Consumer Escapes - The Car Wash

In our smz E-scape research one of the global findings about consumer escapes is that there's a clear "before and after." For example: I was stressed, went on vacation, and came home decompressed. Or, I was time-starved, took a day without responsibilities, and felt reenergized.

I found an interesting escape this morning.  I ventured out to local car wash chain, Jax Kar Wash. Jax is an old-school car wash operation where you get out of the car and watch it go through the wash line. Your car goes in dirty and comes out clean. A classic before-and-after. But it got better than that for my filthy 7 year-old car. At the end of the line a pit crew-like team descended on my car drying, buffing, spraying and coddling. Now my car windows and mirrors are invisible, the wheels and tires shine, and the interior is spotless. Jax claims "a clean car rides better." I believe that is an extremely accurate insight.

One other finding in our research study was that 8% of adults identified spa time as the ideal in escape relaxation and refreshment.  This morning my car went into a spa and in the process I came out relaxed and refreshed.