Price war...or not?

[Ric]

The gas station down the street from me put in a touchless in bay about a year ago. They were priced close to us (5,7,9,12). It didn't have much effect on us. A couple month's ago they switched their menu to 3,5,7. That seems to have bit into our business a bit. How should we respond? We don't want to over react and shoot ourselves in the foot. We were thinking of maybe $1 off all washes during Oct. (Octoberfest). Or $1 from each car to the breast cancer awareness fund (Oct. is national breast cancer awareness month). Any thoughs or ideas?

 

[Bubbles Galore]

Try not to be reactionary. I know that's always easier said than done. I like the idea of the promotions. People appreciate the feel good aspect of things.

 

[Eric H]

I always run the numbers on these things and talk myself out of it pretty quickly.

If you wash 100 cars at $5 = $500
If you wash 100 cars at $4 = $400
So you need to wash 125 car at $4 to keep even.

I do like your Breast Cancer donation promotion. I think this could bring your volume up a bit and makes you look like a good guy.

 

[captain cw]

Be cleaner, always work and offer a better product. Nobody wins when everybody starts cutting prices. It's usually a desperate move by somebody not doing enough business. I had a competitor build down the street a few years ago and tried to undercut me. I added some options and raised my prices and made sure the customers knew that my wash was better. Business actually went up!

 

[rph9168]

I couldn't agree more. Make sure everything at your wash is in good condition and functioning properly. Keep it as clean as possible. If you have anything that is different from the competitor make sure you make customers and potential customers know the advantages of using your wash. Lowering prices is a dead end. Raise the bar and make it difficult for them to compete.

 

[pitzerwm]

IMO Corp stores/gas stations/c-stores usually run crappy washes and the people that care about getting a good wash won't go there if its free, so I'd leave your price alone, promote, and keep it clean and working right.

 

[Ric]

I always run the numbers on these things and talk myself out of it pretty quickly.

If you wash 100 cars at $5 = $500
If you wash 100 cars at $4 = $400
So you need to wash 125 car at $4 to keep even.

I do like your Breast Cancer donation promotion. I think this could bring your volume up a bit and makes you look like a good guy.

I've been having those exact thoughts.

The only problem I have with the Breast Cancer donation is that I would have to tell the world how many cars I wash a month. For a one day event that would be okay with me but I'm not comfortable doing it for a month...thoughts?

 

[mac]

Pitzer took my words before I could post them, but that's probably why he runs the joint. The vast majority of gas stations run poor quality washes, especially when done touchfree. Hold your ground.

 

[SuperClean]

I had the same problem and this is what I did
I added a rollover to my bays about 2 1/2 years the gas station down the road started with a buy 1 get 1 on there top wash ( 2 for $12 ) I thought it was just a temporary thing they where doing to keep there business. After 9 months they where still doing it and our bays where down and the rollover was not getting the volume that we thought it would. We started by doing a month at $5 to get our volume back after this we did a $5 wash on Wed every wed we where lined up about 4x our regular day. This spring they where still doing it so we decided to take the summer which is a lot slower then winter and build the business so we went to all washes $5 we have had a good summer for volume up some months 3x. Sept was wet but still over last year when we first did $5 by 30% most months we do last years volume in the first week. I still do not know what to do going into winter but i was losing business and he was not going to change anytime soon. Greig

 

[pitzerwm]

Bottom line is that you must think and experiment. Find what will work in your market. If you wash is a run down piece of crap then I doubt if anything will help, but if you run a top notch wash, and your competition is mediocre then coming up with creative ideas that will kick their butt, is possible and necessary to survive.

 

[teamplex65]

We run the promotion idea over lowering our price. We are actually doing the breast cancer awareness idea, and are in our 3rd year of doing it. People love it.

I don't fret too much about telling everyone how many washes we do. I focus more on quality of wash. Your main competition is driveway washers, and people that dont wash their car.

We also have had many locals go to $.25 vacuums. Our vacuum sales havent slumped a bit, but the junk being left at the vacuums has gone down considerably. We had a Mister Car Wash built 2 miles away, and they ran a $1 wash for 4 months, and have been at $3 for the last 8 months with free vacuums. I have heard from many people that the vacuums are not as good as ours, and the wash is not as good either. We are working on promoting the car wash as "not the cheapest, but we are the best", and to focus more on giving back to the community. People like to pay for quality, and to know a portion is going to something good.

This summer we did a promo with a Culvers. Take your receipt in for a free single scoop with the purchase of a Value Basket. They had around 100 redeemed, and it was a good promotion for the first year.

The questions i ask on our facebook page promote that idea, and the responses are awesome. www.facebook.com/stoneypointcarwash