Peter Thakur’s gas station in Dacula Georgia was getting dragged down by a drab and ineffective touchless in bay automatic car wash we wanted to learn how Peters investment in Sonny’s Express tunnel helped amp up customer excitement and his business’s bottom line join Anthony analetto as we tour Exxon Express hey Peter Peter second how you.
Doing nice to meet you Peter thanks so much for having us here so take a look at your car wash on your gas station and the new facility remodel that you do you welcome left later I’d like to talk about a little bit about your background in history what are the business have you been in is this your only station what do you have from a pre Gastelum and.
What do I have a quick mini tunnel and this is a one for longer okay and what was here before this was it was a in BAE automatic Atari touch-free okay but it didn’t do any good job and and a lot of business a lot because not a washing car customer satisfaction was so like alcohol Maggio so we decided to go for you know federal.
Carwash and she can wash the car and I can bring my customer back I see we’re kind of in a rural area kind of right up the outskirts a new growth going on right so the cars are pretty dirty oh yes yes yeah going through this morning earlier than anybody good in but mean some fiction because all right and the location was where was the the car.
Wash a movie but we did not even demolish the building what we had it was about thirty eight feet building we had it we add the building when a both the side front and a back and MIDI 295 feet building and Z we saw all the equipment and it worked out pretty good for them it looks nice and you’re doing some marketing at the gas pumps we providing.
Ten cent a gallon discount to our customer so they save some money on the gasoline which is the Canada market to save money on the gasoline so that attracts the customer and at the same time we get the business for the car watch are you doing any other marketing any mailers and running coupons we just started started so Peter on the VMA.
Automatically might do it did you ever have an attendant managing the car walk no we did not had it and another in the automatic car wash that was the unattended but this one we have it pretty much one person that’s what we need to put it on a conveyor belt to make sure everything is safe in case did they have any question so one person we.
Have for this carwash okay and you cross train so you can get a break from somebody inside the store and vice versa right right right yeah it’s easy I mean just as long as they help a customer to put it and make sure they mind them about putting a neutral and you know that kind of stuff if you see the volume grow already with the carwash a big time.
When we install about Kali years ago that in I dictated with the 10,000 and drop it down to about three four thousand a month with this one plus monthly 25,000 volume I mean you know $35 in the dollar yes I can’t forget you study it automatics we talk about dollars and cuddles we cut we talk about cars eyes.
Over three you went from $10,000 when you get up into any old money but he’s drawn around three yeah and then now with the tunnel and we little bit over two months yes sorry generating over 25,000 right yeah that’s fantastic oh it’s very good yeah how about gas sales has helped the gap sales go up a little bit I see only 510.
Percent difference but is it new at that series only two months we just recently advertise in the local newspaper okay and some of the coupon and flyers who people know that we have a 10 cent discount on a gasoline yeah I think that’s big I think once they all start to see that I think that may really help with the gas volume grow yeah that’s.
Blood with the carwash bye all right well let’s take a walk down on the gas pumps and show me the marketing on the phone yeah come on Peter here we are one of the gas pumps right I think that’s a great marketing about a customer come here when this came the car the the pumps that the screen will prompt them do you want a car wash yeah.
Okay and plus we have a POS here’s the customer see how much you charge because they see the $0.10 a discount or every gallon they purchase right and they have a scroll option here all the options we provide the packages know which we have a low $18 $15 and $10 and a veggie is $5 so it will have an option here customers.
Select the options the package they they want to go for it and pump will say well we will reduce your price per gallon wait and it changes the price right here when you see that Lisa green it will go to three or six that’s fantastic love that and then I see the nice part about being with a national franchise if they have a mobile credit card or next.
On credit card yeah also get then another six cents on sixes so now if they using the brand credit card they can get the 16 cents per gallon that’s me that’s not very good look you’re very happy with that right let me ask your question the closed down and remodel I’m not going to take it took us say about a six month six months.
Or six months between permitting yeah everything so we were down by six months the previous car wash but as I said that on the volume was whatever people’s house and compared to I knew what is gonna do and also it didn’t bother us you make that back in the first one right yeah yes yes yes yeah and we’re gonna take a walk down there I want to.
Go by the auto cashier and sell the auto cashier works people go back there you didn’t just build a car wash that you build an express car wash right with free vacuums right yeah yellow show everybody what it looks like then do it the modification is building the driveway to get some major elevation changes so the permitting and the.
Construction part of this was probably right also it was good thing the the the customer able to buy car was inside the store too so like we have a here total six MPD so total 12 cars to 12 pump and they can purchase the car washes at the same time they can put it inside even though they do prepay or a lot of people want to come inside for us so they can.
Purchase inside the store thing so that’s a good thing that’s there if they start the top of running here and they went on inside the fake time’s up yes yeah we want on that as long as they purchase the car wash with with the gasoline you know we are not back and then if they just want a car wash and they want to run through they.
Can pay the auto cashier right right but that’s they cannot sell any 10 cent discount no not there right now that yeah they have to purchase together yeah fantastic let’s take a walk down to the auto cashier and chilling all over the pita woman coming around the corner behind the station we can really see what.
You’ve created here I mean this is yeah yeah I had impressive entrance yeah thank you I like it it’s beautiful it’s nice yeah it looks a lot different than just an image automatic car wash oh yeah oh my god customer happy – yeah and I see over here we did the auto cashier we’ve got a canopy on the pay station RFID right.
Selling some membership programs yeah already we have about 45 members and they love it because the in this area with a gas pump they save the money so I said what else you need it you know they get the free we have a mission and also we just cleared the whole facility see the convenience store right now there’s so much competition the convenience.
Industry is going down because of the competition so so we just hired we were always searching for have some additional income or revenue to offer customer and the carwash I think is the best option because it the easy operation and it generates the good revenue so even if you lose there’s some in a competition you can stay in a.
Company you can copy the market basically you can survive it I think it’s all right you ready copy ours you have a big piece of property now you can oxidize your profits at a profit Center yeah and we saw that you’re doing a promotion if you get get the emissions we’re riding together a free car one free car wash yes yeah.
And that helps to tie them into loyalty yes gonna wash you’re gonna get them once a year at least for that service right they like it they could do more often that’s what the goal is not any more missions I think that’s fantastic I do see all the lava graphics to really embrace the the new services that we’ve been offering with the lava experience.
And how’s the customers response to that oh my god allow eyes the best and when we opened up and and the average was almost 1195 $12 we did not believe that and I was carried to charge high in the beginning and I say requests to Z that I said that’s too high I mean you know I don’t feel comfortable he said don’t worry about it so I just let them do.
What they wanted to do it and today is around close to $11 10:30 11 and a customer buy because it gives them more shine and that’s what a customer like it you know they do a bike if the quality is there quality is pretty value was there yeah and the price is okay yeah yeah we’re giving them the show when the quality that you putting out today well.
What you can do it the way we tell customer that I if you like to have your car showroom shine you’re gonna spend 30 40 50 bucks even 80 bucks to another car wash try this $18 carwash and see how you like it and and if they try and the lowered plan so that’s a good part and otherwise my previous carwash whatever it was about 6 6 $7 and this one is a I.
Never seen listen can’t 50 so that’s a good part about it right so the volume of car washes are up the relators the revenue villainies what’s the one post a double butt up almost 80% and Roger that so it’s a win-win situation especially lower than average that’s what they get big about it I mean you know and the base price does start at 5 we talk about.
That at the top or I go all the way up to $18 with the lava system I also see that you do bug treatment on the top two washes you prep the cars for buds right I can buy that separately right they can advise tamper you like that service they like everything oh yeah a lot of people bite I mean you know what they do they buy go.
For like a $10 deluxe and then they want to add the bug so that’s $14 right there sure so overall the way these the high structure the overall average of a car you know if it just goes higher and the customer get what they want with that if they want the bug forever get it if they don’t want it then they don’t need it but they.
Had often a regular that off okay and your labor gets utilized doing right services and getting services like in a Saturday and a Friday Saturday we keep two people because we are busy so the two people the people who have to wait in line longer so you can give a faster service that’s why we keep two people – and you don’t mind the labor so the.
Labor put on the car washer is not a problem not another problem well worth the investment you are the only definite for what yes yeah yeah well let’s take a walk down we’ll take a look at the fun one and see what we do down there so Peter my favorite part of all these videos is the equipment you know and.
It’s always expensive to do a remodel and start to put a whole new package of equipment in there I mean here you got everything you got our spider wrap rounds you’ve got our pendulum and the bitter combo complete lava experiences in there this is waterfall the distribute it didn’t work with you see work with you a little bit yeah well you.
Had it in by automatic so when the distributor’s EU came in and we say what we can use the cost I mean it’s a running car wash and when you have to take it away and put it the new equipment so we like to use as many equipment we can use it in India automatic the major unit is is the pump station in a pump station they call it.
Right so we use that one the secondly we had a blower we use all the blower we had it the third the major equipment it was the pay station the fish station we could have used it but because of the we knew we cannot do more business so it wasn’t that capable did not give us a more information of the data online kind of.
Things so that’s why we decided to not to use the old base station we had it so we use the new one with a bigger screen and much better graphic and more offer package offer you can do so that’s the only reason we change it otherwise what most all the equipment we use it what we had in in viata budget and that helps keep the cost down so whenever you have.
Been in the orbiter to consolidate some of those otherwise oh and the distributor helped us how to use those equipment and so that’s a little tip though and then the when you get to redo your car wash not everybody does you build a car wash you run with it for a long time but when you get to do a major renovation like.
This you get to do some reduce and that’s where you get the operating technology so the base station there we have got video graphics on there you’ve got the ability to good gift cards or the membership programs that’s pretty strong buddy strong market yeah and then he’ll some of the convenience store folks that are out there that are.
Considering maybe this kind of remodel any ideas any tips planning planning tips what should they look for which is a key points they should well as ever a major concern was the that my car colonel car wash is Carrie how good no I don’t even know anything and I didn’t know anything about the tunnel car wash it was Carrie how you can do it but like.
We are two months open here and no on it or the only one person one employee handles everything we get all the report it because we call the tech support it gets if you have any issue you had a couple of time and they call back and I pick the issue because everything is like a computerized okay so I didn’t see that is anything to scan about it the.
All the equipment’s and everything so it does easy part and you have a more revenue I mean what else you needed to have competition you can stay in a competition very happy healthy income that’s fantastic it has a good information for those guys to know it’s not scary no it’s not how are today with the critical you should not build.
With the machinery you get scared I mean you know it is a machinery normally film in the store we do you buy in the cellar time and that’s the only training we do it you know this is the machinery repair this but with the distributor installer I didn’t see any problem and when we call right away somebody comes here and there we could be pretty similar to what.
Was really doing wall in it you know how to fix it or one that was pretty similar in all the MA automatics and most gas company they know there’s always a service contract provided with that you want to monthly provided the maintenance you’re getting the same kind of service a better yes so they keep up with the preventive maintenance we’re here to.
Keep the rock keep it running it will clean right also the customers have to when they come well that’s going to test oh yeah need to work out pretty good for me well that’s great well Peter thanks so much for for giving us some tips that we can help share with some of the other convenience their operations gonna see.
This video maybe they won’t be afraid to make the jump into the tunnel business and your experience here will hopefully help some other community operators and carwash operators make the leap into the doll business yes yes no you all come and no we glad that especially the company your company sunny equipment we already placed and happy about it every.
Customer we want about already a few thousand car and everybody’s happy about the installation and like Goodman and it does a wonderful job and totally no fear about the equipment when I say mention earlier and so it worked out pretty good for us well thanks so much we really appreciate your trust in us and your trust in their.
Distributor either we wish you a lot of luck in and success oh thank you yeah thank you and as always thanks for coming down and take a tour of Peters carwash here in gas station and his remodel and we look forward to a lot of you folks watching this and calling in and looking for some help and support and as always good luck.
And good washing you
