Galveston's Other Hidden Treasure
Operator talks about his newest carwashing venture

Galveston, Texas, is known for many things. The pirate Jean Lafitte settled on the island in 1817 and made it his base of operation for four years. Many believe there is treasure buried somewhere on the island. The city is the richest in Texas, often deemed, "The Wall Street of the Southwest." It was also the site of the worst natural disaster in history. One lesser-known fact about the city, however, is that it is home to some of the best self-serve carwashes in the country. With their bright colors, spacious grounds and stellar landscaping, the self-serves operated by Randy Coleman and his partners, Al and Buster Fichera, are sure to be noticed by locals and visitors alike.

Last January, the team opened up its newest site, Big State Car Wash, a five-bay self-serve with three touchfree automatics. Modern Car Care spoke with Coleman about his experience in the carwashing industry and this most recent development.

MCC: When did you first become interested in carwashing?

Coleman: I was born in carwashing. My father started in the carwash business 36 years ago, so I was raised in the business. I worked for my father when I was younger and then came to work in manu-facturing. I bought my first carwash 22 years ago. Ever since, I have been an owner and operator. I have owned as many as eight locations. I am now operating five locations. For quite a number of years I was strictly self-service. In the last four years, I have had automatics.

MCC: How did you become partners with Al and Buster Fichera, and what are their backgrounds?

Coleman: Back when they were boys they operated a service station with their father. When they grew up, they got out of the service-station business and into construction. I hired them to do construction on a site 10 years ago. That is where the relationship started.

MCC: Your carwashes have a very unique appearance. How did you go about planning the sites and what were you going for?

Coleman: Planning the sites came with the experience of being around carwashes for the last 30 years and seeing sites laid out many different ways across the U.S. I have tried to create a theme or an atmosphere in my washes using color, landscaping and lighting to create a safe and clean environment to wash a car.

I put my vacuum cleaners along the street frontage in order to make them visible to passing customers and for added security and night business. With the vacuums positioned this way, I see considerably more use, especially in the evenings.

Most importantly, I designed the carwash to attract female customers. Women are probably 60 percent of our overall volume.

MCC: Describe the area in which the new site is located.

Coleman: Galveston has a lot of history. It was settled by the Akokisa Indian tribe. The pirate Jean Lafitte lived on the island for a number of years. Galveston Island was actually a cotton port for the country. Through the port of Galveston, different companies and families made quite a bit of money. You see different mansions built around Galveston, many of them built 150 years ago. The area we built in is in between one block that is a historical preservation area and one block that is commercial. The carwash site was an old Chevron station.

MCC: Are a lot of your customers out-of-towners?

Coleman: Yes, I would say they make up 30 percent of my annual trade. Fifty percent is out-of-towners during the summer, which is the high season for tourism.

MCC: What year did you begin using the golden dollar and how has it been working for you?

Coleman: I have been on it for several years--since it came out. I converted a number of carwashes over to the dollar coin. The newest carwash opened in January as a dollar-coin-only site.

I think the dollar coin is great. I think the average spending per customer is higher, especially when it comes to $3 vended items such as shampoo. Customers are only putting in three coins instead of 12 quarters. I think the customers like the dollar coin. It is easier to work with. I have a $2 turn on in the bays. I haven't had any complaints from any customers.

MCC: Do you ever feel restricted in pricing by accepting only dollar coins?

Coleman: I think you have to find out what the average turn-on price is for services in your area. In our market area, I would say the average turn-on price in the bays is $1.25 to $1.50. So I have a higher turn-on price being on the dollar coin. And the average turn-on price for vacuums is 75 cents. So I am on top of the scale. It is not unusual in the carwash industry to see turn-on prices stay at a certain level for a fairly long period of time. You see more time adjustment than price changing. So I could actually, on a vacuum, adjust the number of minutes without going up to $1.25 or $2.

MCC: How has accepting credit cards affected business?

Coleman: We have seen about 15 to 20 percent of customers use credit cards. And we see that when customers are using their credit cards, the average expenditure is higher than it would be in cash. A normal cash customer would spend somewhere around $5 or $6. A credit card customer is more likely to spend $8 or $9. I have credit- card acceptors at three of my sites.

MCC: Do you have any future development plans?

Coleman: Yes, I would like to continue to develop new carwash sites and expand real estate holdings. Quite a number of oil company sites have become available to be torn down and used for non-petroleum sales. I bought several sites from oil comp-anies and am doing two more sites right now.

MCC: How have you seen the industry change over the years?

Coleman: Credit-card acceptance is more common, and larger facilities are being built. In the earlier years, a lot of people who were building carwashes looked at them as more of a temporary business. They would plan to build a carwash, operate it for eight to 10 years and then, for whatever reason, change businesses. Today you are seeing people come in and spend considerably more money on quality of construction and location and view it as a long-term business rather than short-term.

MCC: How do you feel about the carwash industry?

Coleman: I have grown up in the carwash industry and love the business. I can't imagine being involved in any other industry. The carwash industry offers a lot of diversification between land development, long-term real estate holdings and income potential.

MCC: What is your secret to success?

Coleman: Teamwork. I utilize the talents, experience and recommendations of those around me to achieve the goals of the partnership. The carwash has been very successful, and I have happy customers that return to my wash on a regular basis.

Big State Car Wash

Size of lot and buildings:
Land: 25,680 sq. ft.
Lot: 214 ft. by 120 ft.
Automatic bays: 40 ft. length
Self-Service bays: 24 ft. length

Services offered:
3 automatic touchfree carwashes
5 self-service bays with 9 in-bay sellable services
6 vacuum/fragrance machines
5 vacuum/carpet shampoo machines
15 selected vending machines
4 bill changers

Prices of services:
Automatic bay: $7, $6, $5 and $4
Self-service bay: $2 turn on for 4 min.

Vac/fragrance units:
Vac: $1 for 3 min.
Fragrance: $1 for 45 sec.
Vac/Shampooer units:
Vac: $1 for 4 min.
Shampooer: $3 for 7 min.

Number of cars served per month:
Approximately 7,600

Awards:
1996 Car Wash of the Year
Sparkle Car Washes of Texas
1998 ICA Maxi Award
For Print Media and Advertising
1999 Galveston Chamber of Commerce Award
Business Development Award
1999 Top 25 Family-Owned Businesses
Houston Business Journal

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