Self Serve To Express Exterior

[chiggybite]

I currently have a ss location doing about 90k per year, I am thinking of tearing it down to put in a new EE. I have a good location with about 50k cpd on a corner and good visibility. My sales have droped 22% over the last 2 years. I have 2 other locations and the ss has been the hardest hit. Also the ss invite a less affluent clientel, I believe this site has both demographics and I could intice the more affluent with a EE. The location itself needs a face lift,but rather than pour money into a dying market I thought about changing markets. Ingress and egress is not really an issue. I have no real competition immediatly surrounding this location. Thanks for your input.

 

[smokun]

A Sensible Alternative: FLEX-SERVE

With the information shared, it seems that a Flex-Serve would be a more profitable way to go. Why? Because it provides an Express Exterior... and an Express Aftercare component that can offer every hands-on service that a full-service might provide in a fraction of the space with a small fraction of staff; as little as two.

The demographic you inferred could be taken off-the-market by offering all those services in a whatever-you-want... whenever-you-want-it format that is the most profitable format available.

Otherwise, if you simply build an express exterior, you risk having a flex-serve entering the market as more viable competitor.

It makes more sense to cover your bases initially... and own the market?

-Steve

 

[smokun]

An Afterthought

In reflecting on the previous post... and listening to insightful discussions from world scholars in economics from Columbia and Harvard today, I am prompted to suggest that if you do anything, upgrade to flex-serve.

It clearly seems to be the most sensible option that enables your business to adapt and adjust to consumer market conditions in a positive fashion, thus safeguarding your business. The diverse yet low overhead format will undoubtedly provide the best protection in a volatile economy, keeping you in control by exercising steadfast adaptability... often called perpetual market correction.


-Steve

 

[robert roman]

I would recommend another approach by first evaluating the site in terms of highest and best use. Ideally, this would take the form of an economic analysis to test the financial and operational feasibility of various business models or configurations, waste water reclaim, rain water harvesting, construction techniques and other factors in relation to the potential of the site and market and your specific financial and marketing objectives.

Hope this helps,

Bob Roman
www.carwashplan.com

 

[troysaffell]

If your site is big enough. Add a touchless automatic and a mini EE tunnell and keep some hand bays.

Mini EE = 50 to 80 Cars per Hour
Touchless = 24 Hrs. + the 25% of business who does not want anything to touch their car.
Less employees less headaches just a thought.

 

[Chiefs]

Here we have a gentleman going from a self-serve and you want him to go from a situation that require very little labor when compared to the labor of an express tunnel with 2-4 full time employees. But you want him to make the jump to having the 2-4 at the tunnel as well as 4-8 more people for the after care area.

I have to agree with Troy on this one. Add the exterior. Perhaps an in-bay would also make sense given your traffic count. Lastly, if possible, keep 2-3 self-serve bays with one being oversize for large vehicles and RVs. This will anable you to cover the market other than interior cleaning and yet minimize your labor requirements.

Are you leaving money on the table by not offering the after care/interior cleaning and detailing services? Yes, you are. Yet what you are also leaving behind is the management intensive nature of the after care services.

When it comes right down to it, the decision you make will be based on your personal needs and desires. The real question is do you want to operate a wash that requires only 20-40 hours a week of your time with relatively few employees or one that will require 50-60 and 6-10 more employees and all the headaches they bring with them. I have a 48 year old exterior. It went exterior 11 years ago. I also have a very nice building directly behind the wash which with an investment of $50K I could transform into an after care center. However, I do not because I do not want to because I want nothing to do with hiring back the same crappy (maybe crappier) labor that I had when we switched from full service to exterior only. We've more than doubled our volume and our revenue since our last year of full service and I do it all with 4 employees and have plenty of free time for my family. I'd much rather spend it with them than with employees.

 

[robert roman]

Some people believe that the main reason consumers use wand-bays is to save money. Consequently, many self-service washes are located in neighborhoods (rather than shopping areas) with lots of homes that tend to have lower incomes. If the spending power of these households is smooched, consumers will tend to look for cheaper and more viable alternatives like, say, a low-priced express exterior with free vacuums. Within these neighborhoods, there will always be some % of homes with the need for DIFM services. Transient demand, highway traffic, will also have a mix of DIY and DIFM. Therefore, many self-service sites will have the customer base to support an express conveyor, express in-bay or flex-serve (which incorporates exterior washing, DIFM services and self-service stuff).

Tearing down, say, a 4 + 1 in a residential setting and replacing it with a 50? mini-tunnel or a mini flex-serve (i.e. 50? mini tunnel plus 1 or 2 bays of express after-care) has several advantages. 1) The site is close to homes so people don?t have to travel far to use you (higher gas prices) plus you are there ?going and coming? on their shopping trips. 2) Express exterior washing is a quick, no lines approach which is something most consumers value. 3) Less capital cost as compared to a large-scale. 4) Being small also reduces the pressure to grow the business (lower break-even point). As for labor, the small version of the flex-serve could be operated with as few as 3 persons (1 conveyor and 2 in detail).

Would a 50? tunnel be overwhelmed by a 50,000 cpd to the point where overcrowding would turn customers off? Yes, you would expect this to happen occasionally but doesn?t this situation occur at most busy carwash facilities?

Small-scale car washes will not work everywhere but they will give operators a distinct advantage in markets where suitable real estate is in short supply and where the store will not have a large customer base.

Bob Roman
www.carwashplan.com