Gas Stations and Car Washes

Brian Lutz
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Re: Gas Stations and Car Washes

Post by Brian Lutz »

I'd say the opposite is probably true here, it seems like over the past couple of years the number of car washes has actually increased significantly. Brown Bear is still the largest operator in the area by far, but a number smaller operators with only a handful of locations each (Wet Rabbit, Aloha, Glint) have started developing locations in quite a few places here. The last time I went to the Brown Bear in Everett on a reasonably nice day (a bit of a rarity this Spring, it's been colder and rainier than usual) the place was pretty packed.
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Re: Gas Stations and Car Washes

Post by pseudo3d »

Alpha8472 wrote: June 13th, 2022, 11:05 am Has anyone noticed people getting fewer car washes? The car wash places seem to be losing business these days.
I don't think I've noticed anything specifically. I would think that in a city so plagued with crime-related problems that they did a recall and voted out the DA with a solid majority, car washes are probably not on peoples' minds.
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Re: Gas Stations and Car Washes

Post by veteran+ »

I have noticed fewer solo car wash places and zero car wash gas station combos (especially during these covid times).
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Re: Gas Stations and Car Washes

Post by arizonaguy »

veteran+ wrote: June 13th, 2022, 2:21 pm I have noticed fewer solo car wash places and zero car wash gas station combos (especially during these covid times).
It's been the opposite in Arizona. Over the last 5 years car wash chains have had exponential growth with the only real closures being the older self-service carwash bays with the tokens.
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Re: Gas Stations and Car Washes

Post by Alpha8472 »

Have you seen those new car washes with gimmicks like the flashing LED lights? Many of these gas stations have added some kind of light show to go along with the car washes. Do people seem to like these or do the kids like them?

The old fashioned self serve car washes are getting rarer these days. In California, it seems like many people are just letting their cars get dirtier. They don't want to spend money on their broken down cars.
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Re: Gas Stations and Car Washes

Post by storewanderer »

Wow, in Reno, new car washes are being built like crazy. I can think of at least 10 that are either under construction or have opened in the past year. There are a few groups who are building them. They push monthly subscription plans hard. There was another group called Quick Quack who was going to build some but must have sensed the market was getting saturated and sold their lots to an operator called Sierra. Sierra as I understand is owned by some AZ group and the last couple units they've built don't look much different from a gas station car wash, super low budget, and a couple of very questionable locations.
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Re: Gas Stations and Car Washes

Post by arizonaguy »

storewanderer wrote: June 13th, 2022, 10:39 pm Wow, in Reno, new car washes are being built like crazy. I can think of at least 10 that are either under construction or have opened in the past year. There are a few groups who are building them. They push monthly subscription plans hard. There was another group called Quick Quack who was going to build some but must have sensed the market was getting saturated and sold their lots to an operator called Sierra. Sierra as I understand is owned by some AZ group and the last couple units they've built don't look much different from a gas station car wash, super low budget, and a couple of very questionable locations.
Quick Quack has locations around Phoenix (opened one near my house recently). That AZ group operates locations around Phoenix by their corporate name Raceway Express.

I've noticed a few different tiers of carwashes:

Tier 1: These do full service washes with a full convenience store, auto detailing, oil changes, and a fuel station.
Jackson's Car Wash
Cobblestone Auto Spa
Francis and Sons Car Wash

Tier 2: These are basically expanded gas station car washes (without the gas station) that push monthly memberships hard
Clean Freak
Cobblestone Express
Quick Quack
Raceway Express
Super Star

The actual pricing between a Tier 1 and Tier 2 for a single wash isn't much different.
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Re: Gas Stations and Car Washes

Post by TW-Upstate NY »

Alpha8472 wrote: June 13th, 2022, 11:05 am Has anyone noticed people getting fewer car washes? The car wash places seem to be losing business these days.
Funny this topic was raised. Was out shopping this morning and drove by a local Hoffmans Car Wash (a local chain with a pretty big reach in this part of NYS) and there were probably 10-15 vehicles lined up. And for a relatively small area, we actually have a decent amount of full service car washes with two in the Amsterdam area, one in Johnstown (recently remodeled) and another Hoffmans almost ready to open in Gloversville. Not bad for three relatively small cities in the middle of Upstate NY. To keep this on topic, none of them sell fuel and likely never will.
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Re: Gas Stations and Car Washes

Post by Brian Lutz »

A lot of the new car washes are definitely pushing the monthly membership options. Even Brown Bear has moved toward monthly memberships at their full service locations, although they still run the majority of pay-and-spray locations in the area as well (a lot of their larger locations have both self-service and automatic washes.) During my last visit to Utah I saw quite a few Quick Quack locations, which I don't remember seeing previously. The true full service washes are pretty rare here though, the only one that comes to mind is an independent (Rose Hill Carwash) in Kirkland which has been around for many years.
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Re: Gas Stations and Car Washes

Post by bryceleinan »

storewanderer wrote: June 13th, 2022, 10:39 pm Wow, in Reno, new car washes are being built like crazy. I can think of at least 10 that are either under construction or have opened in the past year. There are a few groups who are building them. They push monthly subscription plans hard. There was another group called Quick Quack who was going to build some but must have sensed the market was getting saturated and sold their lots to an operator called Sierra. Sierra as I understand is owned by some AZ group and the last couple units they've built don't look much different from a gas station car wash, super low budget, and a couple of very questionable locations.
Quick Quack sold one site to Surf Thru - the one at Legends in Sparks. Surf Thru is also going on a building spree in Oregon and in other areas of California without Quick Quacks. I would not be shocked to see those chains merge in the future.
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