NYSCWA Venus vs. Mars - Spring 2009

Venus Says

I am not really sure that you can separate the weather and economy but we have seen gas prices going down and we are still not seeing the volume we should for the winter months so I feel we can eliminate the price of gas. If I had to pick one I would have to say weather. If it rains on a Friday or Saturday it really hurts your volume for the month. If it rains two or three weekends in the same month it is extremely painful. In December, that is exactly what happened and to top things off we lost Christmas Eve. Some years, Christmas Eve was the equivalent of a fabulous weekend. This week we have seen fabulous weather and cars with a lot of salt. According to one owner they washed more cars this week than the entire month of December. The economy plays a big part on those weekends when it is sunny and bright but a forecast of rain or snow on Monday results in a low wash volume day — no matter what. With money being tight, I feel some people decide to wait until after the storm and then wash their cars. Unfortunately, most wait until the following weekend and if it is not bright and sunny you lose again.

During these tough economic times, unfortunately, some people see a carwash as a luxury and do not realize the damage they are doing to one of their largest investments by not properly maintaining its appearance. Our marketing strategies should advertise the benefits of keeping a car clean
especially because when we are probably going to keep our current vehicle a few years longer than normal until the economy picks up again.

Well, 2008 was certainly a year full of negatives for the carwash industry and many other industries alike. Hopefully in 2009, we will be talking about more positives and how the industry is prospering. Our industry is unique in that we have all of the challenges of any other small business, but we are most affected by the weather both positively and negatively. Last year, it just seemed that nothing went our way.

The economy, the gas prices and the weather were all not on our side for most of the year. Our biggest downfall I would have to say was the weather. In this business, the weather creates many peaks and valleys. I don’t know of too many other businesses that can have one of their best days ever one day and the next day do virtually no business at all. That reality, however, is what makes carwash operators as resilient as we are.

We all know that in the winter we depend on some snow to create a demand for carwashing. Without the snow there is no salt and if the cars are not dirty in the winter people just don’t think about washing their car. The winter of ’08 was virtually snow-free for most of us in the Northeast, especially operators in the more southern and coastal states. The spring was not much better and accompanied by an abundant amount of rain. Now I don’t care how good the economy is or how low the gas prices are when it is raining people do not wash their cars.

The summer I would have to say was the best season of the year, at least for me. Although gas peaked out at about $4.50 per gallon the sun was shining and the temperatures were warm. This puts people in a good mood and the desire to wash their car definitely increases. Business was still off by about 10-15 percent due to the high price of gas but that is much better than the 40-50 percent drop off in the winter due to bad weather.

The most disappointing part of the year would be the final quarter. Other than a brief stretch of nice weather in October, the final two months of the year were disastrous and I blame that mainly on the weather. The holiday months are usually prosperous because of the great increase in gift card sales and pre-paid carwash books. But once again, the weather did not cooperate and people were not coming in to wash their own car and the impulse of buying something for a friend or loved one was virtually nonexistent.

The bottom line is that the carwash industry is a weather-related business. When the weather is on our side it is a great business. If the weather delivers two inches of snow when it’s below 30 degrees, followed by a week of sunshine, the results are phenomenal. If Mother Nature decides in the month of May to shine her sun cars will be covered in pollen and the lines will be long at the car wash. On the contrary, when she decides to send rain every three days and weekends are lost this can become a very frustrating business. But you know what, that’s the way it is and it is not going to change. Mother Nature has given us plenty of good years and probably an equal amount of not so good ones. Over the years it will probably average out. In fact, for the one month I have under my belt in 2009 I am feeling a lot better about the weather than I did this time last year.