scarrylarry
New member
Hi All, I was wanting to know if there are population minimums for an express exterior car wash to be viable. Thoughts or experiences?
Car Wash Forum
This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!
Population Minimum for Express
- Thread starter scarrylarry
- Start date
br549ms
Member
Unless you can truly expect to wash more that 150 to 200 cars per day, its not worth it. A good location with well kept IBA or the "in bay express" no attendant models will cost much less to construct and operate. I see some of them offering the same services as exterior express washes such as "Free Vacs" and "Free Carpet Mat Cleaners". The key is how many cars do you actually expect to wash per day and during Peak times. You can usually take the projected numbers a equipment distributor will generate for you and cut that in half.
Do a search for Exterior Express BEQ, lots of good info in historical threads
Do a search for Exterior Express BEQ, lots of good info in historical threads
OurTown
Well-known member
OurTown
Well-known member
Here is what Mike's Car Wash uses for its express exterior locations:
https://www.mikescarwash.com/pages/growth
https://www.mikescarwash.com/pages/growth
Last edited:
OurTown
Well-known member
Is this the thread you are referring to?
https://www.carwashforum.com/threads/tunnel-from-ground-up.12383/
OurTown
Well-known member
Are you thinking if they are willing to come to Walmart they might be willing to wash at an express exterior? I have seen many Walmarts seemingly in the middle of nowhere. One I can think of has a town population of 270 and the entire county has a population of only 14K.
No, I'm just saying that the absence of a walmart in the market would probably disqualify the location in my mind as being too small.
tdlconceptsllc
Well-known member
I always heard 22-23,000 cars per day minimum. I may be totally wrong but I bet it's close.
br549ms
Member
The Walmart locations do seem to pay off more often, where traffic is much higher than surrounding retail area and they tend to do the research for market availability very well. Many car washes are doing very well near their stores. I agree around 20k is a minimum, but remember minimum size customer base usually means minimum returns on investment. You can make it work, but ..... Also any competition would reduce you market share and in a small market that includes SS and IBAs. However I disagree with build pricing, you can get away with 1.5MM plus cost of land, less than that if you can contract some of it yourself. Debt service is a killer in a small market where revenue may take a while to build.
jfmoran
Active member
There is more to this question than what you are asking. Density of population within 1, 3 and 5 mile radius, competition with 1, 3 and 5 mile radius, Rooftops, proximity of destination shopping, restaurants, traffic count in front of property, ease of ingress and egress, etc... Population alone is not enough info and having a Walmart nearby may or may not be a good indicator.
OurTown
Well-known member
The ideal location is dense and high traffic. But this thread is about smaller markets. There are some operators I know that could comment a lot more intelligently on the subject than I can, but there are a few sub 10K population washes I am familiar with in smaller markets. They try keep total project cost down (below $2,000,000) and build smaller facilities. Many of these are content with 4-6K monthly car counts, especially as ticket averages have been increasing over the past couple of years. They're not big hitters, but they cash flow nicely enough that the operators are building more of them as the prime sites have already been taken in the metro areas. They're giving the same or better ROI than SS/IBA and have several advantages over that model.
soonermajic
Well-known member
Greg ,& many of you guys have some good ideas. But, in a small market doing 4--6k= 200cpd. That's a LOT in a small market!
I have a 4/2 and a 3/1 in a city of 9000. County has 42000. Traffic count of 14k cpd. I had to build an express tunnel on my 3/1 next to Walmart for purely defensive purposes. Wash owner north of downtown CBD that leases the tunnel fairly cheaply were going to build just a few hundred yards of my 3/1. Since I already had my variance I built first. We have been open 1 year and the touchless autos are down about 50% across the board. The SS gross overall is looking at about a 30-40% hit. No effect on the SS revenue. We are less than 3500 cars per month on average for the first year. My price points are 7. 12,15, and 20 while the competition is 5, 8, 10, and 13. We offer more but the price competition hurts numbers. Overall it was a good move considering what I lost but just building one from scratch in a small market may not be worth the investment. You may consider putting in a 5/1 with room to make it a 4/2 and have enough land to add an express later. Just make sure you check the agenda at the planning commission every month so nobody sneaks in on you.
Last edited:
