This Saturday will be one of the most brutal shopping days of the year, as everyone will be trying to find that last-minute Christmas gift for their loved ones. The last thing anyone needs is to try to figure out where to park, wasting precious shopping minutes while circling the lot in their mythical brown diesel manual RWD wagon.
For those in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle, there is a solution.
San Francisco-based startup Zirx provides shoppers — and anyone else who needs it — with an array of automotive concierge services, from charging your Tesla Model S or Nissan Leaf for $10 and $15 parking so you can get on with it, to $4/gallon refueling and $30 full-detail car washing service for your Dodge Charger Hellcat or Ford F-150 Platinum Edition. Overnight parking in monitored garages and oil changes are available, as well, and all prices include tips, so you can put that tipping calculator away.
Said services are initiated via an app on your iPhone or Android unit of choice, with a Zirx agent popping by within five to seven minutes. The agents work seven days a week in the downtown cores of the aforementioned cities, with hours of operation between 7 a.m. and midnight on most days, depending on the city. Your car is covered by a $2 million insurance policy split evenly between your car and its agent, with coverage in effect from the start of your requested service, to the time your car is returned.
Though Zirx is in just three cities, the concierge startup is looking at expanding to other locations. As for Windows and BlackBerry users, the app will come to their phones in the near-future.
People actually invested in this.
You’re missing the point, its not a concierge service it’s a parking space sharing company, this is going to be huge (I’m just kidding). Is this company a subdivision of the guys who will reserve a metered parking spot for you in crowded cities?
“Gitchyo f*ck-ass car the f*ck outta here, muthaf*cka!!”
Those guys?
Kinda smart actually—just extends the concept of “valet parking” to establishments that haven’t provided it. I don’t know about your city, but Los Angeles has plenty of overindulged “haves” who would gladly pay for someone to park their car, and plenty more underpaid “have nots” who would find circling a garage in a nice car to be one of the easier ways to earn a cruddy wage…
>> underpaid “have nots” who would find circling a garage in a nice car to be one of the easier ways to earn a cruddy wage
They have their own secured lots according to their web site – so probably no circling the block issues. In the areas they’re covering it makes sense.
What strikes me as the unworkable component of this sort of day-care for cars is that any metro area large enough to make it profitable will also have severe traffic gridlock at the very times all the clientele want to just snap their fingers and have their rides magically appear.
I mean, their gleaming, camera-swept garages are likely to be quite a ways away from the big public or private venues and workplaces where you’d maybe appreciate being able to dump the care of your car onto someone else.
Also, the manpower needs of this would seem huge; an employee for every customer during times of massive draw like football games, concerts, theater performances etc.
Sounds like a crushingly expensive, logistical nightmare. ‘Cause at $15-$30 an average pop, they’re gonna have to do some serious volume to cover their costs.
They could be leasing space at existing in-town locations – maybe off the beaten track locations. They get the space at an annual rate that’s much lower than the daily rate.
Even if they’re taking the car out of town in the morning, it’s counter to the flow of the majority of traffic. In the evening, bringing it back in is counter as well. In the city, there are always back routes that if you know them, you can escape most of the traffic.
It’s simple, if they haven’t figured it out, they’ll be out of business pretty quick.
Talk about jumping the shark.
I don’t know if petes asking a question or making a statement but when this kind of “service” gets a press release and warrants a writeup….just wow.
So wait, they’ll come and take my car and park it in “their” garage and it costs me $15 – and then I presume when I’m done they’ll bring the car back to me?
Actually, in downtown Seattle, Capitol Hill, Belltown, Queen Anne – this service is worth it. If it is $15 PLUS parking – meh.
And if it is $15 and that includes parking how do they make a profit?
We avoid Seattle now like it is a hot bed of Ebola because parking is non-existent, the cyclists are militant, jaywalking pedestrians seem to think their invincible, and the manufactured congestion through purposely ill-timed lights, “lane diets,” and restricted zones has made getting around a nightmare.
There is value to me to hand my keys to someone outside of Lark and say, “you’re problem to find a parking spot, and don’t scratch the paint.”
If it’s $30 and includes parking and a detail, that sounds like a good deal.
For the last three weeks I have spent roughly 14 hours a day at my shop (gift shop, holiday, you get the idea). I couldn’t justify right now as we are just starting out, but if the pricing is good, I would jump at the chance to pay $50 for oil change and not have to leave my store.
A 30 dollar detail and they come and get the car?
Yeah, sign me up, that’s more time with my kid right there.
SPAM filter ate my reply.
In congested Seattle, this makes sense – I agree with clives! above
I live in L.A. If, and only if, you get the car back, its a great idea.
As usual, the devil is in the details, and as noted above, the time involved to get said vehicle returned to you is critical. Otherwise its faster and easier to UBER it.
“$30 full-detail car washing service’
I assume this is just washing the car and not a full detail (like one you do when you want to sell your car for top $)?
And who needs parking for shopping. Last I checked the malls had plenty and the internet doesn’t require parking.
Let me guess, $850 million valuation for another inane idea that caters to virtually no one?
Nope, no startup bubble going on whatsoever…