The City of Houston has many mobile car wash companies in parking lots all around town. Originally it started out in large parking lots and automotive businesses and then moved into the Galleria Mall. The Galleria Mall locations used little plastic carts with steam type units, but local car washes complained because they said they polluted waste wash water, which would eventually be washed into the storm drains; like Houston cares with all their East Side Industry? Nevertheless the code enforcement shut down the operations temporarily and later the car washes came back when they complied. Obviously some folks figured out that there was no pollution and they worked out a reclaim deal. All around Houston there are parking lot car wash concessions at Large Retail Box Stores and Gyms, even tents at Oil Change Companies, etc. This is typical in large cities and on-site car washes without the huge facilities. We see this in many large cities in America and many people find employment washing cars this way. Unfortunately some operators hire illegal aliens and this is very problematic as well. Of course in the car wash Industry that is somewhat typical. On-site car washing is very popular in the Houston Market for many reasons and there are 5.5 million people in the greater Houston Area with an average of 1.16 cars per person, so perhaps you will consider this in 2006. |
