The Whale of a Wash, based in the
eastern panhandle of West virginia since
1993, has three carwashes located in
shepherdstown, hedgesville, and Inwood,
and seven self-serve coin-operated
laundries in the region. Three are located
alongside the carwashes. The businesses
operate round-the-clock, 365 days a year.
offering the two types of washes is a
natural, since sitting in a laundromat can
be monotonous. Taking all those clean
clothes home in an equally clean car is a
powerful incentive to avoiding boredom
and saving the customer time.
according to owner hank Walter,
in 2007, the revenues from the total
carwashes compared to the laundries
were nearly equal. "In 2008, the carwashes
dropped by 7% year-over-year, the
laundries increased 9%," he said. "This
year, the carwashes are off about 3%
year-over-year and the laundries are up
about 5%."
Walter carefully monitors local trends
in employment gains and losses, gasoline
prices, home washer-dryer repairs, car
sales, and water table levels.
Regarding the 3% drop in the carwash
business this year, Walter notes: "Clean
clothes are not being sacrificed to less
disposable income decisions, but clean
cars are, in my view. and he adds,
"Carwashing habits are directly related
to new car sales in our area as well.
People don't keep the clunkers clean. We
are hoping for a rebound in this factor
as new car sales have been increasing
again."
Wash in north Conway, new hampshire
saw his custom cleaning business dry up.
he closed his detail shop and opened a
carwash that not only operates 24/7, but
it boasts a "green" attitude. "I have been
in the carwash business for 25 years now,
and I believe the key to surviving in the
long haul is to never stop improving," he
said.
"Despite being the best in the area
and one of only three shops around,
people were just not spending the money
to have their cars professionally cleaned
anymore. It was not a "necessity" now
that people were paying $4.00 for a
gallon of gas, gillis said. "When I did get
a call for detailing it was from customers
"of course when I asked them to come
in for a more detailed estimate, I found
that these were the cars that were used
to haul Christmas trees, transport wet
dogs, contained more goldfish crackers
than most convenience stores and had
enough tree sap on them to produce
five gallons of maple syrup and a drum
of turpentine. as the economy slumped
my customer base became only those
who really needed it; it was no longer
the customer who was maintaining their
semi-clean car...the three-to-four hour
jobs. so I had to ask myself, can I spend
8 hours cleaning one car? Can I afford to
run a business at $22.00 per hour?"
"The answer to both questions was
clearly no."
gillis obtained a loan from the bank.
he, his family and some employees
did the demolition work and most of
the construction of the new building
themselves. Conserve Car Wash is a 100-
foot exterior tunnel wash, with three self-
service bays and an in-bay automatic.
"We recycle 70% of the wash water,"
gillis pointed out. "The touchless wash
is green because we are using an hPLv
(high Pressure-Low volume) wash
system. The touchless wash can clean
a car with as little as 38 gallons of fresh
water, which is estimated to be less than
half the amount used in home driveway
washing applications. Most importantly,
all of the wash water goes directly to a
sewage treatment plant instead of going
into storm drains."
"When the new roof was installed I
changed all the drains so that I could
capture the rain water from the 4000-
square-foot of roof area and use it. all
of the cleaning solutions we use are
bio-degradable, and we have been
experimenting with a solar hot water
system that may allow us to turn off the
1,300,000 btu oil-fired boiler for June,
July and august."
his future plans for the wash include
replacing the oil fired boiler with a bio-
mass boiler that uses wood pellets or
corn that can be purchased and stored
in bulk on site. he used 11 tons of wood
pellets to heat his home in 2008. Though
it was not any less expensive than oil in
the long run, what he burned was carbon
neutral.
gillis added: "Customers who
understand why the wash is `green' love
the idea. But there are always those who
wash their car as long as their wheels are
clean."
Prices range from $9 for a basic wash,
clean and dry to $13 for an ultimate
Wash. Conserve Car Wash always offers a
special allowing at least $2 off one of the
washes. There is an Early Bird and night
owl special that also discounts $2 on all
washes from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m.
so far, gillis' efforts have been well
received. "This was an enormous gamble
to take going into a slow economy," he
said, "but so far it has been one of the
best decisions I have made."
Money-Maker
for DRB systems, gives some background
on the reasons how and why the auto-
Recharge Module, aRM, came about and
why those reasons make the product a
success for many. according to Brott,
"The idea of aRM was started by the
confluence of a few events. First, we met
an operator in Bakersfield named Ray
Roselle of Cruz-Thru Car Washes who
was pioneering the idea at his exterior
chain. We then met Maritime Carwash in
Maryland, which was using it in the full-
service environment."
Then, we read an article about a
health club mogul who said something to
the effect that in his business, if he didn't
charge monthly for unlimited service, his
business would not exist. We connected
the dots to say that carwashes were a lot
like health clubs in the sense that the up-
front capital is very high but the ongoing
expense is low. If you visit your health
club two times a month or four times a
month, the extra cost to the health club is
very low. after all, who cares how many
times the dumbbell gets lifted?
Carwashing is similar; the biggest cost
is the land, building and equipment.
Whether a carwash does 500 cars in a day
or 600 doesn't have much effect on the
bottom line. so, why not offer programs
that appeal to the public and encourage
more frequency?
Maritime Carwash, in annapolis,
Maryland, was one of our first users of
the software. The way their business was
doing it, before our software, was very
labor-intensive; our software saved their
staff hours per week.
This may sound dramatic, but aRM