The Pacific Northwest, 30 miles South of Seattle. We have mild winters, wet Spring and fall. It's the high property values that are driving out the car washes. It's pretty hard to built a Self-serve car wash on property that's worth close to a millon and expect to make any kind of return.
Pricing Opinions- Increase or Not to Increase $$
- Thread starter SparklesSS
- Start date
MEP001
Well-known member
Self-serves are strong here. The one I picked up six months ago has far exceeded my expectations. All I've really done so far is give them good soap and fix the spot free, and they still hardly use it.
Agreed. I'm new to this business, but did a lot of homework before buying a 7 bay SS that needed renovation. The previous owner ran it well until health problems crept in, but his wash traffic was still very strong when I bought it. I'm bracketed by EE's less than a mile on either side of me, but it's a dense suburban area with 50k traffic counts past my site, and I'm surrounded by chain retail, big boxes, and apartments.
In three months we have fixed everything that was broken, added crypto pay, new meter boxes, paint, bay signs, name/branding...etc. The loyal customer base has grown and revenues are up 25% with zero marketing effort to this point. Granted, I'm also located in a...shall we say...ethnically mixed demographic that LOVES a clean car, but that was also part of my due diligence.
Again, I'm a newb with way more questions than answers, but right now I'm looking to replicate this project. Unfortunately, most of the SS washes currently for sale in my area are crap locations that should have never been built, and the owners have let them fall apart. I've found 2-3 more great SS locations that I'd love to own, but those owners aren't interested in selling.
