Winter2024_SSCWN_web

Northern Montana
Bays: $4 for 4 minutes (cash only)
Combo vas and shampooer:
$2 for 4 minutes
Central Tennessee
Bays: $1 to start, $0.50 per minute
Vacs: $1 for 4 minutes
Cleveland, Ohio
Bays: $4 to start, $1 per minute
Vacs: $2 for 3 minutes
Southern California
Bays: $4 for 4 minutes (thinking
about making it $5s), $1 per minute
Vacs: $2 for 3 minutes
Northern Minnesota
Bays: $5 to start, $1 per minute
Superbay: $6.25to start,
$1.25 per minute
Vacs: $2 for 4 minutes (coins only)
Northeast Texas
Bays: $2 to start for 4 minutes
Vacs: $1.50 for 4 minutes
It’s all about ‘Elasticity’
In microeconomics, the technical phrase for
knowing how responsive sales are to price changes,
everything else the same, is the price elasticity of demand.
Just substitute the word “responsiveness” for
“elasticity” to make the concept simple.
In general, how responsive sales are to price
changes is determined by several factors with the
most important being the availability of substitutes.
More substitutes implies greater elasticity (responsiveness)
and the opposite. Salt essentially has no
substitute and its demand is very price inelastic (unresponsive
to price changes). Fresh tomatoes have
Overseas:
Victoria, Australia
In Australian dollars,
$1 = 1 minute, 30 seconds.
many substitutes and the demand for them is relatively
elastic (responsive to price changes), again everything
else the same.
For self-serve car washes, the three major substitutes
are the full-service car washes (tunnels?), washing
at home, or just to live with the dirt and salt. Since
there is no published study that tries to estimate the
price elasticity of demand for self-serve car washes,
we have to rely on anecdotes.
Having a commonsense idea of how price changes
have affected sales in the past will be a good guide
to determining what to do.
Current Inflation Rates for the United States
Source: USInflationCalculator.com
We want your stories!
DO YOU HAVE
A FUNNY STORY
FROM THE BAY?
MAYBE AN
INSPIRING TALE
FROM THE WASH?
TRY SOMETHING NEW
THAT WORKED WELL?
Reach out to Editor Debra Gorgos
debgorgos@gmail.com to share
your story with our readers.
“You won’t believe what this
Darwin did at my wash…”
“The best decision I ever made
for my business was…”
“On rainy days, I like to…”
Some
conversation
starters:
“We were struggling with low
volumes when we decided to…”
“The funniest thing a customer
ever did at my wash…”
46 • WINTER 2024
WINTER 2024 • 47