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A person would be hard pressed to find a more picturesque location for a carwash than Idaho  Falls, Idaho. Just 100 miles from Yellowstone National Park, Idaho Falls is best know for its semi-arid, alpine climate and beautiful waterfalls. The city, with a population of more than 50,000, is also a regional center for shopping, medical care and education.
Carwash operator Scott Gray owns four Soapy’s Auto Wash locations in Idaho Falls. Gray, a member of the Western Carwash Association’s (WCA) board of directors, entered the carwash business in 1994 after he and his brothers sold the family’s tire store. Unlike running a tire store, the carwash business did not involve lots of inventory or accounts receivable to worry about. That was one of the main reasons Gray was drawn to the industry. Knowing next to nothing about carwashing, he was able to learn the ropes by joining the WCA and the International Carwash Association, attending their annual conventions and talking with seasoned operators.
“I was completely green,” he says. “I started from scratch.” Gray built his first carwash on a half-acre property next door to one of the family’s tire stores. In 1995, he bought a run-down carwash that had been closed for years and refurbished it. In 1998, he built his third location, and five years later he built his fourth site.
Three of the locations have four self-serve bays and two in-bay automatics. The refurbished site has two self-serve bays and one automatic. Gray says he would recommend at least two in-bay automatics for every self-serve carwash.
“Two automatics—that’s the only way I would do it now, just because there’s such an investment in land and construction that you need the throughput. And if you’re going to put in water softeners, etc. for one automatic, you might as well put in two automatics,” he says.
All of Soapy’s touchless in-bay automatics and self-serve equipment are by Ryko Manufacturing...........More
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