population per s/s bay

Hi I am a potential new investor in a s/s car wash. I was wondering if any of you experienced operators would share with me your thoughts on population reach required per s/s bay, as a general rule of thumb eg - assuming no competition , population required in a 3 mile radius per bay.

Merryl,

I’m in the business of helping people plan and develop new carwash sites.

Equipment manufacturers usually evaluate population based on a range of 1,500 to 2,500 persons per wand-bay within a 2-mile radius. This considers a fairly uniform distribution of customers and a single market.

Presumably, this is the threshold needed for the market to sell enough units each day to cover its cost of acquisition and production.

Is this a good rule-of-thumb? Perhaps ten years ago it was. Since then the typical cost to build has risen by about 20% to 25%.

There are tons of variable involved. The SS business has changed dramatically in the past eight-ten years. In my metro area SSs have become almost cost prohibitive to build to expect any reasonable ROI. I would encourage anyone who is thinking about building a new facility to be very, very careful. Sss in my area are selling for 50% of peak value five years ago. I don't expect the SS market to make a roaring comeback.

I agree with Greg, most people that make good money in the business
'bought their carwashes right" at least that’s what most successful operators that I know say.

I hope you have allot of cash if you are planning on new construction (40k is not allot of cash) along with a hell of a location (just because your family has owned the land forever doesn’t make it a hell of a location)

It's kind of a catch 22 if a wash is getting foreclosed on is a great opportunity but it must be a bad location or something majorly wrong, right? That’s not true at all, for every good operator their are probably a dozen bad ones. A good operator puts money back into the wash, and keeps the property clean! Clean = clean. The formula to a successful wash is simple, and initial investment (buying right) is a major part of it. I am not an operator, but you did the right thing coming here. Talk to as many operators as possible, I would avoid anyone selling something until you get a good picture painted by other operators, and decide the route you want to go.

If you are just in it to empty the money after a busy weekend I suggest you find another investment. That’s a major part of the formula of a bad operator.