Upcoming competitor

[n00bie]

So couple day ago I saw the guy put up "car wash coming soon" sign on his property right across from my car wash. Yay! Not sure what type of car wash he's going to open. My town population is 11k. I have 4SS and 1IBA. His car wash will be on the main road while mine is on small road (parallel). Indeed his car wash will be brand new and customers will like the look of it compare to mine. As expected, I'll be sharing my revenue with him . From your experience having new competitors around you, do you see significant "loss" in revenue? Do you think he open SS and IBA, or express tunnel? My guess is express tunnel. I guess from now on I will put a big bright smile on my face and swallow all kind of nonsense complaints from customers, or they going to threaten me to go to the next door car wash.

 

[MudMoney]

Go to city planning board to see what his plans are and act accordingly.

 

[Axxlrod]

Tunnel probably. Your IBA will take a hit, but your self-serves should be fine. Different customer.

 

[DAWGWASH]

So couple day ago I saw the guy put up "car wash coming soon" sign on his property right across from my car wash. Yay! Not sure what type of car wash he's going to open. My town population is 11k. I have 4SS and 1IBA. His car wash will be on the main road while mine is on small road (parallel). Indeed his car wash will be brand new and customers will like the look of it compare to mine. As expected, I'll be sharing my revenue with him . From your experience having new competitors around you, do you see significant "loss" in revenue? Do you think he open SS and IBA, or express tunnel? My guess is express tunnel. I guess from now on I will put a big bright smile on my face and swallow all kind of nonsense complaints from customers, or they going to threaten me to go to the next door car wash.

Be proactive. Update all your signage, paint what needs to be painted, new decals on everything, replace any brushes and wands that need it, refresh the vacs
if your IBA is old I’d replace or at least update as much as possible with a good cleaning and maybe a new entrance signage
Might look at a system to give away free vac with auto purchase
Just make it look as new as possible

 

[MEP001]

Refresh your vacuums too, it it's an express exterior they'll probably have free vacs which they won't maintain. I have a couple reviews from people that say they'd rather pay to use my vacs than use the free ones at a wash closer to their house.

 

[ShinePro]

Tunnels dont scare me!
I can wash a car better - just not as fast. In February I literally watched Customers cancel there tunnel membership in my lot. While I helped them download or APP
Make sure you are putting out a great car.
emphasize the touchless factor if you are that.
Have one tunnel under construction nearby now and rumors of two more shortly.
i m ready- bring it on

 

[Randy]

I’ve got tunnel 1200 feet away and they just put in free vacuums, 18 drops, which cut into my vacuum business, you don’t have to wash to use the free vacuums. Now I just found out a local car wash chain is going build a tunnel across the street and down about 300 feet away. All of this in a town of 10,000. I’m just going to keep doing what we’ve been doing.

 

[washnshine]

Tunnels dont scare me!
I can wash a car better - just not as fast. In February I literally watched Customers cancel there tunnel membership in my lot. While I helped them download or APP
Make sure you are putting out a great car.
emphasize the touchless factor if you are that.
Have one tunnel under construction nearby now and rumors of two more shortly.
i m ready- bring it on

It depends - some don’t warrant worrying about, but some really have their stuff together and turn out an outstanding product in a few minutes. It all depends how it is run and if everything is dialed in and maintained.

 

[ShinePro]

It depends - some don’t warrant worrying about, but some really have their stuff together and turn out an outstanding product in a few minutes. It all depends how it is run and if everything is dialed in and maintained.

Point taken and agree!
My experience with them so far is that the track speeds are so fast that they dont really get the fronts and backs clean
Wish my crystal ball could tell me how this is all going to shake out.