Full and self-serve car wash, gas station fills market niche

When Clint Norman was selling wash passes at the Exploits Valley Mall before Christmas for his new business - a combination gas bar and car wash called The Car Spa - some confused people stopped by

"We were set in the mall for five days and people seemed to think that we had something to do with the SPCA," he said. "I guess they saw the letters and figured we were connected with that."

The Alberta native, who married a Little Burnt Bay woman, recently moved back to Newfoundland with his wife Paula.

The couple decided that they would open a business in Grand Falls-Windsor and decided on a gas station - not an unusual choice, but the twist, that Mr. Norman added, was to make it a car wash as well, one where you could either wash your vehicle or have an attendant do it in one of the four bays in the building on Hardy Avenue.

The car wash opened Jan. 2, in the middle of a snow storm - an unlikely time of year when you'd expect a flood of customers - but the businesses' first day was quite the opposite.

"We were selling wash passes and had a very good response and did very well with it," he said. "But we've sold more in the last two days than we did at the mall."

With the passes, the customer can buy either one good for a month, or one for a year, each good for unlimited washes and three cents off per litre of gas.

There are four bays, including three for cars and pick up trucks and one bay for semis, big rigs and highway tractors, The customer will drive around the back of the building, hit a button, drive in and an attendant will wash the car if the person chooses full-service wash.

"We already had a snowplow in and a tractor trailer," said Mr. Norman.

There are also two vacuum cleaners so customers can clean their vehicles.

The business has four gas pumps; Mr. Norman sells Western Petroleum, because, he said, it's Newfoundland-owned.

The owner explained one of his motivations for the nature of the business was that there were not very many car wash businesses in the province, unlike on the mainland.

"Where I grew up, in a town of 10,000, we had five washes. We picked Grand Falls-Windsor because they have a population of 16,000 and (only) two car washes.

"People can wash their vehicle themselves or we'll do it. But it's especially good for the senior citizens. Seniors and professional women and men don't want to get out of the cars and pump gas and wash cars so we're going to bring that full service back and focus on the service part of the business where it's been lacking for the last 20 years."

The Car Spa will also soon have a coffee bar and freshly baked goods in addition to the other items it already has, such as milk, juices, soft drinks and some muffins and sandwiches.