Thinking of closing my Petwash

[bigleo48]

All,

So after 5 years of having a petwash, I'm thinking of closing it down and turning the space into a 'water/ice center', where I would have and RO water dispensing machine and perhaps an ice dispenser.

The pet wash has been OK in sales, but not great on margins. When you consider the water to heat, heating and air conditioning of the room, the expensive price of shampoos (you can't even make money with the flee&tick) and the hassle of cleaning the place. I think it may be time to go to something else.

So first I'm thinking of doubling my startup price from $5 to $10. People may complain and if revenues take a dive, then I'll remove it.

What do you guys think?

Big

 

[sprocket]

What kind of population is your pet wash located at. Are there any other pet washes in your area. I have been thinking about taking a self serve bay and making a pet wash but there is already 1 pet wash in this town of 6000 people. What is your thought ?
Thanks

 

[bigleo48]

What kind of population is your pet wash located at. Are there any other pet washes in your area. I have been thinking about taking a self serve bay and making a pet wash but there is already 1 pet wash in this town of 6000 people. What is your thought ?
Thanks

I'm in a city of 30,000 with a regional draw of 55,000 (calculated based upon the big box store draw...I'm next to a wal-mart). There is another, not great and unattended.

So in your case, I wouldn't have opened the first one...so thinking of adding a second IMHO is a is risky at best. When you do your calculations, don't under estimate the cost of chemicals.

 

[sprocket]

I don't have the pet wash, I just wasn't sure how much traffic it would take for one to be profitable. I think you convinced me to keep my self serve bay if you are not doing the numbers you need to do with that many people to pull from.
Thanks

 

[bigleo48]

yeah, I knew youdidn't have the first one...I was just saying that the first one is risky...adding another IMHO is a non-starter. Its not that it doesn't make money, its that there are easier ways to make money with higher margins.

 

[lighthousecarwash]

I was talking to a friend of mine who is big into the pet/fish store business. He was telling me that he has a small RO machine and sells water to all the fish people. He makes good money doing so. I agree with the thought of trying to sell it since you already have a system in place that will probably produce more than enough to keep up with the car wash. The ICE vender is another system that I have looked at, but not sure what the winter months would be like. I see a lot of them in parking lots in some of the southern states, but not sure if you would have to shut them down and winterize them. I have a friend that has a huge ice plant, and distributes ice to all the local C-stores. Even he all but shuts down the plant in the winter months and just uses ice that he has stored in inventory.

Thanks,
Lighthouse.

 

[ScottV]

Leo,

I looked to you as the Pet Wash King on this forum. This news is very troubling for me. If you can't make a go of it, who the hell can?? I would say that my initial startup is $8.00 for 10 Minutes and after placing the last order for chems I'm raising it to $10 for 12 minutes. Most people are putting a $10 bill in the machine anyways.

ScottV

 

[soapy]

My question is really what do you gross in sales per dog wash bay. The people I talked to say they get around $800 to $1000 per unit. Is this accurate? When I was renewing my insurance this year they wanted to know if I had a dog wash. Seems there has been some claims due to dogs fighting and biting people. Saved me quite a bit to not have a dog wash in insurance premiums.

 

[bigleo48]

Leo,

I looked to you as the Pet Wash King on this forum. This news is very troubling for me. If you can't make a go of it, who the hell can?? I would say that my initial startup is $8.00 for 10 Minutes and after placing the last order for chems I'm raising it to $10 for 12 minutes. Most people are putting a $10 bill in the machine anyways.

ScottV

It's not that I can't make a go of it, but "is it worth it?". I feel that I can likely do just as well Net $, without the bother with a water vending or something else.

Will likely raise my price to the point that it seems worthwhile to me. And if it doesn't, I'll rip it out.

 

[bigleo48]

My question is really what do you gross in sales per dog wash bay. The people I talked to say they get around $800 to $1000 per unit. Is this accurate? When I was renewing my insurance this year they wanted to know if I had a dog wash. Seems there has been some claims due to dogs fighting and biting people. Saved me quite a bit to not have a dog wash in insurance premiums.

I would say that gross, $800 to 1000/mth/tub avg is accurate. But expenses, such as heat (water and room), AC, lighting, chems, maintenance, insurance and overall hassle of dogs running around, crapping on the property, etc I would say that my Net would be in the 50% range.

So I could sell the gear and use the money to buy a water dispenser, bottle cleaner and sell ice, pop/vending. I hear that $1200 gross/mth ($1000 net) on a water vendor in my area is very doable. So that would be half of the petwash with no hassle (or at least much less). I'd take that trade!

 

[JMMUSTANG]

Why can you not do both?
I would think you have a built in customer base with the dog wash.
Can you not add the R.O. water dispenser in the same space or outside?

 

[bigleo48]

Why can you not do both?
I would think you have a built in customer base with the dog wash.
Can you not add the R.O. water dispenser in the same space or outside?

No I can't.

I guess It's more about having less hassle than money.

 

[sparkey]

As someone who has a small carwash in a small town and thinking of adding a dogwash this is very troubling to me. I was led to believe that the dogwash business was a good money maker but aparently that isn't the case. I would like to hear from others who have a dogwash and if they had it to do over again would they do it?

 

[bigleo48]

Sparky,

I've had dog washes since 2005, one initially and had the room to add another to mostly remove the need to wash the tub immediately after every wash as my wash was not fully manned during the day back then. Also to do better on busy days.

The pet wash is something to this day attracts much attention, but somehow never translated into the sales that I was looking for. The margins as mentioned are not as good as the SS bays or any other service I offer. It took some time to build the customer base and my sales continue to rise, but only marginally now. I added all the features including fragrances, pet vac and credit card acceptance. But it didn't help much. So without the continued substantial growth to take it to a level worth the hassle, I'm not so sure I want it anymore.

So I am searching for something better in that space. I may never pull it out, but I'm not afraid to do so if I can find something that fits my needs.

Would I do it again? Not in my case.

 

[Greg Pack]

I have considered one but the few I have seen around here have performed poorly and there is a complaints of smell and mess.

Just to get an idea of what this thing was bringing in Leo in your total wash project, would you mind either comparing the gross revenues to other equipment on the lot? Like two vacs, one bay, 1 /5th of auto revenue, etc....

 

[bigleo48]

I have considered one but the few I have seen around here have performed poorly and there is a complaints of smell and mess.

Just to get an idea of what this thing was bringing in Leo in your total wash project, would you mind either comparing the gross revenues to other equipment on the lot? Like two vacs, one bay, 1 /5th of auto revenue, etc....

First, pet washes need to be attended and cleaned after almost every wash. We also disinfect daily. The room is plastic (RBS) and well ventilated. Those pet washes were not installed and are not maintained properly. I have seen many of those pet washes and I would not bring my dog in them. Failing to do so will result in very poor sales.

Second, my two pet washes with a 3 item drop vendor do about the same as my 5 vacs or a little more than one of my 8 SS bays.

Big

 

[MEP001]

After everything I've heard and read, I can see a pet wash as a decent ROI if you already have a full-time attendant there to look after it AND you have the room to spare that has no other practical use, but not if you have to add labor.

 

[rph9168]

I would also add to what MEP has said that it may also bring some customers to the wash that may not have previously come to the wash.

 

[bigleo48]

I would also add to what MEP has said that it may also bring some customers to the wash that may not have previously come to the wash.

RPH,

It has and does bring some non-traditional car wash customers. But my experience is that those customer counts are negligible. Now the traditional car wash customers is more likely to use the pet wash. So I guess what I'm saying is that it's the other way around. Likely because the concept and usage is similar to a SS bay.

Big