The Marina Car Wash was my favorite until I learned about a $6.6 million lawsuit filed by the California Attorney General alleging that the owners exploited their workers. This charge was not the result of a casual accusation. Over five months the AG’s office investigated 8 Southland car washes and determined that the workers were not paid state minimum wage of $64 a day or any overtime. They were also denied breaks. Because many of the workers were undocumented, they did not object.
As I mentioned in AOL’s Venice Patch, rather than correct their egregious violations, and simply pay the workers what they deserved, the owners fired 30 workers in December of 2010 and shut the doors, guaranteeing these families a dismal Christmas. Ever since, I’ve not been back.
Recently I learned that the place has been reborn as Beach Cities Car Wash under the ownership of Steve Spunt who owns other car washes in California. He makes a point of treating his workers fairly, while offering the public quality car washes, high end car detailing and mirror smooth waxing.
Although he’s now celebrating the first anniversary of his stewardship there, he's still trying to shake off the bad press of his predecessor. In fact if you look at the location on Yelp, you’ll see that it still belongs to Marina Car Wash. To reach out to the Venice community Spunt is offering a slew of discounts including a soon to be announced sweepstakes for a car makeover, so if you’ve hesitated about returning to the convenient Venice and Lincoln location for coffee and cookies while your car is given a showroom finish, now is the time to come back. It’s great to have a first rate Venice car wash return.
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