Econ 2010 Term Paper

By: Taylor Christensen

Topic: Purchasing Decisions
Introduction
In this paper, I will be talking about purchasing decisions and why they
happen in everyones lives including businesses. I will also include different
effects that can happen from making the wrong or right decision. I will first
talk about a business purchasing decision made and why the company chose
to make that purchase. I will also talk about a friend of mine that decided to
purchase a business and I will explain what happened to them. Next I will
talk about my personal decisions I have made and what made me decide to
make them and how they have effected where I am today.
Business Purchases
The first business I want to talk about is a company called Mister Car
Wash. This company has been in business for over 50 years. They started
with 1 Car wash and now have 173+ Car Washes nationwide. For them, they
do not build car washes. They purchase them because when you build a car
wash, you do not know the area market and you dont know what to expect
from a Car Wash in that area. The reason I am talking about this business
and why they purchase Car Washes is because I have worked for Platinum
Car Wash for 9 years. We were just purchased by Mister Car Wash last
month. I never really understood their business model of purchasing car
washes instead of building them up until we were purchased and they
explained why they would rather purchase a car wash than to build one. I

think that their decision to purchase Platinum Car Wash is a great decision
because Platinum has a long history of business, great financials, and also a
great employee work base. Mister Car Wash has to put in more money than
they purchased to bring the car wash up to their standards. This is just an
extra expense that they do to make it a Mister experience. However, when
Mister purchased Platinum they did take on a risk that it still could fail even
though it has a big customer base. Long story short, there will always be risk
when you make a purchasing decision. Making that decision is what will help
you know in the end if it was a good or bad decision.
Next I want to talk about my friend who decided to buy a convenient
store. He and his wife wanted to invest into purchasing a business. They
decided to purchase a convenient store. The longer and longer they owned
this store, the more they realized it was a bad decision. It was eating up all
of their money, and it was also eating up all of their time. During this time of
ownership, they got robbed three times. Being robbed hurt them even more
than they were already hurting. They realized that making the decision to
purchase this business was not the best idea. After the third break in, they
decided it would be best to close down the store. They couldnt afford to
keep it open any longer.
My friend then decided that they needed to save up some money so
they could purchase another business. One that he believe would not fail.
He and his wife worked their butts off so that they could purchase a selfservice car wash. This car wash was called Hidden Valley Car Wash. They

owned this and ran it for a pretty long time. This ended up to be a good
investment, and they wanted to sell to invest in something bigger. They
decided to sell and then build a new and bigger car wash. This car wash was
known as Platinum Car Wash. Watching them learn from their mistakes and
looking at the decisions they made to purchase land, buildings, etc. It just
shows that in the end, they made the right decision.
Personal Decisions
I have had to make a few decisions on something that I want vs.
something that I need. A few years ago I decided that I needed to purchase
a car. I didnt want to drive my parents around because I wanted my own car
and I wanted to take on more responsibility. This led me to look for 6 months
for the type of car that I wanted and could afford. I was approved for a
$10,000 loan to purchase a car. At this point I was really scared about going
into debt for a car. I didnt want to make a purchase that big and regret it. I
put a car on hold for about a month and talked to my dad and brother about
if it would be a right decision to purchase a car. They help bring me to my
decision of purchasing a car because it would help me become more
responsible and help me grow into a better me. I went ahead and purchased
a car. This car I have had for three and a half years. I believe that it has
helped me know what to look for next. The car I bought wasnt perfect and
so I had to put more money in it to get it to where I wanted it to be. This
cause a headache in my financial situation. When it cause me to start to
hurt financially, I decided to change my spending habits. This helped me to

understand the different numbers and budgets I needed to do in order to

grow.
Reason for the Stories
The reason for the stories and experiences I told were mainly for me to
reflect on the different things that I have learned in this class, and also the
different things that I have learned in life. The economy is a crazy thing.
When I hear the word economy, I think of numbers. I also think of the debt
this nation has and I think of the different ways that we could potentially help
our nation come out of debt. This country is in a world a hurt because of all
the poor decisions that have been made. They do not look into the long
effects when they purchase anything. These consequences are going to cost
the future leaders of our country a lot of pain. With that being said, Our
economy is based on our spending and the value of the dollar. I know that I
havent ran a country before so maybe they needed to spend all of that
money. To me, I feel as though it would be though to actually spend trillions
of dollars. I hope that our economy and purchasing decisions get better. Our
nation is in desperate need. Thanks for the opportunity to write this paper
and take the class. Have a great rest of the year.