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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?

#191

Post by lolinder »

mr_toad wrote: post #171
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…

The social media complaints are probably Astro turfing by the existing car washes that don’t want any more competition.

Or, more likely, there are legitimate concerns had by part of the town even though another part of the town uses and appreciates them. Both groups can exist at once without astroturfing!

A new car wash recently popped up on the main road near my house, and it has definitely had a substantial negative impact on the traffic patterns surrounding it. Basically every time I go that way I have to maneuver around people clogging up the road waiting to turn into it.

It's not enough to cause me any real pain, but it's definitely enough to make me feel less than kindly towards the proliferation.

Re: Why are there suddenly so many car washes?

#192

Post by _heimdall »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #180
smeej wrote: post #118

Automated ones are fine, but what I've really missed since I moved to New England have been the ones where a team vacuums the inside, hoses off your mats, wipes your windows and dashboard inside, etc. Growing up in the West and Midwest, these things were absolutely normal for the first 30 years of my life. Some of them would even change the oil too. But I haven't found anywhere within 50 miles of me that will do it h…

Labor costs arr too high for this to exist anymore.

That may depend on region. These still exist in the suburbs outside Birmingham, AL. Last I saw the prices varied from $15-30 for a wash, wax, detail, and hand dry.

They don't offer an oil change though, I've never seen a wash+detail+oil change in the area. At scale I'd assume they could do it for closer to $50, if $35 was a 2005 price that's on par with inflation and beating inflation for some industries like food.

Re: Why are there suddenly so many car washes?

#193

Post by to11mtm »

wholinator2 wrote: post #177
d0gsg0w00f wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I couldn't imagine ever paying a subscription to a car wash! I barely even pay for Spotify, how often do you go? And how often would you go if you weren't paying a subscription?

Depends...

Reputable shops I more often see do something more like a 'Prepaid' discount where you get X washes (maybe in the next Y months) for Z dollars, and ideally it's something like you get one wash a month at a 10-20 percent discount.

The profit-gouging ones, either do a 'assume 3-4 washes a month to see real benefit' or assume you are washing once a week in their sub... or do all the other 'tricks' above schemes can allow.

Re: Why are there suddenly so many car washes?

#194

Post by Plasmoid »

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.

Re: Why are there suddenly so many car washes?

#195

Post by fwip »

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…

> has never, ever worked in the history of humanity.

I think you'll find that the majority of humanity (those who aren't libertarians) actually agree that policing the negative externalities of business should be part of government's function.

Stuff like "we're destroying the ozone layer," "L.A's air is mostly smog," and "this factory keeps tearing children limb from limb" were effectively solved by government policing these negative externalities, not by "the market."

Re: Why are there suddenly so many car washes?

#196

Post by bobthepanda »

bluefirebrand wrote: post #74
johnwalkr wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think generally it should not be allowed. A big component of soap is phosphates, which promote algae growth so you really don't want it in your rivers. Some cities have combined or separated sewer systems. Even if combined, it may be designed to overflow during heavy rain, so it's not a guarantee that car wash water with dirt, soap and oil will not go into into a stream somewhere although in that case you're also s…

> I think generally it should not be allowed. A big component of soap is phosphates, which promote algae growth so you really don't want it in your rivers That's fair, but it doesn't explain why the bylaw won't even let you rinse the mud off your car with nothing but water

It’s usually not just mud on your car and all the other stuff is also not good to let into the water untreated either

Re: Why are there suddenly so many car washes?

#197

Post by eurleif »

wholinator2 wrote: post #177
d0gsg0w00f wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I couldn't imagine ever paying a subscription to a car wash! I barely even pay for Spotify, how often do you go? And how often would you go if you weren't paying a subscription?

It can make sense if you don't have a garage, and there's a lot of pollen and whatnot where you park. If I don't wash my car ~twice a week, it ends up looking pretty funky.

Re: Why are there suddenly so many car washes?

#198

Post by bluGill »

massysett wrote: post #114
kuchenbecker wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Car dealerships are a big source

Don't car dealers often have an automatic wash on site? Unless these are little used-car lots?

Some do, most do not. I used to make test equipment and so was at many of the dealers within 100 miles to test something so I saw a lot of dealers.

Re: Why are there suddenly so many car washes?

#199

Post by gunapologist99 »

mr_toad wrote: post #171
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…

The social media complaints are probably Astro turfing by the existing car washes that don’t want any more competition.

The article does mention that, but only in passing! I'm surprised they didn't dig more into it, since the most vocal opponents to more competition would probably be existing businesses!
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