National Water Safety Month 

Spring is upon us and soon summer’s heat will draw kids of all ages to the water for many fun and refreshing ways to celebrate the season! Whether boating, swimming, or flying down a Slip N’ Slide, we should all keep in mind the ways to stay safe in and around water. May is National Water Safety Month and a perfect time for all of us to learn and review ways we can be safe in and around water.

As part of our Community Engagement programs, we support ongoing education about water safety including “Pool and Water Safety” coloring books we distribute at events and acting as a sponsor for Siskey YMCA and their 50K for 50K program. Not only does the Y offer swim lessons for all ages and swim assessments, but their dedication to water safety continues through efforts like 50K for 50K, a program started by Siskey YMCA Executive Director, Rich Gallagher. He dedicated himself to run 50K, a 31-mile race, in October 2015 to help raise $50K for 500 children to receive swim lessons and water safety education! We are proud to support a program that works to educate about the danger of drowning and to provide free and discounted swim lessons; both ensuring a decrease in drowning deaths among children.

For more information on why this effort is so important and how you can contribute to help a child by providing swim lessons, visit http://bit.ly/1rt3sov

In addition, the Y offers other water safety resources: http://bit.ly/1TuFSP3 & http://bit.ly/1QT0w9D

You can find a sample image of our coloring book here:




There are also many additional resources for parents online, including the very helpful tips from the American Red Cross below. Please take time to review these tips with your children and explain why water safety is so important. Not only will following these tips ease your mind, but they can also be a great way for kids to learn responsibility and make swimming and other water activities even more fun!

Make Water Safety Your Priority

• Swim in designated areas supervised by lifeguards.
• Always swim with a buddy; do not allow anyone to swim alone. Even at a public pool or a lifeguarded beach, use the buddy system!
• Ensure that everyone in the family learns to swim well. Enroll in age-appropriate Red Cross water orientation and Learn-to-Swim courses.
• Never leave a young child unattended near water and do not trust a child’s life to another child; teach children to always ask permission to go near water.
• Have young children or inexperienced swimmers wear U.S. Coast Guard-approved life jackets around water, but do not rely on life jackets alone.
• Establish rules for your family and enforce them without fail. For example, set limits based on each person’s ability, do not let anyone play around drains and suction fittings, and do not allow swimmers to hyperventilate before swimming under water or have breath-holding contests.
• Even if you do not plan on swimming, be cautious around natural bodies of waterincluding ocean shoreline, rivers and lakes. Cold temperatures, currents and underwater hazards can make a fall into these bodies of water dangerous.
• If you go boating, wear a life jacket! Most boating fatalities occur from drowning.
• Avoid alcohol use. Alcohol impairs judgment, balance and coordination; affects swimming and diving skills; and reduces the body’s ability to stay warm.

Prevent Unsupervised Access to the Water

• Install and use barriers around your home pool or hot tub. Safety covers and pool alarms should be added as additional layers of protection.
• Ensure that pool barriers enclose the entire pool area, are at least 4-feet high with gates that are self-closing, self-latching and open outward, and away from the pool. The latch should be high enough to be out of a small child’s reach.
• If you have an above-ground or inflatable pool, remove access ladders and secure the safety cover whenever the pool is not in use.
• Remove any structures that provide access to the pool, such as outdoor furniture, climbable trees, decorative walls and playground equipment.
• Keep toys that are not in use away from the pool and out of sight. Toys can attract young children to the pool.

Maintain Constant Supervision

• Actively supervise kids whenever around the water—even if lifeguards are present. Do not just drop your kids off at the public pool or leave them at the beach—designate a responsible adult to supervise.
• Always stay within arm’s reach of young children and avoid distractions when supervising children around water.
• Know What to Do in an Emergency. If a child is missing, check the water first. Seconds count in preventing death or disability.
• Know how and when to call 9-1-1 or the local emergency number.
• If you own a home pool or hot tub, have appropriate equipment, such as reaching or throwing equipment, a cell phone, life jackets and a first aid kit.
• Enroll in Red Cross home pool safety, water safety, first aid and CPR/AED courses to learn how to prevent and respond to emergencies.

What Earth Day means to us.

Here at Sam’s Xpress®, we LOVE Earth Day! Why? Because Earth Day is a great reminder of how important it is for everyone to commit to environmental conservation, one of our biggest priorities. Earth Day is celebrated annually on April 22nd, and related events are held in over 193 countries worldwide! Earth Day Network helps to coordinate these events globally.

We attended an event to celebrate Earth Day nearby our University location at UNCC on Wednesday April 20th. Tons of students and faculty visited us at the Earth Day Festival for some free giveaways and a chance to win some free car washes! We have also been sharing easy conservation ideas on our social media pages leading up to and will continue during Earth Day, today. Make sure to follow us to keep up with our helpful tips plus all of our exciting contests and giveaways!

We were also able to celebrate Earth Day in a big way with one of our fellow Earth Day Festival attendees, Sustain Charlotte, by attending their 2016 Sustain Charlotte Awards last night! We were honored to attend as one of four nominees for their Water category award and thrilled to share our sustainability story with nominees and attendees of this great event. Congratulations to the Catawba River Keepers on winning this award and their continued commitment to water conservation! You can find more info about Sustain Charlotte, award nominations, and the event here: http://www.sustaincharlotte.org/2016nominees

To get everyone else as excited about Earth Day & conservation as we are, we are sharing some of our favorite (and simple!) ways to go green on Earth Day and every day! These tips from goodhousekeeping.com are sure to come in handy for you, both as a way to easily help our environment and save money while doing it! 

In the Morning

Green "to go." Not brewing at home? Take a travel cup to your favorite coffee shop; they may fill it at a discount.

At Work

Double up. Configure your office printer or copy machine so it prints on both sides of the page.
Put it to sleep. If you'll be away from your computer for more than 20 minutes, change it to "sleep" mode.

Running Errands

BYOB. Bags, that is. It's good for your wallet, too: Some retailers, such as CVS, now pay you for every disposable bag you don't take ($1 on a special CVS card for every four trips on which you BYO) (Target gives a 5 cent discount per bag!).

Before Bed

Truly turn off electronics. Plug your devices — the TV and DVD player, or the computer and printer — into a UL-certified power strip; switch the whole group off for the evening to prevent phantom electrical draw.
Don't tap out. Turn off the water while brushing teeth. Leaving the tap running during the recommended two minutes of brushing can waste up to five gallons of water a day.

Of course, we recommend visiting a Sam’s Xpress location (you can see all of our locations here: http://samsxpresscarwash.com/locations/) each and every time you wash your car! We not only save you time, effort, and funds spent on water bills, but also potentially hundreds of gallons of water, compared to washing at home. Sam’s Xpress Car Wash is continually making improvements to better the environment and your car washing experience. Our top-notch equipment allows us to recycle 100% of the water used and reuse 90% of what is recycled. Each car wash site saves about 12 million gallons of fresh water per year. All of our chemicals are environmentally friendly and biodegradable, making the entire car wash experience eco-friendly. From saving energy through the works of the car wash to our energy saving dryers in the bathroom facilities, Sam’s Xpress® is determined to keep our environment safe and clean!

We hope you will help us celebrate Earth Day this year by visiting us for an environmentally friendly car wash and choosing a new way you can help the environment.

Adopt-A-Stream - Just One of the Ways Sam's Xpress® Conserves Water!

You may know that Sam’s Xpress® is dedicated to water conservation and participates in the Water Savers Program at all of our car wash locations, but did you know that we dedicate ourselves to helping with other local water saving efforts, too? One of the ways which we have chosen to help locally is by volunteering with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Adopt-A-Stream program. We have been volunteering our time and resources to help keep Four-9 stream in Matthews, North Carolina, a safe and clean place for animals, people, and the environment for the past three years!

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Adopt-A-Stream program is a great way for any group to give back and become active in the community. Scheduling a clean-up is easy and participating in this program helps keep the over 2,000 miles of streams in Mecklenburg County clean and beautiful. Who doesn’t love a clean community? By having volunteer groups, like our employees, in and around the streams, the county can also more easily stay abreast of water pollution and other problems affecting water quality and the overall environment.

This opportunity, which is just one of the programs provided by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm Water Services, even provides volunteers with hip waders, litter grabbers, gloves, and trash bags! Supplies for up to ten volunteers are available to those groups who schedule ahead of time and request these items.

Participation in this program allows us to further commit to two of our biggest priorities: conserving water and giving back to our local communities, by helping to rid local streams of litter and debris. Employees from our various locations and our corporate staff (including our own COO!) volunteer their time twice a year to help keep our community waterways clean. We love the chance to get together as a team to provide a service for the community and spend some time together outside of the offices and car wash sites. Small groups of around 8 Sam’s Xpress employees suit up in the hip waders provided by the Adopt-A-Stream Program and commit to cleaning sections of our designated stream. Through our efforts, we are typically able to remove several garbage bags full of refuse and/or large items found in and around the stream. Through the commitment of groups like us, around 130 stream clean ups removing more than 9 tons of garbage, were completed in Mecklenburg County over the past year! This means preservation of one our most precious natural resources and good feelings all around! We will be continuing our efforts as we grow into new markets, such as our expansion to the Raleigh, NC area later this year. You can find more information here: www.samsxpresscarwash.com/news

Reference:

http://charmeck.org/stormwater/VolunteerGetInvolved/Pages/Adopt-A-StreamProgram.aspx, http://charmeck.org/stormwater/VolunteerGetInvolved/Pages/default.aspx https://www.facebook.com/waterwatchers/

Press Release - Sam's Xpress Car Wash expands!

Sam’s Xpress Car Wash Announces Expansion into Raleigh, North Carolina Market

One of the fastest growing car wash companies is expanding its brand!

Charlotte, March 9, 2016:  Sam’s Xpress Car Wash, LLC (“Sam’s Xpress”), a Charlotte, North Carolina based company, today announced its plan to build twenty car washes in Raleigh, North Carolina, and its surrounding markets.  Sam’s Xpress currently has eight properties under contract in this market; with several already in the permitting phase. Sam’s Xpress is projected to open six car washes in the Raleigh market by year end, and 14 more in 2017.

Sam’s Xpress opened its first car wash site in December 2012, and now has 11 car washes in the Charlotte, North Carolina market.  Now, with a wealth of experience from building and operating these sites, Sam’s Xpress is ready to grow the brand at a faster pace.  In the past three years Sam’s Xpress has created hundreds of new jobs and has been voted best car wash by the Fort Mill Times in each of the past three years.

Sam’s Xpress improves neighborhoods by providing clean, professional, and environmentally friendly alternatives to traditional car washes. By employing state of the art equipment, each car wash site saves an estimated 12 million gallons of fresh water per year and all chemicals are environmentally friendly.  Sam’s Xpress also lends a helping hand to local organizations within the community. The company has helped support over 50 non-profit organizations throughout the Carolinas.  

7935 Council Place, STE 200

Matthews, NC 28105

www.samsxpress.com

Saving our Planet one Car Wash at a time!

As a WaterSavers destination, Sam's Xpress Car Wash is always finding ways to better the environment.

Did you know that our car washes recycle 100% of water and reuse 90% of what is recycled?
Ever wonder how it's done?!

Well here's how in 5 simple steps!

Step 1: During the car wash, the water is first collected into a pit underneath the car wash.
Step 2: After collection, the water travels through 7 chambers that removes sediments out of the water.
Step 3: The water then passes through a series of cyclonic filters that cleans the water.
Step 4:The water passes through an ozone treatment that kills all bacteria in the water.
Step 5: And then goes back to Step 1!

I referenced earlier that we were a WaterSavers destination, but most of you have no idea what that means, other than the assumption that we save water! Well that is definitely part of it, but it is an actual program that Sam's Xpress a part of! 

So now the question may be "What is the WaterSavers Program?"  So here it goes...

How WaterSavers® Works

To earn the WaterSavers® designation, a car wash must:

Water Quality Criteria

*Route all water discharge to a treatment facility or leech/septic field.
*Have a backflow prevention device installed and operable on the potable water supply.
*The car wash must meet all local effluent criteria.

Water Conservation Criteria

*For conveyorized or in-bay/roll-over washes, use an average of no more than 40 gallons (151.5 liters) of potable/fresh water per car.
*Use spray nozzles with maximum water efficiency and inspect the nozzles annually.
*For self-serve washes, maintain high-pressure wash nozzles and pump systems that use less than 3 gallons (11.4 liters) per minute.
*Keep water-saving devices at original or improved specifications.
*Re-use spot-free reverse osmosis concentrate ("reject") in the wash process (if such a system is installed).

Each participating car wash must annually reaffirm that it is meeting the above criteria, including inspection by a licensed plumber or distributor member.

Did you know, that it's actually better for the environment when you take your car through an automated wash rather than washing it yourself at home? Check it out!

Preventing Water Pollution

Many people don't know that washing vehicles on pavement causes harm to local waterways. Water entering storm drains, unlike water that enters sanitary sewers, does not undergo treatment before it is discharged. So, when cars are washed on streets, parking lots and driveways, that dirty water eventually winds up in rivers, streams and lakes. Washing one car may not seem to be a problem, but collectively, car-washing activity adds up to big problems for our waterways and aquatic life.

A study by the City of Federal Way (Washington) found that residential car washing led to the following being released into their storm sewer system:
190 gallons (719 liters) of gasoline, diesel and motor oil
400 pounds of phosphorus and nitrogen
60 pounds of ammonia
2,200 pounds of surfactants
3,000 pounds of solids

This is the total annual release, and only for their community of 62,000 passenger cars and trucks! With more than 300 million registered passenger vehicles in North America, the enormity of the pollution problem becomes obvious
Reasons to Wash Your Car

#1 - Use less water, and "return it" cleanly!
Using a WaterSavers wash ensures that you are using less water than regular driveway or pavement washing, and that all runoff water is returned safely to the environment.

#2 - Protect your investment.
The better the condition of your vehicle, the higher the resale or trade-in value. Depending upon the vehicle, regular cleaning can equate to thousands of dollars in value. Acid rain, road salt, bird droppings and sun damage are just some of the threats to your car's condition that can be addressed by regular car care. Click here to learn more.

#3 - Take pride and feel good.
A clean car looks better and communicates pride. Who doesn't feel better driving a clean car?

#4 - Drive safely.
Washing regularly keeps windshields, mirrors and signal lights clean. You will see more of the road, and others will be better able to see you.

#5 - Improve fuel economy.
Did you know that the cleaner your car, the less wind resistance? That means better fuel economy.Click here to learn more.

#6 - Save time and money.
Your time is valuable, so don't waste it in your driveway or at the store buying supplies. Instead, visit a professional car wash and get a great wash, at the right price, in just a few minutes.

#7 - It's safe for the vehicle.
The world's automobile manufacturers trust professional car washes with their new vehicles and so can you. Today's car wash technology is washing cars more safely and effectively than ever before. And, a recent study of more than 5 million car washes revealed the rate of damage to be less than one-tenth of one percent - and that even included pre-existing damage (i.e. vehicles that come to the car wash that are already damaged)!

 
#8 - Protect yourself from bacteria.
Regular cleaning of your car's interior can help keep away bacteria and other "bugs" that accumulate on steering wheels, gear shifts, radio buttons and other commonly touched places.

Visit http://www.carwash.org/watersavers for more information.

So come on down to Sam's Xpress! Not only are you saving the environment, you also save time! It takes about 3 minutes to go through the wash!

Signing off... Saving the planet one car wash at a time

Do you trust online reviews?

According to Search Engine Land, 79% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations!

*Do You Trust Online Customer Reviews As Much As Personal Recommendations?
79% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations (up from 72% in 2012)
Only 21% said they do not trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations


Analysis: This is the acid test for online reviews. Can they have the same impact as personal recommendations? The answer is an overwhelming yes.

Keep in mind that that “yes” comes with a few caveats in most cases — it is not a “yes, always.”

Authenticity of reviews is a key factor in whether or not consumers trust them. The increase in respondents selecting this answer shows that consumers don’t blindly trust reviews and exercise judgment to determine if reviews are genuine. Review spammers beware — consumers are on to you!

As you might predict, younger consumers (16-34) are more trusting of reviews than older consumers (55+). Older consumers are more pragmatic and skeptical, while younger consumers have grown up with in the Internet — so it’s second nature to them to read and value online reviews.

To read more visit: http://searchengineland.com/2013-study-79-of-consumers-trust-online-reviews-as-much-as-personal-recommendations-164565

So where are we searching for reviews?  There are Google Reviews, Yahoo Local, Yelp, Angie's List, etc. So which review sites do you trust that are unbiased? Do you view all of them? Base your decision on the majority? Or do you use and trust one tool?

According to Yelp (one of the fastest growing review/travel sites in the country), "You shouldn't ask your customers to post reviews on Yelp." Do you really think businesses don't ask people to review them on Yelp? or any other review tool? How do you REALLY know these reviews are not biased? You have to TRUST that businesses are doing the right thing, and the algorithms behind the scenes are "fair."

According to Google, "Reviews are only valuable when they are honest and unbiased … Don't offer money or product to others to write reviews for your business or write negative reviews about a competitor. We also discourage specialized review stations or kiosks set up at your place of business for the sole purpose of soliciting reviews." Like, Yelp, Google uses an algorithm as well to determine if a review is honest or not.

Have you ever wrote a review, and never saw it posted?! There's a science behind it, the algorithms! Each program uses a different algorithm to test if a review is "fake" or "real," but how is that determined? And does it make a difference? Would you not try a restaurant because it had all positive reviews? Or better yet, if a friend told you that a restaurant was amazing, but you read awful reviews, would you still go? Do you think more people write a review based on a bad experience or a great experience? 

As a business, we LOVE reviews, we want to hear from our customers! It's not about "making us look good," it's about knowing what our customers like and don't like. So, why would a company want to make fake reviews? Our customers are our eyes and ears! If we are not meeting standards as expected, we want to know. If we don't know, it's hard for a us to improve. We appreciate feedback in any way! Whether it's through a review site or a simple e-mail!

What review sites do you trust and use?!

Have a Safe and Spooky Halloween!

One of the most important reminders on Halloween is to stay safe and keep the kiddos safe! Here are some safety tips to follow as you head out on the streets tonight!

Halloween Safety Tips for Trick or Treating

Kids look forward to Halloween for many reasons. They like the dressing up in costumes but the mostly they like it for the candy and treats! Who wouldn't? Even some adults still like to go our trick or treating. It makes them feel young and happy again. While this section sticks mainly to guidelines for kids, they are just as useful for adults.

Some parents like to take first dibs on some of the candy that the kids have picked up during the night. It's their reward for taking them around from house to house! We suggest that you watch the candy intake when you all get home, too much at one time can lead to stomach aches and indigestion. That includes mom and dad as well!

Make your child's Halloween a memorable holiday and they'll have good memories that last a lifetime! If you are taking your kids out for the night, dress up as well. Mom and dad should get into Halloween as much as the kids do!

Trick or Treating should be one of the great adventures of Halloween for kids! They can get dressed in scary costumes and go door to door, begging "Tricks or Treats!" from neighbors or at the local mall. Lots of small towns have a Halloween Safe Night at the community center or school so kids can Trick-or-Treat safely but going door to door is the stuff of childhood memories! It should be a fun time, without trouble and pain, so following some easy tips can keep your child safe every Halloween.

Children should always go out trick or treating accompanied by a responsible adult. If you have a group of kids going, the parents should choose two or three of them to go along and keep an eye on things.

Some towns set a curfew for trick or treating which makes it easier for townsfolk to know who's coming to their door. Make sure and stick to the curfew times and stick to subdivisions and areas with a lot of homes so your kids can get in as much trick or treating as possible in a few hours time.

Plan a safe route so parents know where their older kids will be at all times. Set a time for their return home. Make sure that your child is old enough and responsible enough to go out by themselves. Make sure that they have a cell phone.

Let your children know not to cut through back alleys and fields if they are out alone. Make sure they know to stay in populated areas and not to go off the beaten track. Let them know to stay in well lighted areas with lots of people around. Explain to them why it can be dangerous for kids not to do this. If they are going out alone, they are old enough to know what can happen to them in a bad situation and how to stop it from happening.

Instruct your children not to eat any treats until they bring them home to be examined by you. This way you can check for any problem candy and get the pick of the best stuff!

Instruct your child to never go into the home of a stranger or get into their car. Explain why this is not a god idea and what to do if someone approaches them and tries to talk to them.

Make sure your child carries a flashlight, glow stick or has reflective tape on their costume to make them more visible to cars.

Let them know that they should stay together as a group if going out to Trick or Treat without an adult.

Click the link for more safety tips!


http://www.halloween-safety.com/halloween_safety_treats.html