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Why are there suddenly so many car washes?

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Re: Why are there suddenly so many car washes?

#51
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But if I can avoid buying a car because Uber, then number of washes goes down or is at least balanced.

In London at least, Uber is an alternative to public transport (and taxis obv), not to car ownership

Both public transport and taxi/cab/uber are alternatives to car ownership.

Re: Why are there suddenly so many car washes?

#52
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My local car was has a $20/month subscription for unlimited washes. These aren't exactly luxury services--they're priced similar to a Netflix plan. If you have a car, it's worth it if you value our time at all.

But if you value your time, why would you wash your car multiple times per month?

That's perfect. I do not wash my car, because I value my time. I thought I was just lazy!

Re: Why are there suddenly so many car washes?

#53

In my city you're not allowed to wash your car in your driveway I guess it's too hard on the storm drains to have soap and dirt and stuff going down them Or maybe city council is just in some kind of racket with car wash owners or something But either way, that's why we have so many car washes here... And it sucks ass

[flagged]

I've wondered the same many times. I guess it's just a "thing" now.

Re: Why are there suddenly so many car washes?

#54
post #40
post #7

I would have assumed its from the rise of gig workers using private cars. Uber/Lyft need to keep cars pretty clean to not be dinged stars, and even package and food delivery can create more mess which may require cleaning (but mostly taxi service I think). I skimmed the article and don’t see mention of that?

But if I can avoid buying a car because Uber, then number of washes goes down or is at least balanced.

When people use an Uber instead of owning a car, they will never ever sit in a car that hasn't been recently washed. When they drive their own car, the threshold for good enough is so much lower for all but the most fanatic washers. Chances are their own car, on average, will not only have seen more time pass since the last wash, but also more miles (more miles will certainly be much closer to a tie though)

Re: Why are there suddenly so many car washes?

#55

The article doesn't mention it, but I read another article about car washes that argued they're used as a way to speculate on commercial real estate in cities because the car washes provide just enough revenue to pay for the purchase of the land and property taxes. Then when the land becomes valuable they can sell it to another developer.

Probably easy to manage 10 of them too. Not much training to do, only stock a few products, only a few important KPIs.

Re: Why are there suddenly so many car washes?

#56
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn’t think they would be especially cheap to build though? Sophisticated machinery, lots of plumbing?

I think there are companies that build/sell turnkey carwashes. I don't think it's very sophisticated to be honest. It's really just a couple of high pressure sprayers, some soap/foaming sprayers, and a track that pulls the car. It's all technology that's been available for decades. I bet there's a factory in China just pumping out car wash components.

You can buy them out of a catalogue, and if you need it in a building I think the building requirements are simpler than most other retail space. I used to work in the railroad industry and even train washes, a much rarer thing than car washes, were purchased practically as turnkey things.

Re: Why are there suddenly so many car washes?

#57
post #40
post #7

I would have assumed its from the rise of gig workers using private cars. Uber/Lyft need to keep cars pretty clean to not be dinged stars, and even package and food delivery can create more mess which may require cleaning (but mostly taxi service I think). I skimmed the article and don’t see mention of that?

But if I can avoid buying a car because Uber, then number of washes goes down or is at least balanced.

That seems unlikely, given professional rideshare drivers will have to wash their cars probably two orders of magnitude more than the average driver.

Re: Why are there suddenly so many car washes?

#58

In my city you're not allowed to wash your car in your driveway I guess it's too hard on the storm drains to have soap and dirt and stuff going down them Or maybe city council is just in some kind of racket with car wash owners or something But either way, that's why we have so many car washes here... And it sucks ass

[flagged]

Most people won't know where most cities are - why not keep it general.

Re: Why are there suddenly so many car washes?

#59

Year after Year, I kept thinking this was a fad and would crash. But years go by, and now they are calling it a 'boom'. 14 billion dollar market. For Car Washes? Isn't this an indicator that economy is fine, people are fine, since they can spend this type of money on car washes? How can something this worthless be booming, if people are struggling.

If you live in a place where roads are salted, washing your car is generally recommended to reduce rusting and paint damage. I don't go to the car wash often and I only use the one at my local gas station, but it's rare that I go there and there aren't already at least two cars in line. And I live in a very low population density area.

At 1 car every 14 minutes on average, a single bay will easily clear $1,000/day of revenue.

Re: Why are there suddenly so many car washes?

#60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But people don't have to pay cash, the "pretend people" pay cash.

If you pay with card there will be an electronic trace.

A lot of money laundering involves traceable transactions, no? The point isn't to hide the transaction but rather have a plausible explanation for it that's difficult or impossible to verify. I'd think a larger issue would be that you can't plausibly charge very much per swipe. I'm betting there's much easier ways to launder cash these days with so many digital goods and services with basically arbitrary profit margins than brick-and-mortar storefronts can provide.

Granted, there are benefits to laundering money with literal cash, but you still want some legitimate money trail even if you don't actually hand over the claimed goods or services—enough at least to cover the actual expenses of the business, i'd presume.

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