Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why are there suddenly so many car washes?

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 615 posts

Re: Why are there suddenly so many car washes?

#221

Post by rootusrootus »

d0gsg0w00f wrote: post #169
Antip0dean wrote: post #106

This is a big thing in the UK, too. The official narrative here is modern slavery with undocumented migrants. It's the same with sex work, with which is harder to separate between conservative propaganda and reality. I expect the main difference between the US and UK versions are that the latter are typically set up in disused urban plots with pop-up tents and temporary chain-link fences rather than having any invest…

I think this article is referencing the common trend of drive through automated washes which would make sense if large investors are in the picture. The big automated ones are pushy with their subscriptions which the article also talks about. These big wash machines are typically staffed by only 2 or 3 people hence the complaints that they don't even create jobs. That being said, I wish there were more automated wash…

Not once has the local automated wash suggested a subscription, is that perhaps a regional thing or specific to certain brands?

Re: Why are there suddenly so many car washes?

#222

Post by margalabargala »

jrm4 wrote: post #184
logifail wrote: post #89

> There are four full-service car washes in town, with a fifth on the way; three are bunched up on a mile-and-a-half stretch of Route 14. Social media complaints about car wash overkill spurred town leaders to take action. Four (or even five) doesn't sound that much? What's the actual problem here? How is a local politican supposed to determine what is the correct density of any particular type of service within her…

It's just so absurdly naive to think that the market acts this cleanly and quickly, it's probably the worst "brain worm" that economics has given us. Maybe it helps to consider the idea that the government (which already has considerable influence, positive and negative to markets) is part of how preferences are expressed.

No one said anything about quickly and cleanly until you introduced those words. If your argument is that the government tends to act more quickly than the market, I would be interested to see something backing that up.

For something like a car wash that doesn't really affect the people around it much, why would we need to regulate that? Oh no, there are more car washes than some people on Nextdoor think are necessary? Who cares?

If there is sufficient demand for car washes that all of them stay in business, then they'll stay, because the local area wants that many car washes. If they aren't binging in money, they'll close. Or just pay out to their employee and landlord indefinitely.

Re: Why are there suddenly so many car washes?

#223

Post by ipaddr »

RussianCow wrote: post #214
grecy wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sure the market will figure out which car washes live. But what about the ones that don't and the people who subsequently lose their jobs There's a lot going on in your statement to dig through. The article specifically says these car washes barely add jobs.. but let's ignore that. When a business opens and starts to hire people, there is no guarantee it will exist long term. When a person applies for a job, they n…

> When a person applies for a job, they need to do some due diligence researching the business to see if it sounds like something that will be around as long as they want to have a job. This is a nitpick as I agree with the rest of your comment, but most people are absolutely not qualified to make that assessment. (In fact, it's debatable whether anyone can make that claim with any amount of certainty. Even the most…

Most people do this. People will work for a brand or company that is well known with a history over something new with everything else being equal. People will ask friends who work if company is a good place to work.

People are pretty smart.

Re: Why are there suddenly so many car washes?

#224

Post by D-Coder »

pjlegato wrote: post #182
atrus wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If the market were too small, the weakest would fail, right? Right? I find it interesting that we have sayings like this, and sayings like "the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent." > why should a politician need to step in to regulate, rather than letting the market decide? Because the market doesn't price in externalities. Sure the market will figure out which car washes live. But what abo…

While acknowledging the reality of those externalities, it's also fair to point out that empowering politicians to attempt to override the market and deliberately police the negative outcomes of those externalities in favor of supposed social goods (the determination of which is, in itself, problematic) has never, ever worked in the history of humanity -- though it has been tried over and over in disparate societies…

> empowering politicians to attempt to override the market and deliberately police the negative outcomes of those externalities in favor of supposed social goods (the determination of which is, in itself, problematic) has never, ever worked in the history of humanity

Child labor laws? Pollution laws? Seat belt laws? Labor safety laws? Drug-safety laws?

Re: Why are there suddenly so many car washes?

#225

Post by jhanschoo »

bluGill wrote: post #187
atrus wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If the market were too small, the weakest would fail, right? Right? I find it interesting that we have sayings like this, and sayings like "the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent." > why should a politician need to step in to regulate, rather than letting the market decide? Because the market doesn't price in externalities. Sure the market will figure out which car washes live. But what abo…

The ones that don't get torn down and replaced with something else. no big deal so long as you allow people to try things and fail. The irrational market isn't a problem for politicians it is for investors: people with money, let them learn their lesson. As for the jobs lost, at least the rich investors paid them while the wash was running, they will move on. The jobs are not high skill so no real loss when they are…

This ignores the opportunity cost of a more productive business throughout the time period of the low efficiency business: one that may hire more workers and provide more value to potential customers in the locality it serves.

Under this comparison, the foolishness of an investor has resulted in a comparative net loss for themselves and the community.

Re: Why are there suddenly so many car washes?

#226

Post by rootusrootus »

hansvm wrote: post #207
godelski wrote: post #190

How does an article like this not mention that if you rent you probably don't have a water spigot and area you can wash your own car. I'm not saying this is causal, but it seems like a reasonable question that I'd want addressed. Is it related? Bloomberg has not previously been shy about discussing the decreasing rate of home ownership and renting.

Actually, why don't apartments offer a spigot and outlet somewhere nearby where you can park a car? In my mind, it's kind of like how above $20/hr or so (and >= 5ish employees), it's a no-brainer for businesses to pay for lunch. It's more cost effective for the business to pay, and it results in less dead time and more camaraderie. The experience of automatic or manual car washes is bad; your car doesn't get that cle…

When I lived in an apartment the complex had two dedicated car wash spots. This was close to 25 years ago but my guess is they still do.

Re: Why are there suddenly so many car washes?

#227

Post by notdang »

Plasmoid wrote: post #194
polonbike wrote: post #3

Did the serie Breaking Bad inspire a trend, showing a seemingly innocent/efficient way to clean money ?

From what I've heard the current way to clean cash is to buy gift cards and then use them to buy items from Amazon/Steam. Sure, the store fronts take a cut but having a 1099 from Valve looks way more legitimate than reporting thousands of dollars of cash.

So how do you clean them with this scheme? By registering a game on Steam or selling something on Amazon?

Also made me think why in the country I live, in stores like 7Eleven you cannot pay with a credit card for gift cards, google pay cards, etc.

Re: Why are there suddenly so many car washes?

#228

Post by seoulmetro »

Antip0dean wrote: post #106

This is a big thing in the UK, too. The official narrative here is modern slavery with undocumented migrants. It's the same with sex work, with which is harder to separate between conservative propaganda and reality. I expect the main difference between the US and UK versions are that the latter are typically set up in disused urban plots with pop-up tents and temporary chain-link fences rather than having any invest…

Yep the only way you're getting your car manually washed in Australia is by foreigners or teens.

Most casual work was done by teens and middle aged women through history but now it's mostly foreigners.

Anything done by citizens attracts huge markups.

Re: Why are there suddenly so many car washes?

#229

Post by Spooky23 »

logifail wrote: post #89

> There are four full-service car washes in town, with a fifth on the way; three are bunched up on a mile-and-a-half stretch of Route 14. Social media complaints about car wash overkill spurred town leaders to take action. Four (or even five) doesn't sound that much? What's the actual problem here? How is a local politican supposed to determine what is the correct density of any particular type of service within her…

Clearly the “market”, defined as a real estate syndicator with an excel sheet and cap table knows way more than the actual people who live in an area.

It’s not like Adam Smith’s invisible finger didn’t touch the cupcake bakery mania, froyo, etc.

Re: Why are there suddenly so many car washes?

#230

Post by para_parolu »

jhanschoo wrote: post #225
bluGill wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ones that don't get torn down and replaced with something else. no big deal so long as you allow people to try things and fail. The irrational market isn't a problem for politicians it is for investors: people with money, let them learn their lesson. As for the jobs lost, at least the rich investors paid them while the wash was running, they will move on. The jobs are not high skill so no real loss when they are…

This ignores the opportunity cost of a more productive business throughout the time period of the low efficiency business: one that may hire more workers and provide more value to potential customers in the locality it serves. Under this comparison, the foolishness of an investor has resulted in a comparative net loss for themselves and the community.

Who defines more productive business? Maybe car wash is a good business for people to work for in some period of live.

USSR tries to optimize business from top but selecting what would be produced and how much. Didn’t work well for community or customers.

Post reply on HN