Florence Car Wash Market Analysis
Florence, SC
Data updated · June 9, 2026
8,048 Google reviews across 124 car washes in 2 Florence counties. Format mix, operator rank, county breakdown, rating vs. income, aspect-level customer signals.
Snapshot
- Locations
- 124
- 89% independent
- Chains
- 8
- lead: Scrubby's Car Wash (3 sites)
- Avg rating
- 4.48★
- +0.07 vs national MSA median
- Damage rate
- 1.4%
- near national MSA norm
- Cancel friction
- 16.5%
- Top format
- express tunnel
- 54% of classified inventory
Market Quality snapshot
- Population
- 199,675
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Households
- 77,596
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Residents per wash
- 1,610
- 1.2× denser than the national MSA median
- Express tunnels per 10K households
- 0.9
- in the 0.5–1.0 filling band · classified sites
Key findings
- 124 car wash locations operated by 8 chains and 110 independents across 2 counties.
- Weighted Google rating 4.48★ across the market; structural concentration and format mix sit near US-metro norms.
- Built from 8,048 Google reviews, 1,848 of them AI-extracted across 55 dimensions.
124 car wash locations across 2 counties · dots colored by format · sized by review volume
Tracked at 124 car wash locations, Florence matches the structural profile of the typical US metro of comparable size. 124 locations across 8 chains and 110 independents, distributed across 2 counties. Distinctive patterns show up below at the format and aspect levels.
Headline numbers sit near US-metro norms: rating 4.48★, damage 1.4%, cancel friction 16.5%. Staff strong (0.88); equipment reliability weak (-0.41). 8,048 Google reviews drive the analysis, 1,848 of them processed through the WashIndex LLM extractor.
See the top car wash chains in Florence
Ranked by location count in the metro
The car wash industry in the Florence metro, officially
the Florence metro has 13 car-wash employer establishments employing about 194 people, at a $28,968 average annual wage.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, QCEW (private, NAICS 811192). Counts car-wash employer establishments, a narrower universe than all physical wash locations — see methodology.
About the Florence car wash market
How many car washes are in the Florence metro?
+
What is the best-rated car wash in the Florence metro?
+
Which car wash chain has the most locations in Florence?
+
What is the average customer rating in the Florence car wash market?
+
What is the typical household income near car washes in Florence?
+
What kinds of car washes does Florence have?
The table below lists every operating format we classify, with locations, reviews, average rating, damage rate, and membership-cancel friction broken out per format. Florence's mix sits close to the US-metro median shape.
Highest-rated format: Express Tunnel at 4.64★ across 7 locations. Lowest-rated: Full Service at 3.99★ (2 locations).
| Format | Locations | % of MSA | Reviews | Avg Rating | Damage Rate | Cancel Friction |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Express Tunnel | 7 | 5.6% | 5,033 | 4.64 | 1.33% | 16.7% |
| In-Bay Automatic | 3 | 2.4% | 139 | 4.33 | 0.00% | — |
| Full Service | 2 | 1.6% | 858 | 3.99 | 2.76% | — |
| Detail Shop | 1 | 0.8% | 10 | 5.00 | 0.00% | — |
What is the household income near Florence car washes?
Each ZIP in Florence is joined to IRS Statistics-of-Income (tax year 2022) and to the per-location Google rating dataset. The scatter below sizes dots by review volume and colors them by format.
Pearson r between ZIP income and Google rating across 40 qualifying locations: -0.10 — effectively zero. Operating quality dominates over neighborhood income. Scatter mean: $68K AGI/return, 4.18★.
Car wash count and quality by income tier
Blue bars: location count per tier. Orange tick marks: average Google rating (same y-axis).
| Income tier (mean AGI/return) | ZIPs | Locations | Reviews | Avg Rating | Top Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under $50K | 4 | 22 | 1,771 | 4.83 | Full Service (1) |
| $50K – $75K | 8 | 30 | 1,696 | 4.23 | Express Tunnel (2) |
| $75K – $100K | 2 | 23 | 4,127 | 4.38 | Express Tunnel (4) |
| $100K – $150K | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | — |
| $150K+ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | — |
Top-tier 0 sites, 0.00★ avg; bottom-tier 22 sites, 4.83★. Across Florence's 40 qualifying locations, the income gradient correlates only weakly with rating — operator execution dominates.
Who operates the most Florence car washes?
8 chains run sites in Florence; the top 25 are listed below by location count, with their per-chain operating-quality numbers next to them. Useful for narrowing competitive-set considerations or for M&A evaluation.
| # | Chain | Locations | Reviews | Avg Rating | Damage | Cancel | Upsell |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Scrubby's Car Wash | 3 | 573 | 4.43 | 2.63% | — | 0.00% |
| 2 | bp | 3 | 139 | 4.33 | — | — | — |
| 3 | Tidal Wave Auto Spa | Car Wash | 2 | 1,915 | 4.35 | 2.38% | — | 0.40% |
| 4 | Shell | 2 | 150 | 4.10 | — | — | — |
| 5 | Mr. Clean Car Wash | 1 | 32 | 3.70 | — | — | — |
| 6 | Blue Beacon | 1 | 826 | 4.00 | 2.76% | — | 0.69% |
| 7 | Caliber Car Wash | 1 | 1,107 | 4.90 | 0.63% | 9.7% | 0.31% |
| 8 | ModWash | 1 | 1,438 | 4.90 | 0.74% | — | 0.25% |
Which counties have the most car washes in Florence?
The table below splits the metro's car wash inventory across the 2 counties of the Florence, SC CBSA, with location count, total reviews, and weighted-average rating per county.
Cross-county rating dispersion: 0.37★ between the highest- and lowest-rated counties with meaningful sample size.
| County | Locations | % of MSA | Reviews | Avg Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Florence County | 83 | 66.9% | 6,016 | 4.38 |
| Darlington County | 42 | 33.9% | 2,032 | 4.76 |
What do customers love and complain about in Florence?
Seven aspects, 1,848 reviews, 124 locations. The grid below gives a quick read on which dimensions of the experience Florence's car wash market does well at and which generate friction.
Where are all the car washes in the Florence metro?
Top 25 car washes by review volume in Florence. The full set of 124 is available in the underlying dataset.
| Location | City | Format | Chain | Rating | Reviews | ZIP AGI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ModWash 1457 S Main St | Darlington, SC | Express Tunnel | ModWash | 4.9 | 1,438 | $48K |
| Caliber Car Wash 110 N Beltline Dr | Florence, SC | Express Tunnel | Caliber Car Wash | 4.9 | 1,107 | $90K |
| Tidal Wave Auto Spa | Car Wash 2139 W Palmetto St | Florence, SC | Express Tunnel | Tidal Wave Auto Spa | Car Wash | 4.4 | 1,015 | $90K |
| Tidal Wave Auto Spa | Car Wash 1501 S Irby St | Florence, SC | Express Tunnel | Tidal Wave Auto Spa | Car Wash | 4.3 | 900 | $61K |
| Blue Beacon Truck Wash of Florence, SC 3003 TV Rd I-95 Exit 169 | Florence, SC | Full Service | Blue Beacon | 4.0 | 826 | $90K |
| Spark a Shine Mobile car detail | , SC | — | — | 5.0 | 274 | — |
| Scrubby's Car Wash 1111 S Fourth St | Hartsville, SC | Express Tunnel | Scrubby's Car Wash | 4.5 | 225 | $62K |
| Scrubby's Car Wash 631 N Cashua Dr | Florence, SC | Express Tunnel | Scrubby's Car Wash | 4.2 | 193 | $90K |
| Classic Collision 1450 W Darlington St | Florence, SC | — | — | 4.3 | 183 | $90K |
| Car Wash Florence/ The Laundromutt of Florence 1900 Pamplico Hwy | Florence, SC | — | — | 4.2 | 177 | $61K |
| Scrubby's Car Wash 2480 Hoffmeyer Rd | Florence, SC | Express Tunnel | Scrubby's Car Wash | 4.6 | 155 | $90K |
| Flamingo Car Wash 1608 W Palmetto St | Florence, SC | — | — | 4.1 | 123 | $90K |
| Ride-n-Shine Car Wash 454 W Palmetto St | Florence, SC | — | — | 4.3 | 113 | $90K |
| Shell 3102 Hoffmeyer Rd | Florence, SC | — | Shell | 4.1 | 108 | $90K |
| Eva Car Solutions 222 S Fifth St | Hartsville, SC | — | — | 4.7 | 96 | $62K |
| Crystal Clear Car Wash 2224 Hoffmeyer Rd | Florence, SC | — | — | 3.0 | 90 | $90K |
| bp 721 E Smith St | Timmonsville, SC | In-Bay Automatic | bp | 4.3 | 84 | $52K |
| Clean & Smooth Mobile Car Wash 2307 E Palmetto St | Florence, SC | — | — | 4.7 | 82 | $43K |
| Car Wash 657 N Cashua Dr | Florence, SC | — | — | 3.7 | 79 | $90K |
| K&A Mobile Detailing & Pressure Washing 628 State Rd S-21-351 | Florence, SC | — | — | 4.9 | 70 | $43K |
| Touch Free Car Wash 616 N Fifth St | Hartsville, SC | — | — | 3.0 | 60 | $62K |
| bp 3200 Pine Needles Rd | Florence, SC | In-Bay Automatic | bp | 4.4 | 42 | $90K |
| Shell 1415 S Cashua Dr | Florence, SC | — | Shell | 4.1 | 42 | $90K |
| Lyrics Mobile Detailing and Cleaning Services LLC | , SC | — | — | 5.0 | 33 | — |
| Car Wash 2711 S Irby St | Florence, SC | — | — | 3.1 | 33 | $61K |
Compare Florence to other SC car wash markets
Each link drills into a full per-metro analysis — operator concentration, format mix, and customer-experience signals against the same methodology.
Data as of 2026-06-09. Pick a format and click Copy.
WashIndex. (2026, June 9). Florence car wash market analysis. https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/florence
WashIndex. "Florence car wash market analysis." WashIndex. Last modified June 9, 2026. https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/florence.
"Florence car wash market analysis." WashIndex, Jun. 9, 2026, https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/florence.
@misc{washindex_car_wash_markets_florence_2026,
title = {{Florence car wash market analysis}},
author = {{WashIndex}},
year = {2026},
month = {Jun},
url = {https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/florence},
urldate = {2026-06-09},
} About this analysis
Car wash inventory for the Florence, SC CBSA is determined by point-in-polygon test against the official US Census county boundaries (TIGER/Line, 2024) for the 2 counties that make up the MSA. Each location was verified to fall inside one of those county polygons; lat/lng comes from Google Maps metadata.
Operating-quality signals are derived from 1,848 customer reviews processed through WashIndex's 55-field LLM extraction pipeline. Format classification comes from a separate per-location website-reading classifier. ZIP-level income data is from the IRS Statistics of Income (tax year 2022) — mean Adjusted Gross Income per tax return, which is directionally aligned with ACS median household income but available without authentication.
See our full methodology for the extraction pipeline, validation samples, and aggregation logic. Term definitions in the glossary.
Machine-readable: JSON ↓ · API root
Free tools: ROI calculator · site opportunity · investment guide