What happens when you get your car washed in California over the Christmas holidays?
Just before Christmas I took our car, the inside full of German Shepard dog hair and the outside dirty, to the car wash in Capitola, CA. I bought the $25. Whole Enchilada (inside and out) selection.
A manager came over to say that, because the car has so much dog hair, that I needed to purchase a custom job which costs $70.
I replied, “No, the general manager has told me – and I have in writing – that I can come in any time and get this car vacuumed only for $7.00 Because I know that the car is dirty and I want the inside vinyl cleaned also, I want the $25. selection.”
The man then said, “Well, OK, but we have to charge you an extra $3 per mat….”
So what’s going on here? Haggle over the price. Get the customer in the door and then jack up the price and see if the customer caves. If they don’t cave then go with the listed prices. Having lived a number of years in Latin American countries this was was familiar territory. Price is a much more fluid thing in Mexico and elsewhere.
So, I said, “Look, you have prices listed up there on your signs. There is no sign that says someone is going to evaluate my car as to how hairy it is and then tell me what to pay. So, please just provide me the Whole Enchilada service. And yes, because I do what the inside very clean, I will pay an extra $6 for you to wash two mats.”
Next step: a smiling, very polite Hispanic man in his late 50’s — who only spoke Spanish — started to vacuum my car. As I speak Spanish I thanked him for his help. And, a number of times encouraged him to do a bit more saying in Spanish, “Oh, a little more work here….” As the cleaning of the inside is what I was most interested in so I hung around to make sure that the car was vacuumed to my satisfaction.
All I had to do was run my finger along the edges, pull out mounds of more hair and smile. The Hispanic Spanish speaking man, a hard worker, smiled back at me and kept on vacuuming.
Step three: The car, after going through an automatic washer, was rubbed down and wiped off by a team of three men. The three men doing this job spoke mostly Spanish and one spoke English to me. They were friendly, hard working and appeared to be age 30 to 45.
Listening to the cleaners talk amongst themselves I heard only Spanish spoken. The manager also spoke only Spanish to the workers.
My question: How likely is it that a locally born, White, 18 year kid looking for an entry level job who only speaks English will be offered a job at that car wash? Very unlikely. And, in all the times I have gotten my car cleaned at that car wash, the workers were all Hispanic, largely only Spanish speaking men of differing ages.
Think about the Big Issues: One is the huge cost of U.S. entitlement programs — including the cost of Social Security Disability. I know as a psychologist because I work with disabled persons that many people on SSI Disability could be employed for 3-5 hours a day with support to clean cars. We also have many U.S. citizens with low cognitive IQ abilities who also could do this work.
It’s time to put Americans to work doing what they can do. If a disabled American can do 2-5 hours work in an entry level job such as washing cars (with job supports in place) that is far better than a life looking at life through TV.
English should be the language spoken in the work place so that all American citizens can compete for beginning level jobs such as car washing.
