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>The real business of car washes is real estate. What I see in both car washes and the storage business suggested by one of the child posters is low-labor cash

>The real business of car washes is real estate. What I see in both car washes and the storage business suggested by one of the child posters is low-labor cash flow. I can't speak for all geographies, but locally what I observe is car washes are built on low-value land where these new heavily automated car washes have got to be a cash cow once they are paid off, especially with monthly subscriptions. I do unfortunately see a lot of storages built on what could be much higher value land, which does cause me to wonder what kind of financial engineering I'm not seeing on the surface.

mikhailfranco 3y ago
One pattern I have seen in the UK is temporary manual car washes operating in former gasoline stations. Firstly, the location, visibility and site layout are obviously perfect. Secondly, the old brown-field gas station has sludge-filled underground tanks that cost a lot to remove, and do a full environmental clean-up. There are long delays to wait for a deep-pocketed developer, or for the site value to rise. In the meantime, lease it out to a bunch of enterprising migrants (in UK, often E.Europeans).
- PaulHoule 3y ago
  There are stories about the UK being overrun with sketchy businesses like manual car washes and sweets shops https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/dec/26/more-than-90-of-hand-carwashes-in-uk-employing-workers-illegally-study-finds https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/dec/26/more-than-90...
pas 3y ago
> much higher value land getting a building permits for a car wash is much much much easier than for something higher value, and in absence of LVT ...
deleted 3y ago
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