I’ve spoken with many of you over the last little while. Conversations have included talks about closings during the first few months, how to safeguard customers and employees, how are other car washes handling it, among other things.

By now everyone who wants to be open is open and doing business, but that business seems to vary from one location to another. While most are saying they’ve returned to a somewhat normal level of sales, others tell me it is off quite a bit. The odd one says things are better than ever.

For us, here at Pelco, these last few months have been a bit strange. While we remained open, the business model changed a little. Walk-in traffic dropped off substantially while shipping remained about the same. What we did not expect was that the service work increased, rather than slow down. After speaking with most of the customers getting the work done, it revealed a desire to get done some of the things they’ve been putting off until they had a chance to slow down and decide what to do. This didn’t only include work done by Pelco or other trades, but some of the decluttering and improvements around the car wash.

I can’t claim the ones who did take this time to reinvest time and money into their business are the ones now saying things are as good or better than ever. The fact is, I have no idea what, if anything, those owners did, but I believe the ones who did take this time to complete some projects around the wash are happy they did it and, perhaps, are reaping the benefits from it.

Why not take the time now, when the weather is nice, albeit hot at the time of writing, to tackle some of the things you’ve wanted to improve, add to, or upgrade? Most sites could use some sprucing up, either in appearance, or operation. Now, before the hopefully busy coming season, adopt a positive outlook about the future and continued good business.