A tale of two paint stores

18 years ago

Unfortunately - or maybe fortunately for my pocketbook, I don't have any of the fancy paint stores locally so I've decided on using BM aura paint for my house. However in my OCD way I had to go all over looking for paint samples before I make my decision - Home Depot, SW and BM.

What I found interesting is the contrast between the local SW and BM stores. The local SW is a clean, well organized store. The people are happy to help you, show you which are the most popular colors that they sell and greet you when you come in. The paint swatches are easy to remove from the display because they have a little bumpy edge to them. On the back of the swatch they list the LRV - light reflective value as well as information about which base to use and notes if a color choice is limited to select products (usually the intense colors). Lastly, their paint deck is reasonably priced. I was even told if I retained the sales slip and the deck was "in new" condition I could return and get my money back.

My local BM store is messy and not as fresh as the SW even thought both stores are old. The people are too busy discussing old war stories to answer questions. They aren't interested in showing you their paint or make suggestions. The paint swatches aren't nearly as informative, are difficult to remove from the display, contain no LRV information and the paint deck was significantly more expensive and non-returnable. And this store probably won't invest in the expensive Aura equipment so I will have to drive further to one that does.

If SW had aura paint, I'd be thrilled to buy it there. I have bought my test pots at SW and will have BM color match to SW.

The writing should be on the wall for my local BM dealer as there is a brand new SW store on the main street about to open soon - all bright and shiny. I guess it's the difference between good and bad management?

Do you find differences between paint stores?

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Comments (5)

pirula
18 years ago
Yes, but funnily enough my experience is the opposite. The old fashioned, messy one carries the FPE, and the C2 (they also carry P&L and BM). The fancier one only carries F&B and Benjamin Moore.

The employees at the messy one are also far more knowledgable about paint and techniques. I learned alot from them. They have far more supplies, and they carry Waterlox too. If they carried F&B, I'd only buy paint there.

Ivette
skypathway
Original Author
18 years ago
Hi Pirula, I do suspect the guys who were too busy talking were probably more experienced, it's just I didn't like their attitude - you know that old fashioned "what does the little lady know about paint, send the husband then we'll talk."

sky
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Ina Plassa_travis
18 years ago
skypath - nowadays, it's more like 'oh, one of those looky-loos, either she'll ask, or we'll never see her again'...

not that I haven't had to whack a few old guys with one of my even older paint brushes (I still have a few that belonged to my oil-painting granny, and tole-painting aunt) before - but it's the indecision, not the inability of our gender that seems to make them less inclined to play 'super salesman'.

at one point, I knew every paint, tile, and carpet guy in the county because my dad was an architect who babysat every single one of his contractors AND his clients...and I've found those difference even within individual chains - the BM guys in town A had a much different approach to the ones in town B, partly because of their personalities, partly because one sold mostly to contractors, and the other sold mostly to homeowners and hobbiests.

honestly? I miss them all, since I've found myself 'training' paint techs on my own this past decade - there are times I wish I could afford to work at a paint shop, just to get things the way I want them !
Faron79
18 years ago
Hmmmm....
Paint stores' that kinda "ignore" women...

We're so opposite of that it's funny!
It's also funny when their Male "significant-other" accompanies them! Kind of a "deer-in-the-headlights" look! The Ladies are usually confidently choosing colors, often with a Decorator, and the Guys usually wander off to Power-Equipment, new 2008 Weber Grills, or something!

When all parties are "re-united", we make it a point to ask them (BOTH!) about their current wall/color-status. ESPECIALLY if there's wallpaper-removal involved, etc.!

(You can also probably tell we're not a "contractor-oriented" store...the 2 enormous C2 chip-racks cost 3x what my Jimmy's worth now!! HEY...that reminds me...we just got our new RL chip-rack in too! I was "working-on" our RL-Rep. for a couple weeks!)

Faron
skypathway
Original Author
18 years ago
Chinacat, I wish you come here and train some of our local paint techs LOL. I guess maybe the BM store is more of a contractor store because it's location is off the beaten pathway compared to the SW. I guess I look like a looky loo, but I'm really not. I've been painting and hanging wallpaper since I was 14 and have plenty of experience and have read numerous books on painting technique. I'm probably also atypical at picking colors compared to most GW. I collect my swatches, see how they work with my fabrics, keep looking at them and eliminating them until I'm left with one and that's what I go with. Once I've painted I don't fuss anymore about the color because I know once everything is in the room, slight variations of color are really not noticeable.

Faron, boy I wish you and your store were closer - the pictures you post of your store shows it to be a very inviting place - so neat and clean and well laid out. Clearly you take great pride in what you're doing and it shows. I hope the owners of the store appreciate your hard work.

Sky