Small-town Exterior Express

This is Tom Brister's express wash in McComb, Mississippi. Mr. Brister has built a location that really makes people scratch their head. How can you be in a town of 12,000 and wash 10,000 cars a month? Mr. Brister's formula, be in a county of 40k+ in the main shopping district of that county (or near a super walmart). Mr. Brister plans to build in an even smaller town in 2007.

Central Station Car Wash has one autocashier, the hamilton cashier is on loading portion of the conveyor. He has attendees that handle the money for the customer to speed up the transaction. His attendees remove all radio antenna and trailer hitches for the customer. Also Central Station only has two wash prices, $5 and $7.

I asked Mr. Brister, what advice could he give to people building their first express wash. He said to not listen to your concrete contractor about drainage. "They (concrete contractors) are worried about rain water drainage, we (as operators) need to be worried about trucks driving out of the tunnel with a bed full of water". He also added that everything you paint, needs to be repainted and costs money, people don't realize the cost of upkeep on painting.

I have visted Tom's wash. Tom runs a great wash and is a real joy to listen to. he takes good care of the customer.

However, I would like to stress something to all those potential investors out there watching these forums. As the express wash concept is being tried in smaller and smaller markets, be very cautious. As Speedy Jr. mentioned the town's pop is indeed small, but that is a deceptive number. There is more than a tiny country town with a super walmart there. I believe it is actually a small regional mall with retail stores such as Sears and JC Penny. We ate lunch by his wash at Picadilly's. It's not common to see any of these businesses in a town of that size. I'm not familiar with local geography, but I wouldn't be suprised if his trade area is even quite larger than his county population. Also, I believe at the time he built this wash his 5/1 was the only other serious wash in town, but could be mistaken there. Someone please help me out on these facts.....

I'm not condeming express washes in small town, I'm just saying potential investors should be very careful where you invest in smaller and/or overly competitive markets. The credit rating you save may be your own!

Ditto Greg...I think Tom B represents a unique situation. You have to try to factor out some anamolies (the uncommon) in every business situation.
I admire Tom, beautiful wash, especially for the $ invested. Tom knows his market better than the rest of us can figure. But nothing is going to take away all the risks in opening a business.