I have been rehabbing a 3-1 I bought from the bank for the last 6 months. The wash has been closed for a couple years, and has been run down for the last five with a very bad reputation. Everyone in town knows it is being rehabbed with a new owner. I have gutted, replaced, and rebuilt everything from the equipment to the building. All the SS bays, have coin, bill and credit card acceptors. I really want to set the time for $3 for 4 minutes but I wonder if that is too high. The closet 4/1 is 30 minutes away and in another state. My logic tells me they will pay because there is no where else to go but I would to hear others thoughts. This is a small country town. The biggest industry is logging, so I predict a lot of mud.
New location. Is my startup price too high?
- Thread starter APW
- Start date
DiamondWash
Well-known member
$3 for 4 mins sounds fair to me, I'm $3.50 for 5 mins
Where is this car wash located? A small town of how many people? I couldn't get $3 for 4 minutes in my market, my town has a population of around 6500 in town and 20,000 with in 5 miles. I'm the only Self-serve car wash within 10 miles. What is your market population? Try $3 for 4 minutes and see what happens.
OurTown
Well-known member
I agree with the others but at that price make sure it is really kept clean and running perfect. One thing I want to point out that not many talk about on here is how much the total will be to wash. For example I spent $24.00 washing my truck at one of our competitors a few weeks ago going through most of the functions. They are $3/4 minutes. At ours it "cost" me about $16. It is just something to think about because some people might compare it to the cost of an auto wash.
IMO, I'd lower the cost to start and do less time, maybe not necessarily deviate so much from the cost per coin, but lower start up time. You're in a small town, and also a fairly poor demographic. Yes, the wash is rehabbed from having a bad reputation, but in a small town, you will quickly gain your own reputation of being the guy who rehabbed the wash and then started charging outrageous prices because of it.
OurTown
Well-known member
That's not too bad thinking about doubling it. What about trying to start off with $2.00 and say it's a grand opening promo price? Then you could build business and feel people out for how high to go in a few months. Just another idea.
MudMoney
Active member
Your start up price is a good place to start.I'm $ 3.00 for 4 min and going up this weekend. Yes you will get people that remember the old price but won't recall how rundown the old wash was.I wouldn't do a promo @ reduced price.Consider doing 2 days of free washes from 8 to 4 and in conjunction with a cola distributor to give away free product.
