Take a tour of Foam & Wash Car Wash in Poughkeepsie, New York with CAR WASH Magazine.

Car Wash Name: Foam & Wash Car Wash 
Poughkeepsie, N.Y. 

https://foamandwash.com 

Owners:  
Baright family, three generations 

Year opened:  
2023 

Number of locations:  
13 total (some express tunnels and a few self-service with in-bay automatics) 

Building size:  
Around 8,000 square feet, consisting of a 150-foot express exterior soft cloth wash, a 24/7 touch-free automatic wash and two dog wash bays. “We try to include multiple profit centers in our washes to give our customers washing options,” said Gary Baright, owner. 

Contractor:  
TGS Associates 

Conveyor length: 
150 feet 

Equipment suppliers:  
Hoffman InnovateIT, G&G Industrial Lighting, Petit Auto Wash Equipment, National Carwash Solutions (NCS), Micrologic 

Chemical suppliers:  
NCS and Simoniz 

Number of car washes daily: Around 400 

Foam & Wash Car Wash, Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

Environmentally friendly features: G&G LEDs, InnovateIT reclaim, VFDs on all large motors 

Unique features:  
Foam & Wash has experimented with a variety of different profit centers at its sites. “Before the unlimited plans came about, you'd have months where you would just lose money,” Gary said. So, to ease the pain of the bad months, they tried out gas, oil changes, a laundromat, self-service, in-bay automatics, express tunnels and dog washes. “Having multi-profit centers is part of our DNA,” he said. 

The dog washes started about 12 years ago. “We really enjoy them. They bring in families, plus we are dog people. I have a dog. My son has a dog. We all have dogs. They kind of add to the vibe of the whole site and they encourage what we call water cooler talk — people talking about the dog wash.” 

“We try to have fun with the community and do different things,” said Gary’s son Evan Baright, director of operations at Foam & Wash, mentioning a towel exchange program where they give all the proceeds to a local charity. “We change out the charity every nine to 12 months.” 

They also have a dog mascot named Foamy, who was featured in a book, “A Day of Play with Foamy and Friends.” 

One of their sites has a laundromat, but not just any laundromat. “We have lounges, couches, TVs and, before incorporating a thrift store, even a pool table,” Gary said. “It’s not like a club or a bar, but close! Nobody puts couches in laundromats, but we do because we want people to be comfortable.” 

Yes, the laundromat has a thrift store inside it! If clothes are not picked up, after a year or two they are moved into the thrift store, where donations are accepted on an honor system. Then, the proceeds are donated to Sparrow’s Nest, a local charity.  

Foam & Wash used to have three oil change operations, as well. “However, we saw an opportunity to enhance our facilities and shift our focus toward more car wash-related services. As part of this transition, we repurposed the space to create offices and in-bay automatics,” Evan said.  

“Being that we have been in business for almost 60 years, we have had to adapt to the changing times. We have remodeled all of our sites to include cashiers, more vacuums that are free for our unlimited customers, more modern looking buildings and also added better equipment to eliminate prepping of most cars,” Gary said.  

“At our newest site in Poughkeepsie, we took everything that we've learned and put it all together in one spot.” It is more modern, has an express tunnel and a touch-free automatic, a special place for the cashiers, vacuums that face the south side, and everything arranged perfectly for stacking and getting the people in and out as quickly as possible — “everything we wish we could have done at some of our other sites,” Gary said.  

Other cool info to share:  
Foam & Wash has RGB LED lights in the tunnel, in-bay automatics, a dog wash and G&G EDGE lighting on the building. “As a vehicle rides through the car wash, we change the lights for the services you get. The bigger the wash level, the bigger the light show,” Gary said. His fascination with lights began 15 years ago when they were building a new car wash and looking for lights — only to find out that the ones on the market were putting off too much heat. “That's what traditional lighting was: wasted energy. It's one thing to bring energy in and use it. But to bring energy in and waste it is kind of foolish,” Gary said. 

So with the help of his two nephews, Jason and Cory, and lots of research and development, G&G Lighting was born. Jason, who has a background as an electrical engineer, now heads up G&G as CEO and Cory, who was formerly an accountant, took on the role of vice president of finance. Just recently, G&G moved into a 30,000-square-foot headquarters in Malta, N.Y., where the lights are designed, manufactured, built, sold and shipped. “It's been a huge success,” Gary said.