7 Flags Car Wash Banks on First Impressions

“We’ll do whatever we can to get the core group as many hours as possible,” he says.

Industry Leadership

Anthony is modest when it comes to talking about leading the industry, but will say that he knows a good idea when he sees one.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Anthonys were responsible for introducing the sudsy brush to the industry, which was a precursor to the foam brush.

“It’s not the foam brush we know today, but it was soapy water coming out of the brush,” Anthony says.

Anthony spoke about the brush at a number of conventions and then worked with Andel Development, which eventually introduced the foam brush. Andel developed the foam generator, which produces the foam that comes through the brush. The combination of the generator, the brush and putting in more high-performance pumps helped the carwash industry a great deal, Anthony says.

“It encouraged more customers,” he says, “because they were able to get more done.”

The technology offered customers a deeper clean. The self-serve options during the 1960s, Anthony says, were limited to a 500 psi to 600 psi wash with soap and rinse and a separate meter for wax. Cars could be wet down and the heavy stuff removed, but the road film often remained.

“It was a challenge for us to help customers clean their cars,” Anthony says. “Until the high-pressure came out, and the foam brush came out, and the better chemicals came out, the self-serve carwash really couldn’t clean a car [thoroughly].”

Not every innovation went off without a hitch, though. In the late 1980s, Anthony struggled to take advantage of the express exterior concept. Customers were given a token before going through the tunnel and, as they exited, could make a U-turn to leave or make a left turn to use the self-serve vacuums.

“We gave them the token,” Anthony says. “They could vacuum for free. But people said they wanted the inside done; they wanted full service.”

Growth was practically demanded by Anthony’s customers, he says. The Fairfield carwash location has been remodeled six or seven times since the first express carwash attempt. Anthony says the company added vacuums, then added more vacuums, then added a trellis and then a bigger trellis to do interior cleaning. Then it added a coffee shop, replaced several self-serve bays with a quick lube, and converted its remaining self-serve bays into a detail shop.

Anthony is also one to capitalize on market trends. In the late 1990s, customers wanted touchless carwashing so the Fairfield location underwent another renovation that involved removing the original Hannah cloth equipment and installing a touch-free system.

“I thought this was what consumers wanted, but after three years of pulling my hair out, I started putting touch equipment back in,” Anthony says. “We could not get a clean car consistently. This carwash was built as an exterior wash and now we were doing primarily full service, and it was difficult to get the cars from the exit end back to the entrance to the conveyor to rewash them.

“It actually had a negative impact on our volume because customers would drive out and we couldn’t rinse all the wash product off and you’d get the run-me-downs where you’d get some product that was still in the moldings and you’d see streaks. It was very frustrating,” he recalls.

So Anthony remodeled. Again. And, two years ago, 7 Flags decided to “really focus on the express exterior concept.” The company installed automatic roller-up equipment so there was minimal to no prepping, added