DUBUQUE, Iowa — Elmer Harter has owned University Car Wash Inc. for 35 years, and he said “this is probably the coldest winter that I have had,” according to station KWWL.
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University has self-serves and an automatic carwash. He said the self-serves have been the only thing running this week. “I’ve got an automatic over here and I haven’t even opened it up all week because the cold weather costs too much money to heat up the place and leave it on.”
While the cold weather can create interest in the carwash business, that hasn’t been the case for Harter’s business this year. “It’s been tough on business. It takes a lot of gas to heat the floors so they don’t freeze up. We also have to leave a lot of water on so it doesn’t freeze up and in the meantime there is just not enough business around.”
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Miracle Car Wash nearby has been suffering with the same thing this winter. “We have weeks where we are busy and we have weeks where we are slow, it just depends,” said David Polkinghorn, the assistant manager.
They both said they’d be happier to see things warm up in the upcoming months.
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