Westminster’s Wave Car Care Center closes after 35 years

BY LILLIAN FUGLEI LFUGLEI@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

After 35 years, the Wave Car Care Center has ocially closed its doors.

e Wave was opened in 1988. In 2003, the current owners, Angela and Wayne Palinckx, purchased the business. Wayne had been an employee since 1988, so taking over the store felt like a natural next step for the couple.

“We really loved the area, my husband grew up in that area. I had lived there for a long time,” said Angela. “ e community was very close to us. So we wanted to stay there and build our future there.”

For 20 years, Angela and Wayne ran the store with the help of Wayne’s brother, David Palinckx. It was a family business, Angela and Wayne’s children worked there, as did several of their nephews.

Owning the store for so long created a real community for the family.

“So many people have been there since my hus- band started working there. You know, they were coming in bringing their parents cars, now they’re bringing their cars and their kids cars,” said Angela. “Our regulars were phenomenal…it was really neat to watch that transition over the years of the (di erent) generations coming in.”

Unfortunately, as minimum wage rose and car wash prices did not, it became harder to stay open.

“We were not going to be able to a ord to give the customers the product without making it so pricey that it just wasn’t fair to the customer,” Angela said.

Express car washes also posed a threat to the Wave’s more traditional approach. Without the cost of labor, express car washes could charge lower prices. e Palinckx family was approached by CobbleStone Car Wash, which wanted to buy the Wave and turn it into another CobbleStone Car Wash location. ey sold the business and closed earlier this summer.

For Angela and Wayne, the future still isn’t completely clear. ey’re still trying to decide what their next steps will be.

“We’re sad, because it was our whole entire lives for so many years,” Angela said. “So it is very sad. But we know it was the right thing to do. It’s just still a little surreal.”

However, the community still remains a bright point for the couple. From employees to customers, the people were what made the business worthwhile.

“What (Wayne) loved is especially early on (employees) become your friends or like your kids, and you get to watch them grow, and then reward them when they do,” said Angela. “ at’s something that we’ll de nitely miss.”

Overall, Angela emphasized how thankful she was for the community the Wave created.

“ ey did a lot for us in our family over the years, being such good customers. And our employees,” Angela added. “I mean, probably not that many car washes have a dozen employees that were there for over 10 years.”