The ugly truth for 2009

[pgrzes]

Well it's just fitting that the year ends with another day lost to the weather. I have compiled some stats for the last 4 years here in the northeast. Seems an average year would have approx. 70-80 days lost to weather. This year allthough my numbers are up slightly over last year i have lost 67 weekend/peak days to weather, and a total of 153 total lost days. Its hard to pay the bills when you have 1/2 year to work with! only reason numbers are up was Jan.,Feb. & March we did 65% of our bus. for the year. the rest was horrendous. This weather trend has been going for 15 months now. rain every Fri, and most Sats. How long can this continue??? I have been in for 5 years now first 2 1/2 were good. I would like to hear from long timers that have seen anything like this. I feel the added pressure of the economy just pushes business further in the hole.

 

[Earl Weiss]

No telling how long it will continue. Weather is a roll of the dice, notwithstanding the inconvenient spoof.

In the 1970's we had periods of huge snow storms where we may not have gotten open for a week at a time. Also happened in the 1960's.

When things were great, maybe 2005 and for several years before I kind of wondered if perhaps what we were experiencing was unusualy good? Perhaps now it's payback.

2006 was OK , 2007 was not good and 2008 was worse. I thought 2009 would have to be better. I was wrong. Jan. - June, wettest 6 months since they have been keeping records in over 100 years. October was one of the wettest on record. and they just published something like one hour of sunshine during a 12 day stretch in December.

Since we do good volume if the weather is right, overall concern about the economy is a minor concern at this point. (I could see how some areas that might have been decimated by plant closings would feel the impact more) That could change in a heartbeat if we see $4.00 gasoline again.

 

[mjc3333]

I've been doing this for 22 years in the northeast.
My best years were the first three.
Seemed all downhill thereafter.
We are a weather controlled business first and foremost.
It has always been feast or famine.
When the business is good it's great.
When business is bad it sucks the life out of you.
You need to somehow forecast what it takes to get by as your worst year.
If that was your best year, you need to rethink the whole thing.
Once you get an ongoing average, don't think one year it's going to double or triple.
It's all about controlling costs and charging the right price.
If we could control the weather, it would rain and or snow(2 inches or less) only on Tuesday's
Then each weekend would be dry and sunny............good luck

 

[captain cw]

In Arkansas we set the record for yearly rainfall, in 150 years of recorded history. This was without a doubt the worst year I've had. I'm optimistic for 2010, because I just can't imagine it getting much worse.

 

[Whale of a Wash]

I think the rough weather may continue, can't decide how long to stay open today. It's -26 outside without the windchill, the whole week for us is better but not much, -10 to -15 with very few days above the donut. you get alot of freeloaders that want to thaw out the car for free, etc. With the cold summer, and super cold winter. We feel more like an ice age is coming-not global warming.

 

[dogwasher]

High temp today 10 degrees and yesterday was 15 degrees. I have two automatics with doors on the exit only, I cant afford to loose one dollar so we were washing cars(only a couple) at 9AM this morning when the temp was 5 degrees. The 3$ clown down the street with the heated tunnel was open so there's no way I'm closing my bays!

 

[Waxman]

what type of heat is in your ibas for them to not freeze at 5F?

 

[dogwasher]

NO heat at all Wax Man! I have two DS 5000's with the Freeze Not system. If you adjust it just right with 6 blow downs and just the right amount of windshield washer fluid injected into the blow down and a really good attendant who wont shut the units off unless there on fire. We usually shut them down at 15 degrees and below but due to the need for some sort of income we decided to give it a try today since the sun actually came out and customers were driving in looking to wash.

 

[Waxman]

how do you keep the floor from freezing?

 

[dogwasher]

The hole bay turns into a ice palace, I think the customers kind of enjoy it
The floor does have ice on it especially because the driers turn and really deep freeze the floor but the ice on the floor always has a rough anti slip feel to it.

 

[Greg Pack]

Ahhh, jan 4th 2010. We get to start with a nice clean sheet of ledger paper.........

Cold here. The problem with my location is none of the operators here have floor heat. It's getting down to the teens. I'm shutting the SS bays down at susnset, and the auto bays down about 10pm. Will open them up around 9 am today. My water wizards have track heat, but I figure it's best not to push it. I'll take this over rain any day. The forecasters are saying there is a chance of snow on Thursday. that's a rare treat for us. The local road crews don't have salt, just sand. It still makes cars very dirty, yet easy to clean.

I hope I'm making snow angels Friday morning. However, as big as I am, they'd probably resemble a teradactyl