How much time per Quarter is good to charge these days?

[OurTown]

Another question swiping credit cards versus tap credit cards. We currently have swipe, but the sweepers are intermittent and find a lot of maintenance required. How many people are using swipe versus tap

We have both tap and swipe on everything including the IBA, vacs, SS bays, and vending. What brand of CC swipers do you have?

 

[Morqtrs]

We use Cryptopay unfortunately our coin boxes aren’t big enough to have swipe and tap so we’re thinking about replacing the swipe with just the tap feature

 

[Randy]

We like to do the 50 Cent start just to help people when they only need to wash one little area of their car rather than putting in another bunch of money but what we’re trying to figure out is the price per quarter. we’re afraid if we change it from $.50 to start customers would get upset. We tried it years ago and it seemed to have an impact almost immediately in the wrong direction.

You need to lose the .25 mentality, think dollars! This 2025 and it costs a lot more to be in the self-serve car wash business as it did 30 years ago. We had a low start up price years ago and we’d get customers who would blow out the bed of the truck, wash a greasy engine etc. for next to nothing and we’d have to clean up mess. If a customer runs out of time that on them, they should listen for the beeps of the timer. I do have my Dixmor timers set for the restart feature.

 

[Randy]

We use Cryptopay unfortunately our coin boxes aren’t big enough to have swipe and tap so we’re thinking about replacing the swipe with just the tap feature

We took the swipers off our coin boxes and replaced them the Cryptopay Tap readers. The Tap readers only have 2 7/8” foot print. You get a lot more from the Tap than you do with the swiper, all the Mobile Payments that every kid has on there phones now.

 

[jack954]

maybe see if all your competitors will join you in a large price increase

 

[Roz]

The wash we used in Boulder CO was $5/3:30! The place was a dump but in a convenient location. Soap and pressure was poor. Place looked like it should be torn down so some places in CO are charging more than on the coasts.

I know of an owner who (in MD) starts at $1, dispenses $1 tokens, and accepts quarters if they walk on the site. His rate is $1/min. The place is located in the right demographics for self washing and the owner keeps up the place and equipment. He has a site manager there most of the time during the daytime hours. Making bank so the low start price is not a negative. That said having a site manager helps keep people from using a bucket to wash their vehicle.

I would move to dollar coins for the changer, and $1/start then set the time per 25cents to a rate you are comfortable with. If you are clearly keeping up the place and providing good amount of soap and pressure customers will continue to use your place. If someone leaves over spending an extra dollar at your place then you probably do not want them as customers.

 

[Keno]

maybe see if all your competitors will join you in a large price increase

This is called price fixing and is illegal

 

[Morqtrs]

This is called price fixing and is illegal

Yah I get that. I’m really looking to help my bottom line so they can do whatever they want but no one has what we offer.

 

[Morqtrs]

We took the swipers off our coin boxes and replaced them the Cryptopay Tap readers. The Tap readers only have 2 7/8” foot print. You get a lot more from the Tap than you do with the swiper, all the Mobile Payments that every kid has on there phones now.

I appreciate this. This is my thoughts also and wanted to see if I was thinking in the right direction. At 500 per tap it’s kinda expensive but think it might payback with ease of use and reliability. I don’t like the button hole needed to drill in the face of the coin box but I guess that too is just part of the transition.

 

[Morqtrs]

The wash we used in Boulder CO was $5/3:30! The place was a dump but in a convenient location. Soap and pressure was poor. Place looked like it should be torn down so some places in CO are charging more than on the coasts.

I know of an owner who (in MD) starts at $1, dispenses $1 tokens, and accepts quarters if they walk on the site. His rate is $1/min. The place is located in the right demographics for self washing and the owner keeps up the place and equipment. He has a site manager there most of the time during the daytime hours. Making bank so the low start price is not a negative. That said having a site manager helps keep people from using a bucket to wash their vehicle.

I would move to dollar coins for the changer, and $1/start then set the time per 25cents to a rate you are comfortable with. If you are clearly keeping up the place and providing good amount of soap and pressure customers will continue to use your place. If someone leaves over spending an extra dollar at your place then you probably do not want them as customers.

I vend towels and only charge 50 per towel so I need a few Qtrs floating around. I do use dollar coins in my chamber now. 1 gets quarters, 5 gets 8 quarters and 3 dollar coins, 10 gets 16 quarters and 6 dollar coins. 20s just double the 10. I did that to stop change collection for laundry from so area apartment complexes.

 

[Keno]

$1 minimum on any vending, the days of 50 cent vending is long gone. Not even worth your time at 50 cents

 

[Dan kamsickas]

Yah I get that. I’m really looking to help my bottom line so they can do whatever they want but no one has what we offer.

Then raise your price. It's not price fixing if your competitors follow on their own. Enough customers will realize the value of your wash to offset the few bargain chasers who run to another site. You'll get several of them back when they realize the other sites are less-than.

 

[Waxman]

That's what happened to me. Once I raised my wash price and my vacuum price the other car washes in the area just followed what I did. It's like the gas stations they may not get together and talk pricing but when one goes up a penny somehow the other one knows to go up a penny. Go figure

 

[Greg Pack]

You are essentially 3.00 for four minutes of time now. Just your change your start up to 3.00 and give them four minutes. The only people that will affect is your bucket washers. Your merchant fees will go down as a percentage of income also. Change vac to 1.50/4:00 and call it good

 

[Islandwash]

Every single service or product we us in our business has gone up in the past year. We need to price to reflect our rising costs. The days of self-service carwashes being a Quarter business are long gone. I use $3. start for 3 minutes and can foresee the time when that will go up.