Coins Collection

Is Kansas a good place for a Car Wash? There are many diverse markets in the Great State of Kansas. One gentleman suggested Lawrence, KS as a good location? Indeed I have been to Lawrence, KS; very nice people there as I recall. Sometimes as I travel I wish more people were as friendly as those in Kansas. Lawrence has decent demographics and only moderate competition. Could one find a semi-high traffic corner in Lawrence and make money with a car wash there?

If you are to put a car wash on such a property it might have to be significantly scaled down or perhaps a Coin-op or an Express Wash type operation. It could work or be made feasible. As far as costs there are many good business plans on the Internet and one, which I recommend can be found on www.carwash.com and there are several advertisers there who have car wash plans available.

The Blue Beacon Co. is intending to give you a run for your money in Lawrence so you may wish to stay heads up on that if you choose to compete in that market. The Walker Family with controlling interest in their Blue Beacon spin-off carwash division may go to lengths to win that market and use a little political clout to do so, be advised on that. I nave heard that they do not always play so fair, which is typical in hick towns, well at least that is the rumor in the truck washing business and one would assume that now that they are increasing units in the car wash market and hotels too that a similar tact would be something they might be into?? Who knows? Competition is fun.

But really no matter where you decide to build a car wash you are bound to have some good ole’ boy networks to deal with and some regional competition which clearly dominated their markets, so play to win, and plan to lead. That’s all for now. Keep the questions coming in. Thanks for listening.

Lance Winslow - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

Share This

Many believe that a carwash is something you go to where you get out of your car, they vacuum, you pay and they put your car into a tunnel, lots of mechanism, they dry it, you tip and then leave. Yes that would be a carwash wouldn’t it? But that is not the only kind of car wash is it. There are coin-operated do-it-yourself carwashes, gas station roll-overs, touchless car washes. Then there are truck washes, mobile car wash of all types and even fundraiser non-profit carwashes to round out the industry. Would you like to read more about truck washes? Read this page and click on report:

http://www.truckwashguy.com/08072003_1.shtml

We have a new emergence of hybrids in the mobile car wash sector, which is growing without all the new innovations. For instance consider the newest steam portable units on pushcarts too in parking structures and parking lots as part of amenities programs for parking companies:

http://www.geowash.com/GeoWashEnglish.htm

These are popular in Brazil, UAE, Europe, Africa, Asia and even Australia due to the water conservation issues of the region. In the United States we are now seeing some of these too although there were some issues with these recently; kicked out of Houston Galleria parking lot for run-off issues, but it was local politics as no water ever made it to any storm drain, you will see this system grow in areas where labor is available for $5.00 per hour after the down turn in this business cycle, which is starting now.

Some coin-op locations do have rollover machines in them now, which makes them somewhat of a hybrid anomaly although it is becoming a popular addition to self-serve carwashes and it is a common industry push. This is happening throughout the country, due to dealers and licensees of manufacturers hitting the pavement for sales. That trend will continue, it seems to work well since those who own coin-ops have the property, convert a bay and set these up, good ROI with clientele already knowing of the location.

Also we are seeing some new systems with Wal-Mart going in now. They almost have it figured out, some more trial and error there, they are making a few mistakes, but seem to get it. Problematic in their regional variation, but they can have the ability to change buying behavior even if for the most part some locations under perform at first, which will happen, but again they already have a killer customer base, no doubt there. They are basically the distribution system for the United States you know? Lots of new changes in the carwash industry aren’t there. Think about it.

Lance Winslow - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

Share This

There appears to be quite a discrepancy of data about the number of carwashes in the United States. Then there are different types of carwashes; Fixed and mobile. Amongst the fixed site carwashes there are coin-op self serve washes, Flex Service Robotic, Conveyor Conventional, Gas Station Rollover and the Touchless automatic.

You can pick up a carwash survey from any of the four major industry magazines or the co-marketed service industry magazines like; C-Store News, Oil and Lube News or any of the Auto Service Industry Association magazines and there are about seven of them. Some of the surveys in these magazines have broken down by region. Percentages of course are worthless unless broken down by area, even a manufacturer, better know that if it is going to set up a dealer network, sales teams or use existing channels of distribution. Those who study the industry need to be cognizant of the available data and its worthiness.

Can you even define what a Conveyor is? Most cannot and even if you could, does that mean your definition equates to the survey you are reading this week; if not how can you quote numbers? What is a conveyor car wash; a tunnel system with a conveyor in it? If so, many types of carwashes have some sort of conveyor systems. If you mean a Tunnel wash, which is not a rollover might have a conveyor in it so I believe that the percentages and numbers are irrelevant. Imagine using this data to decide to go into the conveyor system for carwashes manufacturing business. If you are in the car wash business the rollovers are not as important because they wash more cars at full-serve conveyor carwashes you see? Rollovers at service stations are under utilized.

So if they had 50% of the “equipment market” and only wash 25% of the cars, which are washed, then the data without strong regional variation caveats is unreasonable and contain irrelevant data sets. And remember 40% of the US population will not go to a car wash because they quite frankly suck, service is bad and the cars are not so clean when completed and they damage cars, rollovers scratch since they are poorly maintained. Full service carwashes often steal stuff out of cars due to poor, crappy labor. 40% of people do NOT go to a car wash and only 15% are regular customers. Why? Car washes are hurting consumers with shotty service, the current customers want service and quality and price. Some one needs to deliver that. Those who study the carwash industries need to the differences of carwashes and their attributes and weaknesses. Think on this.

Lance Winslow - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

Share This