How is your volume YOY since April 1, 2020

[PWT3TIME]

I just bought an established wash in the upper midwest, on May 1, 2020. Small town, 2 automatics, washes about 25K cars per year. Now that I have taken possession I am comparing YOY numbers and two big things stand out. Volume was up from January 1 thru March 15, 25%. Volume is down 22% From April 1 thru June 14.

What is happening at your site? Is this normal and a sign of the coved phenom?

 

[MC3033]

Less cars on the road means less need for washes. May here was pretty much all rain as well.
June has been great so far and volumes are up compared to last June

 

[Rfreeman]

Here in DFW TX im up vs. last yr. 5% but up nonetheless

 

[KleanRide]

My YOY wouldn't be a fair comparison because I bought the wash on 6/4/19 and did a total renovation.

But March, April, May have been my best months, to date, with June looking better still. My customers were bored stiff during the lockdowns and they spent A LOT of time at the car wash. I also think that we've pulled people away from the more expensive tunnels as paychecks got squeezed. Hope they stay.

 

[Waxman]

Weather and time of year are the biggest factors, IMO, that drive volume and profits. Trends in sales volumes and profit are best looked at in longer time frames. Year over year changes in volume can be due to several factors. When the pollen season is right, all the cars get dirty 30 minutes after washing. If there is alot of rain in between, Mother Nature rinses the pollen off, so customers don't have to at the wash.

 

[slash007]

I"ve found that rain/weather is basically 90% of any shift in sales numbers. That includes snow/salt. For example, this year we had 0 salt days and you can see the difference in winter income. Rained non stop for 2.5 years. Have one month during Covid with little rain and washing went up substantially.

 

[ydwells]

First full year in business and the numbers have definitely increased March - June 15. Did a lot of advertising and I think that since the Pandemic and people were home, not your necessary hustle and bustle to and from work, people had the opportunity to see the advertisements, get out, and just drive a little bit. That gave our business an opportunity to be patronized when our competitor chose to close for a while during that time and we were able to capitalize off of that.

 

[soapy]

Weather is always biggest factor for me in wash volumes. I agree with that people were bored during covid. We had a lot of government workers off here and they washed a lot of their toys during the covid lockdown.

 

[Wash4Life]

Our YOY is way up. When I compare my three car washes April to April, April 2019 was way better since we were closed the following year at the time same. However, we got to open in early May, when pollen was starting in 2020. We didn't have squat for pollen last year. Pollen is the biggest difference maker for us.