Big Chris
Active member
Three weeks ago, I bought the nicer of two car washes that were owned by the same person in my local town. This is my 2nd site, it currently uses $1 tokens and credit cards. Current revenue is 60/40 in favor of cc.
The other car wash is still for sale. It is literally right next door to a brand new tunnel that was finished last spring. The tunnel & other wash is about 2.5 miles away from my site. I feel the other wash is a lost cause for several reasons (too many to list), and the property is better suited for something else..... e.g. a Starbucks or something like that. But until it sells, I am competing against the previous owner. This person lives 2000 miles away in Florida, is in their late 60s and is no longer interested being an owner/operator. The other car wash is being kept afloat by two younger employees in their early 20s (vo-tech kids).
Since they were both owned by the same person and in the same town, they both use the same tokens. So it is possible that someone buys tokens at the other location and uses them at my wash (and vice-versa). I was aware of this at the time of sale, and considered this in our negotiations. Now that I have ownership, (and I feel the other wash is a lost cause) I want to move away from tokens all together. I'll continue to honor the tokens for the foreseeable future (maybe a year or so..) for goodwill to the community. It's a small semi rural town in NEPA.
Quite frankly I was expecting the other wash to have sold by now. But in the mean time I want to be able to accept tokens and quarters. I can easily handle this change with minimal effort/expense.
This strategy comes to me as in my short time of ownership I've had many customers ask me to exchange quarters for tokens, complain about tokens, etc. I feel this is a way to easily and quickly differentiate myself from the other wash. (besides making obvious improvements)
I have two Rowe change machines at this wash. My plan is to convert one to quarters and leave one tokens.
Both of these sites had not seen any significant upgrades for maybe a decade, and I've got a long list of improvements to roll out. There are lot's of low hanging fruit.
Long term is to replace the meter boxes in the bays with new ones, and accept cash/credit cards in each bay. But this is a longer term improvement, probably at least 18 months out. So in the mean time, what would you do?
The other car wash is still for sale. It is literally right next door to a brand new tunnel that was finished last spring. The tunnel & other wash is about 2.5 miles away from my site. I feel the other wash is a lost cause for several reasons (too many to list), and the property is better suited for something else..... e.g. a Starbucks or something like that. But until it sells, I am competing against the previous owner. This person lives 2000 miles away in Florida, is in their late 60s and is no longer interested being an owner/operator. The other car wash is being kept afloat by two younger employees in their early 20s (vo-tech kids).
Since they were both owned by the same person and in the same town, they both use the same tokens. So it is possible that someone buys tokens at the other location and uses them at my wash (and vice-versa). I was aware of this at the time of sale, and considered this in our negotiations. Now that I have ownership, (and I feel the other wash is a lost cause) I want to move away from tokens all together. I'll continue to honor the tokens for the foreseeable future (maybe a year or so..) for goodwill to the community. It's a small semi rural town in NEPA.
Quite frankly I was expecting the other wash to have sold by now. But in the mean time I want to be able to accept tokens and quarters. I can easily handle this change with minimal effort/expense.
This strategy comes to me as in my short time of ownership I've had many customers ask me to exchange quarters for tokens, complain about tokens, etc. I feel this is a way to easily and quickly differentiate myself from the other wash. (besides making obvious improvements)
I have two Rowe change machines at this wash. My plan is to convert one to quarters and leave one tokens.
Both of these sites had not seen any significant upgrades for maybe a decade, and I've got a long list of improvements to roll out. There are lot's of low hanging fruit.
Long term is to replace the meter boxes in the bays with new ones, and accept cash/credit cards in each bay. But this is a longer term improvement, probably at least 18 months out. So in the mean time, what would you do?
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