New Flex Wash Pad Design

[WashNewb]

Thank you for taking the time to provide some feedback.

I’d love some input on the this pad design. It is 1 Acre, located off a main road in PA. With 30,000 cars per day. The pad site is next to a drive thru Starbucks and Wawa gas station that are also going to be built in the same strip, along with a new 4 way traffic light in front of all of us. We are very happy to have secured the site due to the synergy. It’s our first wash. We have some good cw architects and consultants that are advising, but I recognize the value of also crowd sourcing feedback from this forum.

The business model is express tunnel with flex interior service as an option… and self serv vacs. Giving customers the choice.

We are going to be upscale in our brand, because of the demographics ($180k house hold income, and 47 average age).

We have our own entrance off the main rd with a right turn that will feed into our entrance. Starbucks and Wawa gas will be immediately left of us as you look at the pad.


We have some other restrictions for zoning that have positioned we are in this sketch, like the pedestrian gathering areas are required.

We plan to utilize a “chic-fil-a” sales models with mobile sales folks, in addition to the POS terminals.

Concerns-
1) How does overall flow look with the express interior belt
2) 2 POS vs 3. We really can’t fit 3 without giving up vacs. But we think with maybe chic-fil-a model we can maintain pos flow and preserve an express lane.
3) What am I Missing.

Thanks again for taking the time. Appreciate any feedback!!

 

[Axxlrod]

Interesting. Going to an expensive build.

Are you dead-set on doing the interior service? That's a whole different ballgame than just exterior washing.

You will have congestion in the drive aisle between the vacs since there is two-way traffic and it's only 28' wide. There is a wash by me that has a similar layout with traffic routed through the vacs and they have to have an employee direct traffic at busy times. Not ideal.

I'd do everything possible to get a 3 pay lane if you want to do volume. Always nice to a dedicated member lane.

I don't see any employee or customer parking.

 

[WashNewb]

Interesting. Going to an expensive build.

Are you dead-set on doing the interior service? That's a whole different ballgame than just exterior washing.

You will have congestion in the drive aisle between the vacs since there is two-way traffic and it's only 28' wide. There is a wash by me that has a similar layout with traffic routed through the vacs and they have to have an employee direct traffic at busy times. Not ideal.

I'd do everything possible to get a 3 pay lane if you want to do volume. Always nice to a dedicated member lane.

I don't see any employee or customer parking.

Thank you for the feedback. Agree on cost. We expect at least $5M.

We think it’s worth the Interior service for this area with older demographics and the higher end market. This will also be a flagship location for us, with other sites planned.

Employee parking will be the pad across the street in the shopping center. We figured best to have extra vacs than customer parking.

The 3rd pay lane is hard. We had another concept that utilized garage bays for full service at the cost of the 12 ft belt.

 

[washnshine]

Agree with Axxlrod. Any sort of self serve bay line will cross and block vac traffic. If you do go with an interior service. Your customers should not have to drive the length of the building and double back through the vac lines and self serve lines and traffic. It should be an ease maneuver to move them from the exit of the exterior wash to the interior service line.

 

[Axxlrod]

I'm assuming you were inspired by the Valet Auto Wash sites since you're in PA?

You might want to check out some of the Rich's Car Wash sites in the south. Several have separate polish tunnels that require the customer cars to circle back around to through the polish tunnel after the wash tunnel. Similar to what you are trying to accomplish here.

 

[WashNewb]

I'm assuming you were inspired by the Valet Auto Wash sites since you're in PA?

You might want to check out some of the Rich's Car Wash sites in the south. Several have separate polish tunnels that require the customer cars to circle back around to through the polish tunnel after the wash tunnel. Similar to what you are trying to accomplish here.

Appreciate the reference. I wasn’t initially inspired by Valet AutoWash, but I have been to one of them since starting this process, and spoken with their owner for input. I lived in northern VA for a while, my original inspiration was a chic-fil-a and Flagship Carwash connected in the same building in Vienna, VA. It’s a two floor wash, pretty cool. It got me looking at the interior belt tunnel, as they had one.

I will check out Rich’s. Thank you.

 

[WashNewb]

Agree with Axxlrod. Any sort of self serve bay line will cross and block vac traffic. If you do go with an interior service. Your customers should not have to drive the length of the building and double back through the vac lines and self serve lines and traffic. It should be an ease maneuver to move them from the exit of the exterior wash to the interior service line.

Thanks for the feedback. I may be able to shift some of the vacs further north, to give us more stacking for the interior belt. Our thinking is that if we capture 20-30% of exterior business for interior belt, that stacking around 7-8 cars for the interior belt will be OK. We have spoken to some washes that are doing 700-1000 cars a day with a separate interiod belt and don’t stack more than 8 cars, which would put us clear of most the vacs.
We obviously won’t know until the poo hits the fan. But the space restriction is what it is.