Attention Walmart Shoppers

Mathew Johnson

New Member
I need some help from the veterans... I have to give a bid to walmart by monday to clean the sidewalks at our local supercenter... It is not a competitive bid... There is 25558 square foot of sidewalk they want cleaned. The only stipulations are that it must be done between 11 pm and 7am and they will provide the staff and equipment to move the carts and merchandise as I need it done. There is one problem that I have, and I hope you can help... I have no Idea how to bid a project this size? Please help
 

onecallpowerw

New Member
Square footage

We have a pricing schedule on concrete. Example

25558 sq ft, we would bid at $.04 per sq ft

Anything above 10,000 sq ft gets this pricing structure

Your area might bring more but this is competitive for us. [flag]
 
J

Jim Carmany

Guest
I agree with Dan and would charge somewhere around 10 cents per square.
 

PressureForce

New Member
Yup - about .10 a sq ft is good as you will most likely encounter some good gum and crud.

Also - really shoot to pick it up monthly or quarterly and offer a bit better rate for repeat cleanings - .08 or so.

That would be a nice gig for you. Congrats and good luck.
 

Aplus

New Member
I think you'd be lucky to get a dime a s/f. Walmart is known for squeezing contractors to the max.

If it's not a competitive bid, then ask what they paid last time, or try to get an idea of their budget. Most often the managers in charge will talk to you, especially if you establish a good rapport with them.
 

AquaPower

New Member
monthly vs quarterly

For most high volume business'es such as wal-mart or other busy establishments like resturants - do they really need to be cleaned monthly..? or is just a way for us to get more money out of them. i guess it depends on their budget as well, right? When some of you close a contract with commercial accounts how do schdule your next time to clean them. Monthly, quarterly, or half a year ?

Will Stewart
Aqua Power Pressure Cleaning
Port St. Lucie, Florida
 

Mathew Johnson

New Member
I never followed up after my initial post... I priced walmart at .08 per square foot. They counter offered at 3 cents a square foot. Rolling back prices is thier deal, not mine. They got a low ballin beer drinker to do them.
 

Aplus

New Member
You're lucky they even counter offered. Most times you just don't hear from them again, at least until they are in a bind and really want the job done right.

In reality, the $$ per s/f is not really the main factor. The important thing is, can you make a decent living at a certain rate after factoring in expenses? With very large jobs, the answer is sometimes yes. With good chems, and the right equipment, it is surprising how many s/f per hour can really be done.

3 cents is on the low side, but 5 cents can be do-able, and still make satisfactory money. I think they will find that for the money they spent, they will not get a very good job done, and that may be alright with them.

I look at it this way.....when I'm busy and highly booked, my time is worth more. But during the slower seasons, when I may not have much work to do, I can afford to work for less as opposed to making nothing. It's just a matter of balancing out what work you have, and what you need to earn to provide a living.

Some may say not to offer services for a lower price, but in different geographic regions, competition may be fiercer, forcing us to work for less than we would like to.

That's not lowballing mind you, it's putting food on the table. I don't have another day job to fall back on, so if I were to always stick to my guns and say I'm not going to work for less than this or that, then my family is going to go hungry. That's the way the world is headed, and there's not a darn thing we can do about it.

My .02
 

MR ALAN

New Member
So with the 25,558 square feet you had to do, and the .03 a square foot price, you could of made $766.74 for a nights work.
So even if the job took you the whole 8 hours, you still would have made $95.84 per hour.
 

Mathew Johnson

New Member
Great points Tony and Alan... I didn't even bother to do the math and I should have... I agree, with the excessive gum that was ground in and heavily soiled traffic areas... It would have taken me quite a while to get er done... Hindsite being 20/20... today I would probably attemped to either do the job or reach a compromise (.04-.06 per sq foot). I ran across a similar situation regarding a convienence store chain I just signed a contract with... I bid 28 stores with a price per store. The called and said that the wanted to give me 6 of them to do... My first reaction was to say no... I did sign on the dotted lone. We are starting them tomorrow..

I also have better equipment than a year ago... so this should help with the time factor.

Thanks for the input gentlemen
 
Last edited:

Larry L.

PWN TEAM - Moderator Emeritus
I would have said something alone the line from,I don't understand your reasoning of only 6 out of what I bid on 28,I may haveta ajust my pricing on the 6 if thats ok with you.......and seen where that statement laid me.
 

Mathew Johnson

New Member
They wanted thier six closest to cooperate HQ done... One is very large. one medium and three are fairly small. We did two complete projects in 5 hours today with 1 hour total travel time. They did offer me an additional $27 per store...
It was a great deal as it turned out..
 

Aplus

New Member
MR ALAN said:
So with the 25,558 square feet you had to do, and the .03 a square foot price, you could of made $766.74 for a nights work.
So even if the job took you the whole 8 hours, you still would have made $95.84 per hour.


Alan,
Even with only modest gum removal involved, it's hard to picture cleaning 25,000 s/f of concrete in one evening. You must be superman! Tell me how you'd do it.
 

WeatherMan

New Member
Can you give some idea of how you got these opportunities? Did they contact you or did you call these companies. I'm starting out and just want to know how I should go about getting clients.

Thanks.
 

Mathew Johnson

New Member
I get most of my commercial accounts like this.... I walk in and ask to see the owner / manager. I shake his / her hand and say " Hi, I am Mathew JOhnson, Owner of Pressure Washing Services... I noticed your building / sidewalks / driveway or whatever is quite soiled and I would like to bid on it when you put is out for contract" (I made two assumptions - one, they planned on getting it cleaned and two, that they will be putting it out for bid). 88 percent of the time they respond and say go ahead and give me a quote. What are they supposed to say.. "Thanks, but I am going to leave it dirty". Last year I pulled this stunt 14 times and got 10 jobs with 6 of them becoming annual cleaning accounts,

Be confident... And sell yourself and your service!!
 

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