As the Quad Cities sees big growth in the car-wash business (including the national brands Mister and Club Car Wash), do we really need another brand and three new locations?
Silverstar Car Wash, one of the nation’s fastest-growing brands, will aggressively expand its Midwestern footprint when it opens its first car wash in the Quad Cities this week.
Team Silverstar has hired new members to staff its first location and training is well underway at306 Avenue of the Cities in East Moline, to have its soft opening Thursday, June 27 and grand opening the next day. It’s at the intersection with Kennedy Drive.
“Drivers across the Midwest know Silverstar for the nation’s best car wash experience. And we’re excited to bring that to the Quad Cities,” says Marty Donat, Grand Opening Manager with Silverstar Car Wash. “It’s our mission to be the first-choice car wash in every market we serve by providing a consistent experience and bettering our employees and the community.”
Silverstar will host a ribbon cutting at 12 p.m. on Friday, June 28 with the Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce. Free lunch will be available starting at 11 a.m., while supplies last. Silverstar Car Wash will provide free car washes all weekend as part of the celebration.
Plus, Grand Opening attendees canenter to win tickets to see Ben Folds in concert at the Capitol Theatre in August.
In addition to free washes, new Unlimited Wash Pass members who sign up at the new location this weekend will enjoy special pricing: $10/month for the first four months of their membership.
Unlimited Wash Pass membershipsstart at $19.99 per month, and all membership levels include free vacuums, prep towels, mat cleaners, tire inflation stations, and windshield washer fluid stations. Members are able to use their Unlimited Wash Pass at any of Silverstar’s29 locations across the Midwest.
Silverstar Car Wash operates in South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Illinois offering Unlimited Wash Pass members access to a Silverstar wherever they live, work, and play.
Since opening its first location in Sioux Falls, S.D. in 2010, Silverstar Car Wash is known for providing drivers a quick, clean, convenient, quality car wash, the company said.
‘Desperate need’ for more
Donat said Wednesday they chose the QC area to expand because “it’s in desperate need of a few more car washes. It just hasn’t really been touched yet, to be fair comparatively speaking throughout the Midwest.”
The Silverstar brand is predominantly Midwest, so growing in the Midwest has been a longtime goal, he said. They have six locations in the Sioux City area; they’ll open new in Des Moines in about a month.
Silverstar plans to open new locations at 3011 Devils Glen Rd., Bettendorf, and 1914 N. Division St., Davenport, by mid-August, Donat said.
They pick locations based on traffic flow, the amount of residential and retail in the neighborhoods, and accessibility.
“A lot of it’s similar with hotels and restaurants – that’s why you see a lot of them congested in the same areas,” Donat said.
The new East Moline car wash is just a half mile from the Power Wash at 5302 Avenue of the Cities, Moline, which isn’t a problem for Silverstar.
“We have plenty of markets like that,” Donat said. “Where you get your loyalty is from your membership base. As we get membership built up, that’s where you create your loyalty.”
It also helps customers to give them multiple locations in an area. “We want to be able to give people three, four locations, where we can surround the area and make it easy for people to get their car washed,” he said. “Some of our competitors don’t do that.”
Competition is good, which either makes them better or stand out, Donat said.
Silverstar distinguishes itself in service and amenities, which are different than competitors, he said. They include windshield washing fluid stations, tire inflation, mat cleaners, vacuums, multi-surface cleaners, towel racks, and promotions.
The company has over 54,000 members among its 29 locations. It’s also opening two new ones this summer in the Des Moines metro area.
The Unlimited Wash Pass has five tiers, from about $20 a month to $43, based on number of applications, Donat said. “Bigger packages just do a better job on your vehicle.”
“You can go anywhere and get your car washed for $20; you buy one of our memberships for $40, you get it washed twice a month and it pays for itself,” he said.
“When you look at people’s investments, behind their house or life investments they have, their vehicle is one of their top two or three investments in life,” Donat said.
Why build more?
Why is there such a demand for more and more car washes?
“When you look at country-wide, there are a few parts of the country, like southern Texas, the Midwest, Charlotte, Atlanta, some of these are 25% touched in what the population can maintain in car washes,” Donat said. “A lot of people were nervous coming into the Midwest based on climate, not being able to maintain car washes.
“But we found some of our busiest times of the year are in winters,” he said. “Most car washes can be maintained with a population of 15,000 people.”
“What’s nice about the car wash business is we don’t go after each other; we don’t cut-throat each other,” Donat said. “We want us all to succeed, because that helps the growth of the whole business. It’s a trade-oriented business.”
A February 2024 Bloomberg.com story (“Why Are There Suddenly So Many Car Washes?”) said where neighbors might see an oversaturated, too-crowded market in U.S. car washes, investors see the beginning of a boom.
“From the Snow Belt to the Sunbelt, companies are scrambling to add locations and grab a piece of a $14 billion-plus industry,” the piece said, noting with 60,000 locations across the US, the car-wash business has been expanding at roughly 5% annually, with some forecasts predicting the market todouble by 2030.
More car washes were built in the last decade than all the preceding years combined.
Each Silverstar location averages 10-12 employees, including people who do front-end prep for vehicles going through the automated washes.
The hours will be 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week. For more information on Silverstar, click HERE.
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