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Just raised prices in SS bays

A

Alonzo

New member
We are in a low income neighborhood where all bays are $1 for 3 to 4 minutes. I got tired of losing money and did the following:
  • Painted FRP with white high solids epoxy
  • Painted floors with gray SW Duraplate
  • Converted changers to $ coins
  • Raised price to $2 for 4 minutes


  • Should have done this years ago. Bucket washers went away as did people getting quarters for the laundromat and were replaced by regular folk who don't mind paying for quality. Also we pour on the chemical. Been in the business for almost 20 years but my first time to post. Will be doing this all our washes.
 
How long have you been with the new pricing? I am kind of pushing the place I work for to do it, to run off the riff-raff. We don't have much of a problem with bucket washers, but the ones that put in the bare minimum to rinse their trash out. ( We're $1.50, for three minutes. )
 
slamdvw said:
How long have you been with the new pricing? I am kind of pushing the place I work for to do it, to run off the riff-raff. We don't have much of a problem with bucket washers, but the ones that put in the bare minimum to rinse their trash out. ( We're $1.50, for three minutes. )
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Only 3 weeks..........but we have another wash 1.5 miles away on same street so we have something to compare it to. It is so apparent that we have a better class of clientele also.
 
I had done that over a year ago at another wash. It doesn't come up or wear but it is better if you put on a second coat as the worn concrete is very porous and the second coat makes it reflect light better and easier to wash down the bays. It is an epoxy paint.......I also sprinkle the Shark grit material to keep it from being slick.
 
Good for you. I bet you feel better each time you pull money. I went from $2 to $3 for four minutes about 9 months ago. I also switched to dollar coins. Like you say, less mess, and more money. I also find folks adding the extra dollar coin for more time, used to be just a quarter at a time. I did not expect the excess of quarters brought to my wash that I now take to the bank, or the takeaway of dollar coins. Customers seem to like to collect these. Since the change to dollar coins I have had to buy about $10,000 in dollar coins....just doing my part to get these in circulation.
 
we raised our prices to $2.25 for 3 minutes and didn't get one complaint. Next January we'll go to $2.50 for 3 minutes. I think most S/S car washes are under valued.
 
I raised my prices about a year ago. Only thing that happened was I made more money, emptied less trash cans, cleaned up less messes, and and felt much better about the people that were hanging around the wash. I also feel like my equipment is getting less wear and tear. One of the best decisions I have made. I went by a competitors wash the other day who decreased his price and raised the time. His wash was busy and I was second guessing my decision, but then I noticed the trash blowing across the parking lot, overflowing trash cans, and the riff raff that was at his facility. It just confirmed by decision to raise my prices.


Thanks,
Lighthouse
 
Yep. Lighthouse, you are likely making more money with less aggravation. If I cut my prices in 1/2 I'd need to wash twice the cars to make the same money, but more wear bad tear and more headaches. Not at my wash.
 
“….low income….bays are $1 for 3 to 4 minutes. Raised price to $2 for 4 minutes….”

So you went from $0.25 or $0.33 per minute to $0.50 per minute.

Apparently, your results were positive as in making more money.

Considering the size of the price increase, it makes me wonder how much more you left on the table.

For example, assume cycle is 4-minutes for $1.00 or $0.25 per minute. Average wand use is 2.3 cycles, the lower bound is 1.0 cycle and upper bound is 3.0 cycles.

Assume sales mix of 16.5 percent cheapskates (1 cycle), 67 percent average (2.3) and 16.5 percent high-end (3 cycles).

Average sales = ($1.00 * 0.165) + ($2.3 * 0.67) + ($3.00 * 0.165)

Average sales = $2.21

Increase price to $2.00 and average sales becomes $4.42.

Wonder comes from question of change in volume which you did not discuss.
 
I just raised my prices at the bays and vacs. I'm nervous that it may upset some customers but I feel confident that at the end of the day they will realize that my services are better than the competition(.25 and .50 within a mile). I raised the bays 13% and the vacs 30%. Let's see what happens. It's a good feeling knowing that if I don't drop off too much, I may actually make a respectable living off my wash.
 
We were at $1.00 for 3 minutes and changed to $2 for 4 minutes. At some point we will lower time back to 3 minutes.
 
Alonzo said:
We were at $1.00 for 3 minutes and changed to $2 for 4 minutes. At some point we will lower time back to 3 minutes.
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In about 6 months lower the time to 3:30. Then in another 6 months lower the time to 3 minutes. In about a year raise the price to $2.25. This what I did and haven't gotten any complaints. I raised my vac prices to $1.25 for 3 minutes at the same time.
 
So, just curious... Did revenue go up at the same percentage when you did it? Or did it only go up slightly each time? Each time I raise prices, I think it is worth it, but I hate that it alienates some customers. I often wonder if after a year goes by, if I have actually lost more than I gained... Its hard to tell because I never know if it was just an 'up' or 'down' year that caused the difference in revenue... I kind of think that in the back of everyone's mind a car wash should just be 5 bucks or so. When a self serve quality wash costs $10.00, I wonder if maybe 2/3 of people aren't washing when they otherwise would...? After all, if you run really lean, the incremental cost of a self serve or an efficient automatic car wash isn't really that much... hrmm. Who knows...?
 
I went from 3:30 at $1.25 to 3:05 and dropped bonus time from .50 to .37. Vacs went from .75 for 4 min to 1.00 for 3 min. I look at some other prices here on the forums and wish one day I can charge 2.00 for 3 min. With everyone around me dropping prices, my small increase is a bit frightening. That being said I just put in a tire shine boom in one of my bays and about to retrofit my lights to LED. I'm also putting in a giant refrigerated vendor.All theses improvements I hope give my customers a perceived value and a sense that the increase in price is being put back into a better experience for them. I know it's wishful thinking, they think I'm out partying it up with all the millions of quarters we make a month.
 
My 2 self serves are in blue collar/poor neighborhoods. But even here there are people who are willing to pay for a good carwash experience. So i gave them a choice. Now all the thugs who want to hang out go to my competitor's cheap wash. With them gone, regular folks are coming in and enjoying the freshly painted walls and floors that we keep clean with our attendant on duty. It was a goal of mine to lose some of my old customers. We are really heavy with all our chemicals.......takes longer to rinse. The extra $ does not matter to them.......its the idea of value. It was an easy decision, its what we have to do to stay open. Its very hard to really measure the results as we are in a weather related business. It looks like our revenue is up 50%. Working on second wash this week.
 
Kool Wash said:
I went from 3:30 at $1.25 to 3:05 and dropped bonus time from .50 to .37. Vacs went from .75 for 4 min to 1.00 for 3 min. I look at some other prices here on the forums and wish one day I can charge 2.00 for 3 min. With everyone around me dropping prices, my small increase is a bit frightening. That being said I just put in a tire shine boom in one of my bays and about to retrofit my lights to LED. I'm also putting in a giant refrigerated vendor.All theses improvements I hope give my customers a perceived value and a sense that the increase in price is being put back into a better experience for them. I know it's wishful thinking, they think I'm out partying it up with all the millions of quarters we make a month.
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You may have cut your time, but with the 1.25 start up, I bet you wont see a huge increase in $. Just folks picking up their speed. I found the higher start, I am now $3.00 for 4 minutes, has increased my average spend, and chased away many of the mess makers, that essentially shut a bay down till it's cleaned.
 
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