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AAA Car Care Plus in Sacramento California While we were in Sacramento we visited American Automobile Association or AAA and their latest "Car Care Plus" concept. This is a proto-type store and training facility.
This location is right next door to the place you have to go to pay traffic fines in Sacramento (California's State Capitol). Notice there are no cars in line to be washed. Also there are no cars being washed.
The four employees were all inside the wash sitting down to stay out of the heat. The location, street frontage, and signage should have been thought out a bit more carefully but the building is quite nice.
As the signage depicts this is an all in one facility center (car wash, diagnostic, repair, and oil change). With AAA having 4 million members in California, if they can perfect their concept for the all in one service center, they will be a strong player in the market. We were only able to list 86 changes we believe necessary for this to become a world class facility. Click here to read the article.
This 10,000 plus square foot facility is the size of a large corporate fractional jet company hanger, with polished concrete floors. It is a combination tilt-up and steel structure.
With a total of 18 bays, technicians are able to carefully work on cars belonging to AAA members, while being trained. They also offered paint chip repair by "Pro Colors" showing that co-branding opportunities are even available with the largest companies.
Also inside was a Hertz Rent-a-Car, again co-branding is good for the customer and affords opportunities to companies of all sizes. This Hertz location of course is really going to have to make certain they give the AAA member his/her discount. At this location if you choose not to rent a car AAA has a shuttle service to take you to your home or office while your car is being serviced.
AAA did not stop there though. They also have a coffee shop "Java Makers". This is a definite draw for clients. In the right market this concept could make AAA the ultimate competitor.
AAA did much research and even followed suit with our kids play area concept. Ours can be viewed by clicking here. It seems many companies and car washes are
utilizing this idea. This is great for kids and we salute AAA for their vision to lift the
image of our industry. |
