What's the history of Jax Car Wash?

[xphillipjrx]

Figured DY would be the best place to get details about Jax. They have been around for as long as I remember. I used to work at NBD. One of the tellers used to be a cashier at Jax. I once told her that I felt bad about being judgemental, but some of those guys at Jax looked really hard. She said that many of them are fresh out of prison and Jax is their first job. Now every time I go there I secretly wish them good luck and hope they can stay straight.

[sirrealone]

Don't know but I know that I'm looking forward to my free birthday wash next week!

[gnome]

from their website

Before Jax, in 1950, Jack Milen opened National Car Wash at Alfred and Woodward next to the Detroiter Hotel with partner Dave [[John) Jassey. The wash was open 24 hours a day then, and the wash price was $1.
In May 12, 1954, Jack founded Jax Kar Wash; the first location was in Detroit, at 6 Mile & Meyers. The second location was opened in 1956 in Birmingham, followed by the 3rd location in 1958 at Greenfield & Schoolcraft. Since then, we have opened more locations; at one time, there were eleven. This family business has had many charity fundraisers [[March of Dimes, MS, CATCH, Michigan Cancer Foundation and more).
In 1998, the Milen's sold the company to a national chain that only cared about a profit and taking the company public -- that never happened and in June of 2001, Bruce Milen bought back the company.

http://www.jaxkarwash.net/history.php

[lalynch]

We have family that own a car wash out in Lenawee County. They also often hire guys out of prison. The business gets a tax credit or some sort of perk by hiring felons. However, the car wash business isn't so great these days due to the economy.

[rb336]

cool to know the history. I used to love chasing my parents' cars down the line, watching through the windows.

A clean car by Jax rides better!

[gnome]

with hiring fresh felons, one must wonder if that explains why there are so many hand car wash salons in a city with filled with dirty hoopies. IIRC last year there was a drug raid on one such establishment in SW.

[xphillipjrx]

One must wonder if that explains why there are so many hand car wash salons in a city with filled with dirty hoopies.

Cars [[and hoopTies) in Detroit are much cleaner on average than in Chicago. My wife always marvels at all the clean cars whenever we are in town.

[narnarnar]

I worked for a while at a car wash on the other side of the state. We also hired parolees pretty often. They were generally good employees. Perhaps their keeping the job was a condition of their parole, I'm not sure about that.