Big Volume Detailing vs Us

[TundraPower]

My 2012 4-Runner was pretty run down. Very dirty interior and exterior for reasons we will not discuss. It would probably take me about 3 hours to do a very nice basic clean up inside and out. But I decided to do an experiment. Over my lunch hour I took it to one of the many big volume detailing places close to work. I mean big volume here. I selected the cheapest "package" for $23 which was an exterior wash, interior vacuum, interior wipe down, and glass inside and out. I started the timer on my cell phone when I handed them the keys. As I ate my sandwich, a swarm of workers went after my vehicle and the others. Dozens of them. I picked up the keys in exactly 32 minutes. Was it perfect? No it was not, but it was really pretty good, and a darn sight better than it was. I always give credit where it is due, and for $23 in 32 minutes, they did just fine.

The lesson for all (???) of us here is do not try to compete with these businesses at their level. I know I couldn't. I'd get eaten alive.

Noted.

 

[Kacz]

How do they profit?

Doesn't make sense with that amount of workers.

 

[dsg03gt]

I have a place by me that I would pay $22 back in the day to clean my car. They drove it through the tunnel wash, vacuumed it out, did the glass, and wiped the interior down, real quick 10 min. Needless to say I was never really impressed but they were quick and good enough. Now if I ever went back there I would stroke out I think.

 

[WillWashesCars]

It's very difficult to be profitable unless very efficient or have other means of cutting cost (off the books employees, cutting corners, etc.)

 

[LuxuryMobile]

Volume is right. They make a ton of money.

And you would be shocked how many people LOVE this service. They have a great ability to upsell things here and there.

I would imagine the employees there are making minimum wage, and one or two supervisors making double that.

I would be very interested to see how many vehicles go through each week, month, and year.

 

[TundraPower]

Volume is right. They make a ton of money. And you would be shocked how many people LOVE this service. They have a great ability to upsell things here and there. I would imagine the employees there are making minimum wage, and one or two supervisors making double that.
I would be very interested to see how many vehicles go through each week, month, and year.

I have no complaints for $23 plus tip in 32 minutes. They swarmed the cars like an ant colony from one station to the next and worked very efficiently. Each person had a specific job. The cars rarely sat idle for more than 30 seconds. Just in the time I sat there eating my sandwich, I counted 39 vehicles go through the process.

 

[Eric@CherryOnTop]

There ya go, 39 cars in 32 minutes at 23 a car equals roughly 1800 bucks gross an hour. If they can keep up that kind of volume then that would be incredibly lucrative. I can't and won't try to compete with that kind of operation, it's not worth pulling my hair out over. I can generally tell he type of person who wants this kind of service right away and try to get them off the phone as fast as possible.


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[irsankao]

There is this video on YT about volume detailing.
You might be suprised compare to our standard but hey it's making money for them.

On YT search for "Dusk T'll Dawn Car Wash"

 

[TundraPower]

There ya go, 39 cars in 32 minutes at 23 a car equals roughly 1800 bucks gross an hour. If they can keep up that kind of volume then that would be incredibly lucrative. I can't and won't try to compete with that kind of operation, it's not worth pulling my hair out over. I can generally tell he type of person who wants this kind of service right away and try to get them off the phone as fast as possible. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

$1800 is assuming everyone chooses the "basic" service for $23 plus tip. There were like 8 levels of service. Don't get me wrong here, I don't offer or advocate this type of work, I'm just saying what I observed first hand.

 

[hernandez.art13]

$5 dollar hand wash in 5 Minutes.

Special Packages | Alamo Hand Car Wash

I graduated from HS a block away, btw

 

[davey g-force]

Yeah, it's all about volume. Plus they make money off the coffee, food and drinks they sell...

 

[Eric@CherryOnTop]

$1800 is assuming everyone chooses the "basic" service for $23 plus tip. There were like 8 levels of service. Don't get me wrong here, I don't offer or advocate this type of work, I'm just saying what I observed first hand.

Yeah, it was a rough rounded estimate, but the point is a lot of people are only willing to pay a low price and are more than happy with mediocrity. Hard for people like us to understand, but I think those of us who do understand this can be more effective from a business standpoint. It was mighty bold of you to do this "experiment," I think we all can learn something from it, thanks!


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[Flash Gordon]

I've done high volume detailing. You can have it. No one will take care of your business like you will. And lets not even begin with all the stuff employees will break/steal/LATE TO WORK. I'm suprised I'm not in jail for murder

Plus if I want to take a day/week off I do. Can't do that with employees

 

[TundraPower]

It was mighty bold of you to do this "experiment," I think we all can learn something from it, thanks! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Well, the car has two coats of 22PLE on it, and it's not like they were going to start it on fire with their products or anything. hahahahahahaha.

 

[dcjredline]

Cool experiment. I have considered trying it with my DD... just to see their quality so I can compare and relay to perspective clients with knowledge, not just assumptions.

 

[brondondolon]

When i lived in Southern California working 10 hour days as a land surveyor mon-fri i really had no desire to detail my lifted F350 king ranch 4 door long bed ever. Once a week i would get it cleaned at this car wash place. Every sat i was there. I would get it washed every sat and hand waxed every other sat. For a wash it was $20 for a hand wax it was $30. Then every 5th visit i would get a free hand wax.

For the $20 basic wash package they would drive the truck through a tunnle wash where there was an assembly line of people hand washing the truck while different chemicals sprayed on it then they would drive the truck out and a bunch of guys would dry it off. After it was dried they would pull it into a stall and do the windows,wipe down interior, vacuumed, dress tires, dress all exterior plastics, and add air freshener
Estimated time was about 30 min

For the $30 hand wax it was the same method as basic wash but with the addition of polishing my rims and all other chrome and waxing the truck by hand.
Estimated time was about 1 hour

At any given time there had to have been at least 20 people working. This included the cashier and all the people behind the closed doors in the wash tunnle.

I often wondered how this place stayed in business because of the low prices but i guess when each day you have about 50 people coming through the money adds up. I imagine most of them were only getting paid tips because other wise the money doesnt add up with all those workers.

Sure the job wasnt perfect. Some times they wouldnt vac between the seats and center console some times id have dirty spots on my tires where their armor all didnt hit. But all and all it was a damn good job. I mean $30 to wax the truck below and do a pretty decent job seems worth it to me. I stopped going though because one of their employees stole my pay check out of my truck. Luckily i found out before i drove off so i called my employer and had them cancel that check.

The trailer wasnt attached when they detailed it lol

 

[ducksfan]

When i lived in Southern California working 10 hour days as a land surveyor mon-fri i really had no desire to detail my lifted F350 king ranch 4 door long bed ever. Once a week i would get it cleaned at this car wash place. Every sat i was there. I would get it washed every sat and hand waxed every other sat. For a wash it was $20 for a hand wax it was $30. Then every 5th visit i would get a free hand wax.

For the $20 basic wash package they would drive the truck through a tunnle wash where there was an assembly line of people hand washing the truck while different chemicals sprayed on it then they would drive the truck out and a bunch of guys would dry it off. After it was dried they would pull it into a stall and do the windows,wipe down interior, vacuumed, dress tires, dress all exterior plastics, and add air freshener
Estimated time was about 30 min

For the $30 hand wax it was the same method as basic wash but with the addition of polishing my rims and all other chrome and waxing the truck by hand.
Estimated time was about 1 hour

At any given time there had to have been at least 20 people working. This included the cashier and all the people behind the closed doors in the wash tunnle.

I often wondered how this place stayed in business because of the low prices but i guess when each day you have about 50 people coming through the money adds up. I imagine most of them were only getting paid tips because other wise the money doesnt add up with all those workers.

Sure the job wasnt perfect. Some times they wouldnt vac between the seats and center console some times id have dirty spots on my tires where their armor all didnt hit. But all and all it was a damn good job. I mean $30 to wax the truck below and do a pretty decent job seems worth it to me. I stopped going though because one of their employees stole my pay check out of my truck. Luckily i found out before i drove off so i called my employer and had them cancel that check.

The trailer wasnt attached when they detailed it lol

There it is. The reason why people will pay more for a job. The one that never seems to get mentioned when a new guy comes on and thinks he has to be the cheapest guy in town to get work. Customers want quality people to deal with. They want people they trust to be around their possessions and families.
They want a quality job for a fair (A very subjective term. Sometimes with a lot more range than a lot of people think) price. AND, they want it done by a quality person.

 

[Willy Wang]

Volume is right. They make a ton of money.

And you would be shocked how many people LOVE this service. They have a great ability to upsell things here and there.

I would imagine the employees there are making minimum wage, and one or two supervisors making double that.

I would be very interested to see how many vehicles go through each week, month, and year.

I know a couple of full service car wash owners. On summer days they will rake in over 1000 cars a day at average $20 per car. You do the math One of them washed over 20,000 cars in December this year due to the lack of rain. There operation typically have 50 employees at any given time on a hot day, mostly Mexicans making minimum wage plus tips, 3 sales, and a couple managers making north of 70K a year. My buddy used to work as a sales there and on his old pay plan he was making around 70K working part time (30 hours). Who would have thought? lol

 

[AeroCleanse]

They use the cheapest products they can find as well.

 

[Pureshine]

Thats just a glorified car wash and not what I call true detailing. Those people that use that are not my customers. There is no way you can do a very bad interior in 3 hours and get everything cleaned right.