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Regular self-serve/Pay One Price hybrid

MEP001

MEP001

Well-known member
I leased a wash in a worse neighborhood than I'm used to, and it's getting abused pretty badly, trash dumpers, people just pulling in to sit in a bay, etc. I'd estimate the average customer spends less than $4, so an $8 POP won't work or it'll cost me too much business. I'm also sure they'll leave everything running. My thought was to put up an entry station, charge a nominal amount but give them tokens worth that amount and leave the car wash completely as-is. Maybe some day if it catches on someone will create a CC system that will "credit" them the entry fee at the first point they use their card once they pay to enter.

Any thoughts? No, I'm not removing trash cans or going full Pay One Price. Even if I thought the latter could work, I don't have the budget to make that happen, plus it's a leased wash that I'm sure the owner doesn't want me to modify to that extent. I could always just take down the entry system if it doesn't work.
 
What if they needed just a little bit more time to wash than the allotted tokens? If you are talking about a gated entry then you could still have the changer for them to get more. It would be more of a "minimum price to enter" setup.
 
OurTown said:
What if they needed just a little bit more time to wash than the allotted tokens? If you are talking about a gated entry then you could still have the changer for them to get more. It would be more of a "minimum price to enter" setup.
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The car wash itself wouldn't change, so yes, they'd need to pay to enter the property, but that payment would be returned as tokens to use to wash/vacuum/buy vending. This way the only change would be the gated entry/exit.
 
It's a thought. It'll at least stop people from just circling through to throw out trash, or if they want to pay $2 to do it and save up the tokens to wash that's fine too. It will also help control traffic flow to get plates and even faces when they pay.
 
I started writing about all the reasons why this approach would be risky. But the more I think about it, your solution may work great. You would eliminate the garbage and the loiterers. In addition, once customers figure out how to use it, I could see business going up because the place is clean and they don't feel threatened by drug dealers hanging out in the bays.

I think the hardest thing would be trying to educate your customers on the pay scheme.
 
I like your idea - even if someone wants to pay $1 to dump some trash, you at least got something out of them. And like you said - they could do that 3 or 4 times and save up for a wash. You probably would not loose much business with that model. Good luck.
 
I think this would work great. If they wanna dump they need to pay. I really hate the dumpers, loitering, and people that pull up to just dump trash with no intention of use of equipment. People think its it's their personal clean out the car place and most the trash ends up on the ground anyways. Good luck to you if you decide to do this please keep us informed on how it works for you!
 
I have toyed with the idea of a express with a gated entry that the customer pays for wash up front and receives a parking type ticket for the tunnel entry, then they could use the vacs, mats, prep stations and get a wash in what ever order that pleased them. Once they leave the ticket is void. This would also work with a Automatic.
 
Sounds like you are in the wrong location. Perhaps a different model would work, $5 for 10 or 15 minutes? If given an incentive to spend the $5 minimum perhaps you get more people and they use their extra time to clean the bay floor?

To get them to move on try piping in classical music or opera in the bays? I met someone who did that to keep the kids from hanging out at the car wash...
 
MEP, if the neighborhood is that bad are you concerned you might come in one morning and the gated entry paystation will be missing? I do kinda like the idea. I have a few washes that I'd like to 'clean up' and keep out the freeloaders but my properties don't lend themselves to one entrance and one exit setups.
 
GoBuckeyes said:
MEP, if the neighborhood is that bad are you concerned you might come in one morning and the gated entry paystation will be missing? I do kinda like the idea. I have a few washes that I'd like to 'clean up' and keep out the freeloaders but my properties don't lend themselves to one entrance and one exit setups.
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Crime isn't much of a problem, just the loitering and the slobs. I was looking at it this evening and can see there's really no way to make it work. Aside from not enough room at the entrance, the wash is the entire width of the property, so if all the bays are in use whoever comes in is trapped on that side.
 
Revisiting this since I was reminded of it - I think I could make it work by putting the entrance at what is now the rear and having two gated exits. Crime is still minimal but loiterers and the homeless are becoming a real problem.
 
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