Price increase 2024 Letter from mint eco ceo
May 2024
Dear Mint Eco Car Wash Customers,
As many of you are aware, one of our cultural pillars is: Consistent, Honest, and Clear Communication. While communicating good news is important, communicating difficult news is even more important. Therefore, I am writing today to communicate price changes we will be implementing on May 30, 2024, and to clearly explain the reason for these changes (a communication protocol that has been our practice since Mint Eco Car Wash was founded in 2019).
As background, we have two internal goals with our prices: (1) price at or below “market”, and (2) keep up with inflationary cost increases.
Inflation
Over the last several years, we have all endured extraordinary inflation. The chart below shows the Consumer Price Index (“Inflation”) for 2022, 2023 and year-to-date expectations for 2024. The chart also shows the compounded impact of inflation for the prior twelve months (the period since we last raised Club Member and Detail prices (Summer 2023)), as well as the prior 24 months (the period of time since we last raised Retail Wash and Interior prices (Summer 2022)).
In addition to CPI Inflation impacts, the State of Florida’s minimum wage law has changed materially since 2021. The majority of our workforce are hourly employees. While our employees receive materially higher compensation than minimum wage, we have generally tracked the minimum wage increases across our hourly workforce.
The impact of CPI Inflation and the additional impact from Florida’s Minimum Wage Law has increased our expenses well above CPI Inflation (over 50% of our expenses are labor). We estimate that our true cost increase (CPI Inflation plus the additional State minimum wage impact on labor) was approximately:
Mint Eco Cost Increase Prior 12 Months: 6.6%
Mint Eco Cost Increase Prior 24 Months: 17.6%
Price Increase
The chart below details all elements of our price changes for May 30, 2024:
Club Member Prices increase $2/Month (except for our new “Mint Wash”: no increase since the product was launched in January of 2024). These changes keep our prices at or below market and allow us to keep up with our cost increases over the last 12 months (the period since we last raised Club prices).
In addition to the price changes detailed in the chart below, we will begin to charge Sales Tax on Retail and Detail transactions commencing on May 30, 2024. Sales Tax is currently 7.0%. This change does not impact Club Member Prices or Interior Service Prices.
In conclusion, we believe that our new prices accomplish our goals of: (1) price at or below market, and (2) keep up with inflationary cost increases.
Thank you for your continued loyalty. We look forward to a future with more normalized inflation and price increases. If you have any questions or comments, please contact me directly at geoff.jervis@mintecocarwash.com.
Sincerely,
Geoffrey Jervis
Co-Founder & CEO