California Detailers Beware

What really sucks about this is that small businesses will be hurt. Walmart will still be selling Meguiars and Mothers. But will you be able to buy your favorite specialty product? It will cost too much to "certify" a lot of our favorite products. Even in a big market like Atlanta it is impossible to find many top notch products on the shelf. Pep Boys may carry a few more items than Walmart or Target, but let's face it they all carry the same products from the same companies. My worry is that all of the regulations will put some of the mail order & specialty companies out of business...



If you think I'm full of it think of this...how many butcher shops do you know of in your area? Or top notch bakeries? Kroger, Publix & Super Walmart are driving them all out of business.



Sorry to rant, but this has become my pet peeve I'm sick of all these chains - and I've sworn off Walmart for good...they've driven too many small businesses out of existence. Yeah you may save a buck on your laundry detergent, but try to find a USDA prime steak at Super Walmart!
 
Often in the public policy arena it is just incredibly difficult to police major violations due to special interests and the resources required to combat large industries. However, the small business or individual is incredibly easy to regulate soooo....
 
I am still waiting for a legimate reason why a shiny car or its tires are more important then the environment or waste using products that may be harmful in the long run to ourselves. Yes, this change may have only a small effect on environmental conditions and personal longevity, but each small change adds up eventually leads to a large impact or one less cancer patient.

We are already paying higher prices for our "elite" products from boutique businesses. What's another few dollars for environmental safe product that performs equally as well?

How did these boutique companies develop products that we crave over the so-call detailing giant's?

R&D



Please, all I am asking for is one non-self-centered reason. :nixweiss



Oh Yeah, we still have a butcher shop and fine bakery in my little town. Why do they thrive co-existing with Krogers, Walmart and Target.

Simple. We shop there. :wavey
 
Do you suppose this could be a contributing factor to Meg's distribution center being located outside California? After Jan. would Meg's detailing clinics not be allowed to show the use of some products, even if they are still available for sale/use in all other states in the US?



What could happen to a person with an old can of wax sitting forgotten on the shelf of their garage if they were "inspected"? How could one dispose of said can? Through "Hazzardous Waste Disposal Centers"?



Just wondering.
 
mtodde said:
What really sucks about this is that small businesses will be hurt. Walmart will still be selling Meguiars and Mothers. But will you be able to buy your favorite specialty product? It will cost too much to "certify" a lot of our favorite products. Even in a big market like Atlanta it is impossible to find many top notch products on the shelf. Pep Boys may carry a few more items than Walmart or Target, but let's face it they all carry the same products from the same companies. My worry is that all of the regulations will put some of the mail order & specialty companies out of business...
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And at the same time, mail order suppliers would put a retail store out of business. I've considered opening a retail store in greater Atlanta to sell car care products and offer detailing services but after some basic research, I don't think it will fly. The shops that sell upscale car care products now do not sell enough to make the retail end of the business worthwhile. Unless you have a multi-tiered business ( retail, distribution, sell both products and services, etc ) the internet retailers will kill you on costs alone.



None of the above is the fault of the mass merchants. It's just the nature of business in America. The "better mousetrap" for selling car wax is the internet, not a free standing store. For example, CMA has stopped producing print catalogs due to printing expenses and the ease of website updates. Sure, there are some companies that have developed a successful catalog sales model (LL Bean, Lands End) but for a small family-owned company, a print catalog is a massive expensive compared to a Yahoo Store.



The companies that have successfully diversified (retail store, internet sales, catalog sales) have the $$, the existing infrastructure to expand, and most importantly, an existing customer base. The Walmart's of the world already have the business. A new retailer will have to go out and get it.



As for the availability of specialty products, they're available to anyone, anywhere, right now. Just point and click.
 
Cut out the heart (suppliers) and the brain (R&D for products containing banned VOC's) and the body (inventory) will die.



Similiar to when EPA banned FC from refrigerants. Items that used these FC were allowed to decrease in numbers during normal breakdown and replacement by newer EPA certified appliances.



...collecting dust in a garage?

The EPA has not forced me to destroy or banned from the roads my three 60's classic Muscle cars. At least not yet. :D
 
Truthfully I do not believe any car product is worth the ruining of the enviroment or placing a human in a potential health risk. I do though question just how deadly Clear Pearl is to both ones health and the enviroment?



Something is fishy here because the styrofoam popcorn that protects many of our detailing supplies when being shipped are more of a enviromental hazard than the Clear Pearl they protect!



It seems as though these enviro-protectors are putting the cart before the horse in many instances, especially in California. It still reeks to me of political mumbo jumbo on many levels.



As for Americans and their shopping.....well years ago, I mean back in the 70's and 80's, covered malls replaced the open aired shopping areas. Now the covered malls are slowly fading away and returning are the open aired shopping plazas:nixweiss So our shopping habits do change and we as detailers will learn to adapt to these new changes. Lets just hope that our favorite shopping sites are still here a year from now:)



Anthony
 
I am still waiting for a legimate reason why a shiny car or its tires are more important then the environment or waste using products that may be harmful in the long run to ourselves. Yes, this change may have only a small effect on environmental conditions and personal longevity, but each small change adds up eventually leads to a large impact or one less cancer patient.

We are already paying higher prices for our "elite" products from boutique businesses. What's another few dollars for environmental safe product that performs equally as well?

How did these boutique companies develop products that we crave over the so-call detailing giant's?

R&D



Please, all I am asking for is one non-self-centered reason.
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No one is saying that they are against personal safety and health, but are you really going to suggest that VOCs from solvents in Souveran or EF quick wax is more dangerous than the array of chemicals we run across day to day? Like I said in my first statement, I have two neighbors who are letting industrial waste (oil/gas/etc. from vehicles) and another who allows sewage to do so also. The county knows that these two are problems, and when I mention one guy to Environmental Code Enforcement he laughed. Nothing has been done about it at all. How about the fact that in the 20 years we have done little to improve emissions from our vehicles, yet we have improved horsepower and torque tremendously in our engines. Or that when acquaintance of mine wanted to build a carport it had to be built according to environmental and local code specs and the permit would cost $800. However, a local excavator widened a roag through the mountain but did not take the extra step of repopulating it with vegetation to prevent a land slide. O=



I don't think having to comply with solvents will be impossible for larger manufacturers, and having stricter regulations is not the complaint that we're trying to argue against. All I am trying to elucidate upon is that this state loves to pursue the 'manageable' issues when it ignores the greater problems. Would you tell a smoker that to prevent cancer he should eat more vegetables first, or would you identify the smoking first?
 
blkZ28Conv said:
I am still waiting for a legimate reason why a shiny car or its tires are more important then the environment or waste using products that may be harmful in the long run to ourselves. Yes, this change may have only a small effect on environmental conditions and personal longevity, but each small change adds up eventually leads to a large impact or one less cancer patient.

We are already paying higher prices for our "elite" products from boutique businesses. What's another few dollars for environmental safe product that performs equally as well?

How did these boutique companies develop products that we crave over the so-call detailing giant's?

R&D



Please, all I am asking for is one non-self-centered reason. :nixweiss



Oh Yeah, we still have a butcher shop and fine bakery in my little town. Why do they thrive co-existing with Krogers, Walmart and Target.

Simple. We shop there. :wavey
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I, for one, can't give a "non-self-centered reason", because my reasons would be purely self-centered, and one of them is that I have become weary of the environmentalists going after small things that individuals do and individuals use, as if collectively that's going to have the same environmental impact as going after ONE commercial or industrial user.



I speak here from the perspective of a twenty year veteran of industrial sales, here in the heart of the rust belt, watching much of this happen first hand. We had, in Michigan, for a while, mandatory tail pipe emissions testing, annually, in order to renew your vehicles license plates. Then supposedly the air quality improved enough to do away with the testing.



Now, after only one or two bad ozone days last summer (and that was it - one or two days out of compliance), not only is mandatory testing on it's way back ,but now they are whining (they being the EPA, the environmental lobby, etc), about the use of outdoor gas grills, gas powered yard equipment (much of which already meets new emissions standards), etc.



While this horse puckey is going on, Ford Motor Company built a new truck assembly plant in Dearborn, MI, that is the gold standard of environmental compliance, Link, enough so that other automakers are touring the plant to get ideas to bring their own plants up to that standard.



And yet, what do we hear in Michigan? "Ozone Action Days" where they try to discourage you from gassing up your car during daylight hours, cutting the grass, or barbecuing. Give me a break.



One non-self reason? None here. One big selfish reason? Yea. I'm sick of feeling like individual users like you and I are geting picked on, because we're easier targets than a big individual polluter. :mad:



My two cents worth.
 
Len_A said:




One non-self reason? None here. One big selfish reason? Yea. I'm sick of feeling like individual users like you and I are geting picked on, because we're easier targets than a big individual polluter. :mad:



My two cents worth.
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I totally agree.



That's why we must become more active in who runs our government. Voters and citizens like ourselves or Big Business Lobbies?

We have several means of expression that are very powerful but rarely used:

Voting intelligently (knowing the issues) and Boycotting companies that lobby against our best interest. These 2 powerful tools are very well interrelated. Break the bond ($$$) between the lobbists and "our" so-call representatives and we win.



I am just being the Devil's advocate here because I find this discussion very interesting and maybe just maybe this post will push just one more person to become focused on what's happening in the world beyond our safe havens - garages. :wavey
 
I, for one, can't give a "non-self-centered reason", because my reasons would be purely self-centered, and one of them is that I have become weary of the environmentalists going after small things that individuals do and individuals use, as if collectively that's going to have the same environmental impact as going after ONE commercial or industrial user.



...



One non-self reason? None here. One big selfish reason? Yea. I'm sick of feeling like individual users like you and I are geting picked on, because we're easier targets than a big individual polluter. :mad:



My two cents worth.
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AMEN! Maybe we could all pitch in $5 and hire our own lobbyists!
 
mtodde said:
AMEN! Maybe we could all pitch in $5 and hire our own lobbyists!
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We already have a strong lobby (the vote), it is just not being used in a coordinated effort.



How do the Big Business lobbies function? They influence legislation votes with $$(aka political contributions :rolleyes: ). This money is used by the office holders to influence voters with fancy commercial sounds bites or worst, setting one voting block against another on things that ignite passion (ie religion, race, taxes, economic stratifications (rich vs poor), etc).
 
blkZ28Conv said:
We already have a strong lobby ( the vote), it is just not being used in a coordinated effort.



How do the Big Business ies? They influence legislation votes with $$. This money is used by the office holders to influence voters with fancy commercial sounds bites or worst, setting one voting block against another on things that ignite passion (ie religion, race, taxes, economic stratifications (rich vs poor), etc).
Click to expand...



You said it, brother. You said it!!
 
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