I highly doubt this Scrub-a-Dub is laundering anything but cars.
My question is, do they use the cheap car wash to lure people in and then make money on the upsell. But if that’s the case, why don’t they push the extras very hard? Is it because a majority take them without even being offered?
anecdotally, I’ve noticed that at the stations I’ve gone to and used the car wash, when I replied “yes” when the pump asked “car wash today?” the next screen said “Press 1 for Über wash, Press 2 for more” and put the lesser options on a second screen. I’d wager they were (correctly) counting on a lot of customers just taking the first one offered.
That would be my guess. Around here, we have the same sort of thing, and at none of them are the extras pushed in any way other than the big sign in front of you detailing what the (usually) four tiers of wash service get you. And that’s probably all they need. I pretty much always get the second cheapest one, which is a couple bucks more expensive than the cheapest one. I don’t think I’ve ever chosen the cheapest one (I seem to have read somewhere that the there actually is some utilitybetween the cheapest and next cheapest option, but the next two tiers aren’t worth it.)I’d be will to wager the majority of people choose an option other than the cheapest one.
Well after all you gotta get the clear coat. I mean, why wouldn’t you want the clear coat?
Damn, I should own a car wash. That seems like a good chunk of change, much more than I would have expected. Do you think the costs include the cost of the land and the building? Those types of car washes are on fairly sizable plots here.
The answer has to depend on the location because the marginal cost of each car washed is almost nothing. Each car costs soap, water, wear and tear on the machines and nothing else. Labor is the biggest cost in most businesses but since the robots are washing the car, the only labor is the cashier who can’t be making much.
I read that the car washing machine cost 42 grand to install. That means for a five year loan the monthly payment would be $817 per month. That means 205 cars per month or a little over six a day
Thus if the location is very cheap it could be a viable business.
Based on the number jz78817 found, it sounds like they can earn some margin on the very cheapest sales but I assume, as others have, that most people upgrade.
My local automatic car wash used to offer a cheap wash with soap but no wax for, I think $4. There were various bundled upgrades. I remember the first bundle with wax cost another $2. It was $2 to get a bundle with the undercarriage wash. I know the windshield scrubbing also came only with one of the upgrades. These upgrade prices always seemed carefully thought out to maximize revenue. Most people who want their car clean also want it to stay shiny for a little while so the wax is essentially mandatory. If you are just getting salt off the car, you may not care as much about the wax but you can’t get the undercarriage wash without also paying for the wax and getting the undercarriage wash doubled the price. Of course, people care about the undercarriage wash more in winter when they are very unlikely to drag out their hose and do it themselves, so volume for automatic car washes probably increases in winter. When I wasn’t personally aggravated by the pricing scheme, I thought it was clever. If the marginal cost of the basic wash is less than $2 and the marginal cost of the upgrades is maybe a quarter, even getting $3 extra out of half of the cars pushes it from breaking even to "holy shit, the cash is just rolling in!
“Express” car washes are the newest type of car wash, and they are popping up in a lot of metro areas. I just consulted on an old-style “full-service” car wash that the owner is thinking about converting and remodeling into an express car wash. I don’t know where you are located, pkbites, but express car washes are intended for high-traffic locations where they can wash between 7,000 and 25,000 vehicles per month. That would work out to 230 to 830 cars per day, quite a bit higher than you are estimating.
But, to get to your real question, the lowest-cost wash is indeed a price-leader. One operator I read about said that the percentage of people buying his cheapest wash started at 50%, but has dropped to 30 percent as customers get acclimated to his business. Average revenue per customer is probably double the cheapest wash, once you include higher washes and income from vacuums and other incidentals. Vacuums are used by a lot of customers, by the way, and have a high margin.
There’s a well known marketing strategy called “good-better-best pricing”. You offer three versions of the product with a clear description of why the “better” one is better than the “good” one, and why the “best” one is better yet. Consumers like choices, and they like comparing options, but not too many options (choice overload). In this model, unless the prices of the higher tiers are way out of line, it’s almost never the case that most consumers will pick the bottom tier product. It seems to be human nature to be drawn to the middle (“better”) option. I’d bet that the majority of car wash customers pick neither the cheapest nor the most expensive wash.
Good post. I meant to add this concept to my post. Most car washes seem to have three or four price levels, and as you indicate, I suspect most people choose one of the middle levels.
Also, there appears to be more than a tad of shadiness in car wash equipment and operation. The equipment is sold with a great deal of salesmanship and empty promises, and operators often find that they spend more on labor, maintenance and utilities than they believed they would. In the past (when most people paid with cash), a lot of money was skimmed off and unreported to the taxman, but credit cards now make up a pretty significant portion of sales. For self-service bays and vacuums, a lot of the income probably still isn’t reported.
Well, also heat and electric and the payment systems, and their associated costs.
I have read through the thread, but decided to just answer here. As it just so happens on the Dope, we have resident experts here on any manner of topics, and it just so happens that I am the resident car wash expert, having run a pair of express exterior washes for almost 13 years as the GM of the company.
I would prefer more direct questions I suppose, but let’s take this post first.
OP the wash you are describing IS an express exterior wash. Automatic washes never have an attendant. Express exterior washes AFAICT always involve at least one attendant, and also always include: conveyor driven process, cloth touching your car, an attendant guiding you onto the conveyor and/or taking your order, a separate wash and drying bay and probably other stuff I’m forgetting.
Now, I see you’re in Wisconsin. Also realize that just like other businesses, car washes have their own markets across the USA, and climate is a HUGE factor. Note: there are no national car wash chains. None. Not a single one. There’s a reason for that.
I have read extensively about operator’s like Mr C’s in Michigan that (at least used to) offer $2.00 washes in the winter. As you suspect, it is likely in fact a loss leader, but also consider the type of winters where you live typically have. Lots of salt and snow. Lots of volume.
People think Summer is the busiest time for car washes…oh no. It’s winter, when people are self or otherwise deluded into believing that their car will turn into a pile of rust if they don’t immediately get the salt off.
So at Mr C’s, they aren’t doing 20 cars an hour (and neither is your local wash) on average year over year. But they crank out 500 cars A DAY or more during these crucial winter months. They are definitely crucial, because without them, how to pay the bills? Certainly not in the Spring, when it rains every other day, for instance. Nobody washes their car in the rain.
No, places have to keep their prices stable throughout the year to ensure that those Summer customers come back (and tell their friends!) when winter hits.
Very little is worse than operating a wash like that where here it is, the winter months hit, you’re ready (or so you think), the first snow…and in the middle of doing 200 cars an hour, your chain on your conveyor breaks. Or whatever. Being shut down at this time is the worst thing that can happen.
Like other have mentioned though, pricing varies nationally, and very few Americans “shortchange” their cars whereby they only get the basic wash every time no matter where they are. Some of that is perception, some is marketing (coupons for the best wash, etc) and some of it is reality.
There are actual advantages to certain wash applications, depending on what you spend your money on.
So ask away Dope: what’s smoke and mirrors, what’s real and what do I do?
Happy to answer.
The carwash I normally go to has attendants who collect your money, guide you onto the conveyor and spray and scrub the tires. After the wash is over, the car goes through what I can best describe as a blow dryer and then a couple of attendants dry the car with towels. I assume that’s what you are calling an “express exterior wash”. But I once went to another place, where there was a machine to pay for the car wash. I don’t remember the the attendant guiding me onto a conveyor, and there were definitely no attendants spraying the tires or drying the car. I think the attendant’s purpose was just to be present and help people who didn’t know how it worked and possibly to make change. (similar to the attendant at a laundromat) Surely the fact that there was a single employee who had nothing to do with washing the car doesn’t disqualify it as an automatic car wash, does it?
What you are originally describing approaches what is considered to be a “full service car wash” where attendants not only guide you onto the conveyor and spray off key areas of the car (bugs in the Summer, front end and windshield, etc) but also do ANYTHING that has to do with touching your car at the end (and generally involves a tip), including drying, tire shine, etc.
Express exterior washes combine the limited labor model of the full on automatic car wash (limited by each car’s time in the bay as the machine passes back and forth over your car) with attendants that see to your wash needs (!!!) by taking your order, and usually writing your wash number onto the windshield for the “sending attendant” that actually guides you onto the conveyor and then sends your car into the tunnel via an automatic conveyor.
The crucial difference is almost always touching the car with cloth. A lot of people are afraid of this for reasons I can go into more detail about if asked, but it almost always results in a cleaner car in every instance.
I know a lot of people are still hung up in that “there was that one time when those goshdarn BRUSHES damaged/scratched/somehow fucked up” my car mindset, but like anything, the technology behind the business has evolved greatly. Admirers of automated car assembly lines would be appreciative of the modern computer controls that go along with these types of operations. They aren’t in the business of damaging your car.
You say that like people who say that have some kind of mental problem, and it’s a bit insulting.
I won’t take a newer car through a brushed wash precisely because I had a new 2012 model once get scratches and swirl marks from a brushed wash. I highly doubt car washes have "evolved’ much in 5-6 years.:rolleyes:
I use the touchless wash that I have a daily pass for. All 4 of our vehicles get washed about twice per week each and I’m completely satisfied with the quality of the wash job.
@ $24 per month, used every single (we do), that’s 80 cents per wash. How much profit is the place making on that? (BTW, it’s a different place. Not the Scrub-a-Dub).
Since this is GQ and all, I will just say this:
I baited you into repeating the term “brushes”. You responded very negatively, like I expected. Now I will say this also: no modern exterior express car wash worth it’s salt has used what anyone would describe as a “brush” in a long, long time.
There was a time not terribly long ago (and those decades become smaller years when it’s *your baby *that has been damaged) that carwashes used actual bristle brushes, especially the “top brush” that generally came down and I guess scrubbed the car (literally) from the headlights to the back deck. Any cloth now is microfiber engineered specifically for the industry.
These types of washes not only damaged cars or paint, but also are responsible for the ongoing negative opinion that exists today.
Yes, when I say the industry has made HUGE advances, I am totally serious. Whether it be simple on/off commands for three phase power from motor controllers that are set off by 24V sensors or the lubricity of soaps, YES, a lot has changed. Of course, I suppose it also can vary widely depending on where you go. Many still cling to old equipment and SOP’s I guess. But they have to be dying out.
I got my car washed this morning — no brushes, no conveyor, no attendant. Just drive in to the stop mark, and the robot thingy goes back and forth, and hoses you off and blows you, LOL. I guess that’s not an “express” wash.
Whatever the goddamned spinning thing was inside the car wash, be it made from brush, cloth, or your mamas eyebrows, it scratched the paint and left irreversible swirl-like marks in the finish of a new car I had in late 2012. And I’ve seen the same type of whirling mofo in washes I’ve recently taken my older beater car through, so they still exist!
Why does it seem to bug you that some of us won’t put our newer cars through anything but a touch-free wash, and why are you using that pet peeve to hijack this thread?
What is the reason?
So the salt damage is real. It does in fact turn all kinds of metal components in your engine bay into a rusty mess and reduces the time until you start getting failures.
Yes, there’s corrosion armoring, on things like the gas tank and underside of the floor pan, but this doesn’t protect all sorts of smaller fasteners and other components.
Anyways I don’t know about “immediately” but I mean if you wait til they stop salting the roads it’s maybe going to do more damage than if you get your undercarriage washed weekly.
I say maybe because if you drive a week through salty slush, get the undercarriage washed Friday, and then drive it to the grocery store Saturday, I don’t see much benefit.