July 20, 2024
Editor’s Note: As I prepared to gather data for what my editor hoped would be a funny story about the recent proliferation of car washes in Pleasant Valley, I was worried about getting boring, wordless answers to my questions. I shouldn’t have worried. At my first stop, a worker waved at me as he approached me (not to order me to leave, as I thought he wanted to do, but to greet me) and when I expressed my intentions, he took me to his manager. In addition to my mission, the manager understood my purpose with joy. The managers and owners of the other car washes were just as friendly and I breathed a sigh of relief.
ModWash, near the old Kmart, is a scene of the same old coexistence between consumers and between consumers and staff, according to manager Krystle McCaulley.
Today, car washes like his operate online like bars, hair salons or coffee shops, he said.
“Yes,” wrote Sean Pashley, a board member of the Pennsylvania Car Wash Association, in an email reaction when asked if the washes can have “a coffee shop/barbershop feel. “
That’s true for the same reason car washes are proliferating, just in Altoona, but across the country, he said.
“Personally, I characterize (the rise of the car wash) to the end of the automotive DIY era,” Pashley wrote; The implication is that DIY, adding conversion oil, is out of fashion because modern cars are harder for non-professionals to paint. because of the systems. and electronic complexity.
According to Pashley, that dependence on mechanics has translated into a dependence on cleanliness.
“In the mid-1990s, about a portion of Americans washed their cars in the driveway,” he writes. “Now, about 80 do it at the car wash. “
And while the “professionals” do the cleaning work, it’s imaginable to socialize.
Commercial spaces at services like ModWash are becoming “meeting zones,” said Austin Palumbo, general manager of All Washed Up Auto Spa, which is building a new ModWash-style car wash at the intersection of Logan Boulevard and Boards Road.
Members can chat with others and car enthusiasts can communicate about their travels, said Palumbo, whose regional chain is based in St. Louis. John’s. Marys.
All Washed Up’s control “absolutely” encourages this type of interaction, Palumbo said.
ModWash offers memberships and some members come several times a week or even daily, McCaulley said.
People spend hours in the vacuum area, where there are wands that look like octopus arms with attachments for other purposes, as well as trigger-activated blowers to clean dust from the internal ports.
That’s the “community factor,” said ModWash visitor Doug Savage, whose car he parked in front of a sales station.
He’s a delivery guy who likes his car to look good, so he comes at least once a week.
Naturally, when you’re there, you get to know other people, Savage said.
He’s shy, but he gives himself and talking to others makes him feel good, he says.
The scene looks a bit like a family barbecue, Savage said.
Management doesn’t have a problem with other people out there, he said.
The people who come there tend to be well-intentioned and responsible, with “their heads on their shoulders,” Savage said.
There’s “nothing crazy” going on there and the framework encourages everyone to be open and honest, he said.
“You can laugh,” he said.
You can chat with strangers.
There he met other people from Alaska, Tennessee, Texas, Idaho and Ohio, he said.
Even the control participates.
“I love hearing about their day, what they’ve planned,” McCaulley said. According to McCaulley, it’s just a car wash.
Variety of systems
ModWash and All Washed Up feature the new “tunnel style,” which represents the modernization of the industry, the former automatic and self-service shelving facilities, Palumbo said.
The tunnel flavor is more effective, according to Palumbo.
An old, single-bay facility can take one car from one car each for 7 to 10 minutes, or six to 10 per hour, he said.
A specific tunnel can hold up to 150 cars per hour, meaning consumers don’t have to wait as long on busy days, he said.
The facility All Washed Up is building in Altoona has a 125-foot tunnel that can hold six cars simultaneously, moving on a conveyor belt, Palumbo said.
Washing is done in stages: soaping, rubbing the front, then the top, etc. , he explained.
Depending on the situation, the speed of the conveyor belt can be adjusted, so that one pass can last between 1. 5 and 10 minutes, he explained.
For investors, tunnel-type installations can be attractive as they require less land and a smaller overall facility to reach the same production point, he explained.
Facilities on the bay don’t necessarily lend themselves to socializing, admitted Don Brown, owner of Quick and Easy Car Wash, one of which is near Bishop Guilfoyle Catholic High School, as well as others nearby in Greenwood, Wehnwood and Duncansville.
“We’re a little dated,” Brown said.
The one near BG is an automatic double in bay.
Some consumers don’t get out of their cars when they visit their sites, he said, noting that many prefer a quick and undeniable wash.
Its regional chain in Bedford County includes hand-washing areas, which some car owners prefer, Brown said.
One of the car washes on the Pleasant Valley strip is not a tunnel type, nor is it an outdated, unstaffed bay.
This is Superior Detailing & Accessories, which has an automatic wash slot, but employs many other people who do the rest of the painting by hand.
“We do everything,” said owner Tony Evangelisto.
Therefore, Superior is especially suitable for those who can’t make the paints themselves, or don’t need to, he said.
But its setup also allows for socializing: running around in your car and relaxing in the living room, where coffee is served, Evangelisto said.
“We have other people coming and going,” just like McDonald’s, Evangelisto said.
Older people make up a part of its clientele.
But washing a car in Superior is necessarily quick, he said.
“We’re like a dinosaur,” he said.
“Capital of dirty cars”
It’s hard to understand what the proliferation of car washes says about Altoona, said Pam Snyder, a visitor to Duncansville ModWash who recently signed a promotional deal at the facility because her family, with four other children, planned to travel to the Midwest.
The community is full of beds and CBD tents, he said.
Altoona has to be the dirty automobile capital of the world, said Joe Hurd, executive director of the Blair County Chamber of Commerce, to answer the same question.
“It seems crazy” that there are 8 car washes within a 3. 6-mile radius between Bubbles Auto Spa on 17th Street and Splish Splash Car Wash on Convention Center Boulevard, Palumbo admitted.
But that’s not so far-fetched considering there are several grocery stores, several restaurants and several hotels on similar stretches, or in equally small spaces, in many places, he said.
Some have advised that, in some cases, concentrating one type of business in a confined area can benefit all those businesses, by piquing the interest of potential consumers in that activity and making it more convenient for them.
On the contrary, an intense business festival is supposed to generate winners and losers.
In the case of the proliferation of car washes, it may be a bit of both, according to Palumbo.
There are plenty of cars to wash in the Altoona area, and visitors’ personal tastes vary as far as other types of car washes, he said.
But it’s also a tipping point, beyond which a city’s car-washing capacity is exceeded, he said.
In Altoona, the Pleasant Valley Band has peak traffic — about 40,000 vehicles per day — so the ability to effectively manage the facility is important, he said.
For now, Altoona still has a “good balance” of services available, he said.
But there are cases where new, modern-style amenities can start to put older ones out of business, if there are too many of them and they’re well-maintained, Palumbo said, mentioning the area city.
Proliferation has tended to “raise the bar throughout the laundry industry,” according to Pashley.
“However, mom washes
Still, “with the resurgence of buying local and small laundromats that are stepping up their game and their club to build loyalty, they are competing,” he added.
“We’re looking to be fundamentally strong,” said Brown, whose family business has a total of 18 locations and has grown over two decades. That means quality smart equipment, “top of the line” soaps and keeping its amenities and grounds empty and attractive, he said.
That’s what the company has been doing from the beginning, according to Brown.
“We are a giant operator,” like corporations with many sites, he said.
There is nothing he can do about the arrival of such people in the region, he said.
“We just keep doing what we’re doing,” he said.
“Second Chance” Employer
Evangelisto bought Superior five years ago from a landlord who had legal problems.
A staple of the network since 1957, the facility was then in poor condition, Evangelisto said.
He’s been detailing cars since he was a kid, he said.
Retired from the state system, he has made Superior a “second chance” employer, he said.
People “get into things,” go in and out of prisons or rehabilitation centers, or have — not public or health-related — and he gives them the possibility to work, he said. Declares.
“A lot of other people are struggling to find work,” he said. “They want a second chance. “
It’s helping turn those other people “into wonderful workers and wonderful citizens,” he said.
It worked in Superior, he said.
Wes Park is one of the managers.
Park, an Army boy born in Washington, D. C. and raised in Bellwood, he led a fleeting life, he said.
He’s been at Superior for 3 years – a dismissal for him.
“They treat us with respect,” Park said. “And the reimbursement is reasonable. “
It’s a job to work for, he says.
One of the most demanding situations for him is keeping other people happy and resolving interpersonal conflicts, moving them from one task to another so that “egos don’t collide,” or to ease potential frustrations or improve alignment skills, Park said.
Try to be sensitive to what other people like to do and what they do best, she said.
Working at a car wash can be “fun and unique,” according to Pashley. “It’s the opposite of the office, in the sense that you can be outside and still be covered,” she said. “It will be worth it. And with all the corporate car wash sites, there is room to grow and there are automakers available.
Car washes tend to be very profitable, which has attracted personal capital, Pashley said.
The suspicion of such an operation surprised Hurd when he learned that the main corner of Logan Boulevard and Plank Road would be occupied by a car wash.
“It’s mind-blowing,” Hurd said.
In the past, his idea for car wash was to put 50 cents in a device and “wait for the foam brush to fill up,” he said.
Keep Investments Shining
Most Americans don’t wash their cars enough; the average homeowner only does it three times a year, according to Pashley.
However, those who do it enough tend to recognize the importance of keeping “their investment shiny, white and protected,” he said.
The “sweet spot” is once every seven to ten days, he said.
This is helping to extend the life of cars through road salt and debris, Palumbo said.
Today, cars cost between $40,000 and $80,000 and it makes sense to maintain the investment, he said.
His company tests the device on its own 2016 Toyota maintenance vehicles, washes them frequently and “there’s only one speck of rust,” he said. “The frames look new. “
Washing the car in an advertising status quo is also more environmentally friendly than washing it on the street or in the driveway, where chemicals can go into typhoon drains and potentially nearby waterways, than into the sanitary sewer system, Palumbo said.
Commercial realization is faster, he said.
And that provides an emotional benefit, he said.
“It makes you feel like you have a blank car,” he said.
Mirror Staff editor William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.
Soapy Sites
There are 8 car washes within 3. 6 miles of the Pleasant Valley Strip of Commerce, between 17th Street and Boulevard Convention Center:
— Bubbles Auto Spa on the street
— Sheetz on the street
— Quick and easy car wash on 22nd Street near Bishop Guilfoyle
— Premium Highlights and Accessories, in front of the Van Zandt VA Medical Center
— All Washed Up Auto Spa on Logan Boulevard, opening soon
—Splish Splash Auto Bath, from Martin’s
— ModWash, on the former Kmart property
— Splish Splash Car Wash, on Convention Center Boulevard
Today’s newest and more in your inbox
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania lawmakers are hopeful that a new commission created to inspire others to live in rural spaces can. . .
HOLLIDAYSBURG – Concerns about the school district’s future came to light Wednesday as members. . .
Two brothers accused of leading police in a high-speed chase last June will go on trial after an initial investigation into the . . .
Today’s newest and more in your inbox