Car wash operators find alternate route to drive sales

RIVIERA BEACH, Fla. — RIVIERA BEACH, FLA. -- The climbing temperatures have car washes across South Florida in overdrive.

Car wash operators report acceleration in business as customer demands evolve.

Providing the convenience of a car wash has been a big business driver for Darrell Patterson over the last ten years.

However, opening his third Wash + Wax location in Riviera Beach last summer came with a few bumps in the road.

“It was trying times, but we held in there and it worked out,” said Darrell Patterson, owner of Wash + Wax.

When the pandemic put a break on business, he shifted to contact-free service to meet new customer needs.

“We had to provide more self-services for the customer to take advantage of,” added Patterson.

The demand for a clean car on-the-go is also gaining speed on the Treasure Coast as new business owners enter the car wash industry.

“I would sanitize my car after I got a car wash and that’s when we spoke about it and decided we were going to offer it,” said Ina Romano, co-owner of Islands Auto Spa in Hobe Sound.

Islands Auto Spa is currently in the final phase of construction and is scheduled to open in mid-February.

The owners will take on the new business venture with plans to introduce a new sanitizing fog for extra protection.

“It’s more of a handheld fog machine that gets attached to the air hoses and we’re able to fog the car quickly,” said co-owner Sebastian Monte.