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Changing Hawaii
THERE aren't many businesses in Hawaii that are so popular -- a long but patient line of cars will form just to get into its driveway -- especially when head-on competitors are located right next door and within the general vicinity. McKinley Car Wash
has good karmaBut that's often the case at McKinley Car Wash on busy Kapiolani Boulevard, especially on Fridays and weekends, and even more so in the waning days of December.
Oahu motorists who wish to welcome in the new year with clean vehicles and full tanks of fuel have been steering into the popular gas dealership/car-wash facility owned by the Yoshikawa clan since the 1950s.
It's named after the venerable high school directly across the street. The Chevron service station's customers are so loyal they kept turning into its lot in 2000 even when:
Despite such roadblocks, Vice President/Manager Craig Yoshikawa is still revved up by McKinley's financials in 2000. Revenues were $5.3 million, up from $5.1 million in 1999 (although profits were down by 15 percent).Local gasoline prices surpassed the $2-per-gallon mark.
It also continues to lead the nation in car-wash volume. McKinley suds and shines about 220,000 vehicles annually at an individual charge of $5.50 (with fill-up) and $6.75 (wash only), while its mainland counterpart averages 60,000 cars per year at nine to 10 bucks a pop, estimates Yoshikawa.
What's McKinley's secret? Family members are too humble to admit it, but its driving force is good service.
It's hard not to be impressed when customers spot 41-year-old Yoshikawa, his 75-year-old father Yukio and 78-year-old uncle Tsuneo toweling dry autos and pumping gas right alongside their 70 full-time workers.
When customers see the owners toiling six to seven days a week, over 12 hours a day, it's tough to forsake them -- even when confronted with an eye-opening inconvenience from Aug. 9 to Oct. 12 of last year.
THAT'S when the Department of Health told McKinley to stop using three of its four underground storage tanks because they weren't in compliance with recently enacted state laws. This meant it could only offer one grade, supreme, which was then going for over $2 a gallon. Yikes!
For almost any other service station on Oahu, that mandate could have put the brakes on business permanently. Luckily for McKinley, about 52 percent of its clientele (including the town's biggest wheels) usually bought top of the line anyway.
Those who usually opted for regular or plus grades either shelled out for supreme, or came in for washes only, in an accelerating show of public support.
After two months, when the $200,000 state-of-the-art storage tank replacements were ready for use, McKinley Car Wash hadn't lost any business, which simply astounded its supplier.
But not anyone who regularly stops there. Call it good car-ma.
Diane Yukihiro Chang's column runs Monday and Friday.
She can be reached by phone at 525-8607, via e-mail at
dchang@starbulletin.com, or by fax at 523-7863.