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This is a big thing in the UK, too. The official narrative here is modern slavery with undocumented migrants. It's the same with sex work, with which is harder
by Antip0dean 3y ago
This is a big thing in the UK, too. The official narrative here is modern slavery with undocumented migrants. It's the same with sex work, with which is harder to separate between conservative propaganda and reality.
I expect the main difference between the US and UK versions are that the latter are typically set up in disused urban plots with pop-up tents and temporary chain-link fences rather than having any investment.
Either way, if you're getting 3-5 people washing your car for a tenner, the people you're handing you money to are probably receiving minimal pennies on the dollar.
- hermitcrab 3y agoI've often wondered how legit those 'hand car washes' are. Legit or not, I'm sure it is hard work for crappy money.
- hobobaggins 3y agoThey're legit, and they make big tips when they work hard.
- jzb 3y agos/they work hard/somebody decides to tip which may or may not reflect any effort the worker put in because some people just don’t tip and depending on tips is a shitty way to scrape by/
- tashoecraft 3y agoI have worked as a tipped employee, and I have never heard a tipped employee say “wow that table/person didn’t tip much, I should have worked harder”
- hermitcrab 3y agoThe comment I was referring to was talking about the UK, where we don't have a tipping culture in the same way the US does. >They're legit It is hard to know whethr they are working legally.
- hobobaggins 3y agoOh, I thought you were talking about the establishments themselves, sorry!
- globular-toast 3y agoI can confirm they wash your car if you pay them to. Is that legit enough?
- hermitcrab 3y agoI was referring to the parent comment "The official narrative here is modern slavery with undocumented migrants". Some of the people working in these hand car washes may not have the legal right to work in the UK, which makes them ripe for exploitation.
- gotoeleven 3y agoSorry it's conservative propaganda that illegal immigrants will work for very low wages at crappy jobs?
- NegativeLatency 3y ago> It's the same with sex work, with which is harder to separate between conservative propaganda and reality. No?
- hermitcrab 3y agoI volunteer at a refugee charity. In my experience people given the right to stay will take whatever work they can get, which is often crappy work at low wages due to lack of transferable skills and/or English (e.g. security guard).
- notso411 3y ago[dead]
- d0gsg0w00f 3y agoI think this article is referencing the common trend of drive through automated washes which would make sense if large investors are in the picture. The big automated ones are pushy with their subscriptions which the article also talks about. These big wash machines are typically staffed by only 2 or 3 people hence the complaints that they don't even create jobs. That being said, I wish there were more automated washes near me. We find ourselves making excuses to drive by the one we pay a subscription for.
- wholinator2 3y agoI couldn't imagine ever paying a subscription to a car wash! I barely even pay for Spotify, how often do you go? And how often would you go if you weren't paying a subscription?
- to11mtm 3y agoDepends... Reputable shops I more often see do something more like a 'Prepaid' discount where you get X washes (maybe in the next Y months) for Z dollars, and ideally it's something like you get one wash a month at a 10-20 percent discount. The profit-gouging ones, either do a 'assume 3-4 washes a month to see real benefit' or assume you are washing once a week in their sub... or do all the other 'tricks' above schemes can allow.
- eurleif 3y agoIt can make sense if you don't have a garage, and there's a lot of pollen and whatnot where you park. If I don't wash my car ~twice a week, it ends up looking pretty funky.
- d0gsg0w00f 3y agoI need to wash my cars at least once a week or they get filthy.
- callalex 3y agoI just don’t understand this attitude. Cars live outside, of course they will have a little dirt on them! Do you wash your house every week as well?
- to11mtm 3y agoIn my specific region of the US, you're more likely to see something between a small 'automated' facility where your car is pulled along a sort of 'assembly line'[0][1] or a somewhat larger 'DIY' car wash where you might have to do your own start stopping or are practically given a squeegee cleaner, some colo(u)red water that may or may not have cleaner, a mounted pedistal shop vac of some sort, and a race against the clock based on how many quarters you put in. Or, sometimes a combination of the two. The setups for the DIY shops are usually fairly cheap IMO (Just looking at what's going on at them and the BOM) and the main thing outside of market saturation is having a good ingress/egress setup (If one sucks to get in and out of, folks won't come back.) That's not to say that there aren't hand car washes as well, however I only tend to see those where I grew up (not too far from here, mind you,) or when it is some sort of school/church/etc fundraiser. The weird thing you can run into in some cases, even at the automated shops though, is either weird 'implied consent' about extras by folks on one end or another of the line, or in the case of any of them, 'memberships' that are priced to where you'd really be following that 'one wash a week' rule to get your money's worth. [0] - Often with a warning that they are not responsible for damage to vehicles older than X years and/or with more than Y miles [1] - These can be surprisingly small, to the point some gas stations have one on the side and a purchase gives a 5/10c discount per gallon. Which, to the general point of 'pennies on the dollar' they made money on long term.
- seoulmetro 3y agoYep the only way you're getting your car manually washed in Australia is by foreigners or teens. Most casual work was done by teens and middle aged women through history but now it's mostly foreigners. Anything done by citizens attracts huge markups.