Sales Trend
- Thread starter txheat
- Start date
Washmee
Fullservice Tunnel
The ones where the sun doesn't shine. Blue skies mean busy washes. Its that simple.
Waxman
Super Moderator
Look at Soapy's Blog.
He has an interesting report on the weather factor and its direct correlation to sales.
He has an interesting report on the weather factor and its direct correlation to sales.
Buzzie8
Member
My best months are from Thanksgiving to Mother's Day. I think that might hold true for most of the Northeast. Of course, I have had 54 of the last 64 days with rain here. That and $4 gallon gas prices have brought my business to a grinding halt. Next weeks forecast... 5 days of rain. Remind me never to get into a business that is so closely tied to weather in the future!
yea thats why im gona build a washateria next to my carwash... this is way too slow for me. It just getting finance that is giving me so much trouble....especially all the paperwork for SBA loan.
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and the link is??? Seriously are the summer months slower for the rest of you guys? Cause i want to find out why the sudden drop from march and april....and its not weather related. Its hot and dry over here. I just hope its not our fault cause that one incident...cause you know bad news travel fast. Plus we were forced to shut down for 4 days...grrrr
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Buzzie8
Member
Washateria?
soapy
Senior Member
Summer months for me are the best. It just gets too cold here in the winter for many people to wash that much. We have enough wind here that even if it were sunny everyday cars still get dirty from the blowing dust. In some areas of the country people will wash when it is cloudy but that is not the case in my area.
Kevin James
Active member
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The weather here has been absolutely beautiful. The Self-Serve car washes are down about 40-50% since the price of gasoline skyrocketed. We have found that the majority of the public that use a Self-Serve Car wash or Laundromat have less discretionary income. It’s not important to have a clean car or clothes when you have to pay over $4.00 a gallon to get to your $10 - $15 an hour job.
There is a reason that there are so many foreclosed and run down Self-Serve car washes for sale and that is they cannot charge enough to cover the operating expenses and still have money left over to show any substantial profit. In other words it’s a low or no profit business. Sure there are some Self-Serve car washes that are doing OK, but a good percentage are not making it and are for sale or have gone back.
The majority of the motoring public sees the Self-Serve car wash with a 25¢ mentality. You can have the nicest and cleanest facility in town and as long as the public has the 25¢ mentality and doesn’t have the discretionary income to use your car wash you’re not going to have much business.
All of our car washes are for sale and have been since we got into the car wash business. We are seriously thinking about taking 2 of them down.
There is a reason that there are so many foreclosed and run down Self-Serve car washes for sale and that is they cannot charge enough to cover the operating expenses and still have money left over to show any substantial profit. In other words it’s a low or no profit business. Sure there are some Self-Serve car washes that are doing OK, but a good percentage are not making it and are for sale or have gone back.
The majority of the motoring public sees the Self-Serve car wash with a 25¢ mentality. You can have the nicest and cleanest facility in town and as long as the public has the 25¢ mentality and doesn’t have the discretionary income to use your car wash you’re not going to have much business.
All of our car washes are for sale and have been since we got into the car wash business. We are seriously thinking about taking 2 of them down.
pitzerwm
Active member
IMO if they use salt on the roads, the winters are better, otherwise its the summer. Weather of course, effect and the price of gas etc will also effect our customer's spending.
Yes, bad news does travel fast, but not to that many people. I think you have the same problem I have - it gets too darned hot for people to come out and wash. I have experienced the same scary end of April/May slowdown. Every year now for the last 6 years. It is like someone turns the switch off in May (school ends) and turns it back on in September (school begins).
So, for me, summer is a good time to do deferred maintenance or upgrades or, even better, take a vacation.
Bartmart
New member
Usually in the South, Spring is the best time of year. Pollen is usually the best catalyst we have to get people out to clean their cars. Auto Laundry News publishes some great surveys that report what times of the year are strongest for the different regions of the US.
txheat, what you are experiencing is typical for most of us in TX. Even though it seems terrible, if you look back over the years the drop in revenue will not be as severe as it seems now. Dry and dusty conditions does help sometimes.
Washmee
Fullservice Tunnel
My answer was for my car wash, not everyones. In North east Ohio, sunshine is a limited commodity.The ones where the sun doesn't shine. Blue skies mean busy washes. Its that simple.
The weather here has been absolutely perfect for washing cars the last week or so. Most days you could fire a cannon into the car washes and not hit anyone. I think Kevin hit the nail right on the head, it’s not the weather it’s the economy that’s killing us. In the last 6 months there have been 3 major distributors in our area that have gone out of business. We are down about 40%-45%.
Our weather has just sucked,it has rained and rained and its getting ready to rain all week again! And besides that the economy is in the tank and gas is close to $4.00 a gallon. Man it has got so much better since George Bush is gone. Any minute now manna from heaven is going to fall. And yes my girl friend says owning a car wash is a sickness, I'm incline to believe her. I love the car wash business.
soapy
Senior Member
Randy has to stop hording all the good weather up in Seattle. I had a couple of partial sunny days last week and business was good. It is set to rain again the whole next week. I would love to see a week of sunny weather sometime. This years LaNina is the strongest in almost a century and I think it is hurting many areas of the country. Here over 50% of the wages are for government workers who have not felt the economy downswing at all.
robert roman
Bob Roman
Kevin,
There is always more than one way to view a market.
For example, it has been the wealthy class and people who use a self-service wash that have made the least number of spending adjustments during the recession.
So, having the nicest and cleanest wash in town is important but it does nothing to solve the customer’s problem.
Since the typical customer visits a wash only several times a year, it is hard to image the price of car washing relative to the price of gasoline alone would be enough to dampen volumes.
For example, if someone spends $20 annually to wash their car and quits washing to save money, they would only be able to buy five gallons of gasoline over the course of a year.
Consequently, if a self-service wash is not having much business, the root cause is most likely an over-built market and/or a business model that does not solve customer’s problems.
There is always more than one way to view a market.
For example, it has been the wealthy class and people who use a self-service wash that have made the least number of spending adjustments during the recession.
So, having the nicest and cleanest wash in town is important but it does nothing to solve the customer’s problem.
Since the typical customer visits a wash only several times a year, it is hard to image the price of car washing relative to the price of gasoline alone would be enough to dampen volumes.
For example, if someone spends $20 annually to wash their car and quits washing to save money, they would only be able to buy five gallons of gasoline over the course of a year.
Consequently, if a self-service wash is not having much business, the root cause is most likely an over-built market and/or a business model that does not solve customer’s problems.
