Confused on pricing

[marty]

I'm in escrow to purchase an existing mat with monthly rev of 11k and NI of 5k. As part of my due diligence I drove around the area to scout the competition over the weekend. I found a mat (same size as mine) that seemed to be a little nicer (fresh paint, newer machines) that was only a half mile away (it's in a town of 170k people). The issue is that my competition charges $.25 less per wash. I went to another mat much bigger than mine about 2 miles away and they too charged $.25 less per wash. Once I close on it I will upgrade, fresh paint, tv's, etc. to bring it up to par with the competition however I'm confused as to what to do about my prices. I'm a first time mat owner and am worried that if I lower my price I will simply be giving discounts to my existing customers rather than attracting new ones. Should I simply keep my prices the same and see what happens?

Any help/advice from long-time owners that have faced a similar situation would be greatly appreciated.

[azkid]

I'm confused as to why you're confused. I imagine that you knew of these other mats and their pricing prior to buying your mat. You also know when your mat raised prices and can see if there was any customer impact at that time. Apparently there hasn't been enough of an adverse impact to make the financials look bad, or you wouldn't have purchased it. Why would you be concerned about lowering prices now...especially if you're going to rehab it.