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Update on other self serve prices and time

$3.50 for 4:40. Been that price for about 10 years. I really should go up. There is a $3 express wash that opened on the other side of town. i don't want to overprice for the market
 
Car_Wash_Guy said:
$2.50 @ 3:30

Nearest SS competitor, about 3 mi away, is at $1.00 @ 2:00
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If you have the Best of EVERYTHING at your wash.. CC. Bills, Powerful Vacs, Air Dry, Attendant, Great Lighting on and on .. you are his competitor.. Don't worry about him or her.. Provide the Best and Charge for it, and you will be very successful.. Remember.. You are the Competition..
Don't Blink.. I have competition the same as you, and I charge $3/4 minutes (going to $4/5 minutes soon) bays.. and $3/5 minutes vacs.. If your competition is charging that low of a price, he must be a stupid (sorry to say that) operator and his facility is probably way below Par.. and Par in the SS business is not good.. LOL..The SS business in the public eye Nationwide is not good.. too many bad operators have gave us a Black Eye.. You need to be 5 Star and not worry about the others.. People want GOOD stuff, not just cheap, out of date equipment and with low prices.. just my 3 cents..
Happy Car Washing..
Doug
 
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Looking at the posts so far and removing some of the variations such as CC charge differences and the $5/15 minutes charge option, to me it looks like this:

$2.50 for 4:30
$3 to start...3 minutes
$2.50 @ 3:30
$2.50 to start for 4 Min
$3.50 for 4:40
$3.00 for 4 mins
$3-4 minutes
$2/4 minutes cash
$3/4 minutes
$1.25 for 3:50

Hope my adding is correct for totals:

$26.25 39.5 miniutes

On average per $1 charged = 1:30 of wash time so far.

I'm at $2 for 3:45. Vancouver, BC Canada area. So based on numbers above, not charging enough.

I do notice that back east where subzero temps require enclosed self serves, price points appear to be higher based on info I have seen in other threads. So if posters could include their state or province, it could help a better understand pricing trends. No roll down doors for me. No snow in two years. Global warming?!

Overall, there are so many variables unique to each wash whether its rural, urban, weather patterns, competition, location etc. Still this type of info is useful for some sort of benchmarking.

I don't have a lot of SS competition, have a lot of population density, but we get a lot of rainy days around here, and I'm also getting an express wash to compete with soon. See what happens. I am glad to see that many operators are finally starting to raise their prices without scaring off customers. Making me think.
 
we notice being at $2.50 with quarters that most people with just put the extra $0.50 in the bay just because they have it from getting $3.00 in quarters out of the changer. Certainly a good idea to keep start up times at a odd price $1.75/2.25/2.50.
 
packerscw said:
we notice being at $2.50 with quarters that most people with just put the extra $0.50 in the bay just because they have it from getting $3.00 in quarters out of the changer. Certainly a good idea to keep start up times at a odd price $1.75/2.25/2.50.
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I totally disagree with this. Back in the day, I dispensed quarters. I now dispense golden dollars and dollar tokens. With quarters, many would just put in the start-up price, let it run out, repeat, and maybe a quarter or two more as time was running out. With dollars, they often put in much more than the start-up price and add money a buck at a time as needed. I've been on both sides of the fence and there's no comparison. I wouldn't go back to quarters if you paid me.
 
Etowah
I.B. Washincars said:
I totally disagree with this. Back in the day, I dispensed quarters. I now dispense golden dollars and dollar tokens. With quarters, many would just put in the start-up price, let it run out, repeat, and maybe a quarter or two more as time was running out. With dollars, they often put in much more than the start-up price and add money a buck at a time as needed. I've been on both sides of the fence and there's no comparison. I wouldn't go back to quarters if you paid me.
Click to expand...

This is consistent with our experience also.
 
Well we took over the wash 4 bays on April 27 2015 there price was 1.50 for 4 minutes. May was our first full month and it did 4274.00.
WELL a price jump had to be made (so I figured) we went to 2.00 for 3.5 minutes. He had his pressure set at 1000 PSI also. :mad: So on June 2nd.
We increased the pressure to 1900 PSI. changed the price also. Really cleaned up the place. June went to 1900.00. July 1850.00
Put vending in (There was NONE). Never see a 4000.00 month again. Never seen a 3000.00 month again either, are people that price crazy??
 
Not sure about your area, buy May of last year set records for a lot of people around the country. Weather was perfect and there was a lot of pollen in the air. It was a once in a lifetime kind of month, so if your area was like that, I wouldn't use that as a barometer.
 
lilb93 said:
Well we took over the wash 4 bays on April 27 2015 there price was 1.50 for 4 minutes. May was our first full month and it did 4274.00.
WELL a price jump had to be made (so I figured) we went to 2.00 for 3.5 minutes. He had his pressure set at 1000 PSI also. :mad: So on June 2nd.
We increased the pressure to 1900 PSI. changed the price also. Really cleaned up the place. June went to 1900.00. July 1850.00
Put vending in (There was NONE). Never see a 4000.00 month again. Never seen a 3000.00 month again either, are people that price crazy??
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Hmmm... Do you have all the goodies? Pre-Soak, Tire Cleaner, Spot Free, Air Dry, Triple Foam, Hot Wax, Bill Acceptors, Credit Cards in Bays, Daylight hours Attendant, etc..?
If you do, then you should be doing great regardless of your competition.. especially if your competition does not have all the above.. We are running 54% Credit/Debit.. YMMV.. We did $905 in Credit Debit alone on Friday..We do not take Coins of any type.. Bills or Card.. and Yes, we have competition that is much lower priced, but they don't have the right ingredients.. Make a pretty Cake, and people will Eat-It-UP.. I don't want in any way to sound Braggadocios, but just reporting to my fellow Car Washers the results of a State of the Art Facility..
Happy Car Washing..
Doug
 
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