 5 gallons, but I am not concerned with the cost of the 5 gallons versus what my cost per minute is.

Do you know what your cost per minute is?

 

[Waxman]

and let's look at the other side of the equation too. What are you charging for your start up cost and how many minutes do you get for that fee? It's OK to pass the cost increases along to the customer but I feel like many times in the car wash business we are reluctant to do that as owners. If you offer premium products as well as hot water and high pressure and everything works 100% of the time, you can charge a premium price. Nothing wrong with that.

While it is important to keep an eye on costs, I'd be more concerned about the quality and repeat business which is what keeps us all going. If you really want to save money on soap, to me it's always made sense to make my own. i'm not talking about the automatic I'm talking about self service. There are many threads on here about a mixture of Simoniz correct powder hot water and Simoniz foam additive. Awesome soap / awesome show/ awesome cost. this mixture has been my high-pressure soap and my foamy brush soap for years. It's allowed me a very low c.o.g.s. On these two widely used products so that I can really dump on a huge amount of quality wax and three color foam Polish.

 

[OLFOT]

I was just wondering if a specific part of the wax formulation was in shortage or something to drive the wax prices so high.
And, I was just wondering if anyone has good results from any lower priced products.
I only have self serve bays at my places. No automatics, no credit card acceptors, no frills, no vending.
High crime rate(break-ins to the building, vending machines, vacs, bill changers, coin boxes, dumping, etc.)has forced me to eliminate alot.
It's not a rocket science business to me. It's just a small retirement income. I use the KISS rule.
If I had raised my prices over the years at the same rate as the product vendors, I would price myself right out of business.
I've been doing this for over 20 years.

 

[soonermajic]

Buy these in OCTOBER, from Kleen-Rite

Deep Blue
Bubble Up
Orange Creme

Use more expensive PS & TC

 

[DavidM]

If I had raised my prices over the years at the same rate as the product vendors, I would price myself right out of business.

It is also possible to price yourself out of business by not raising prices.