Big Box Stores and Pro Painters. The good, the bad and the ugly.

The appeal of big box stores is undeniable. Sheer buying power enables them to sell at generally low prices. Then there is the convenience of getting many products from a single location. For the home owner or even a small contractor, you can get almost everything in one trip. I know of many carpenter/home improvement guys that are at Lowe’s or Home Depot almost every morning. But when it comes to paint contractors, most of them avoid these stores like the plague.

It’s not like they don’t have decent products. Like many paint stores, they carry several grades and price points of paint, so there should be something for just about all projects. They are brands that are well advertised so the consumer should not be alarmed at big box type paints. Even some of the hard core pros will admit that they have decent (maybe not the best) paint lines.

So what is it that drives professional painters away? From my networking with painters across the country, it falls into 7 categories.

1. Junk: Many pros just don’t believe that the big box carries a good product. To be truthful, not everything that the big boxes carry is good. But anybody can buy low grade crap from any of the established paint stores too. Sherwin Williams, Benjamin Moore, PPG all have top notch and slop grades of paint, with plenty of choices in between.

2. Afraid of change: Most people don’t embrace change, new and different can be scary. Switching from a tried and true product to the unknown can be frightening. After all, how is this new stuff going to work? What happens if it doesn’t work?

3. Warranty: Sure, lifetime on the can looks good; it is impressive, it screams“BUY ME BECAUSE YOU CAN TRUST ME!) But can you? What happens if you DO have a problem? Who do you talk to? Will they back it up? I know at my 2 main paint suppliers, if we have a problem they are there. They back us up with product and reimburse our time. I know who to talk to and they know me. It’s not like dealing with whoever’s shift it is.

4. Selection: There is more to painting than just paint. We need quality brushes, a larger selection of roller pads, leak proof drops, parts for spray rigs, some good scrapers and all that stuff doesn’t have to be cheap Chinese stuff. How about items for RRP jobs. (And if you don’t know what that is, you are a couple of years behind already.) Pro painters don’t want to go to one store for paint and another for quality sundries.

5. Price: Even though you have decent every day pricing, the specialty paint stores still beat you on most things. Besides, I think if somebody is buying paint weekly or monthly, they should get better than the occasional sale price everyday, specially when you are lacking in other areas.

6. Ego: Maybe ego is the wrong word, but most contractors like going to a store where they have built a solid relationship. I only know my paint rep at Home Depot. Don’t know if he is married or single, what he has done prior, and after being my rep for over two years I have spoken to him maybe 3-4 times.
Now, I know my Sherwin Williams rep, he comes to my jobs, calls or emails me, I have met his girlfriend and he has met several of my family members. He calls when there are sales and just to see how things are going. The local PPG store I deal with, I know the owners wife, rode motorcycles with his brother, he knows my fathers and brothers and I even have his personal (not business) phone number. So instead of ego, we will say relationships.

7. Service: Part of the lack of service flows from the relationships (or in this case, lack thereof) that business people build. The business model that the big box employs prevents a comparable level of service. Come in get it and get out.

To be honest, HD had tried to kick it up a notch. They do have a pro program
that is geared to the guys that buy mass quantities. (Which is really more for
builders and new construction, like THAT is going anywhere these days) I am
enrolled in the Home Depot program. You receive a minimal pricing break that
can be matched or exceeded by a sale. They also offer a horrendous fax/online
ordering system.

Horrendous? Here’s my experience with the Home Depot “online ordering”. I get
to the store to pick up my order at the “Pro Desk”.

Me: “I’m here to pick up my order”

HD Pro desk schlep in Annapolis, MD: “What’s the name?”

Me: “Family Professional Painting”

Schlep (looking around): “I don’t see it, when did you order it?”

Me: “An hour and a half ago.”
Schlep: “Well, it should be here. Let me call the paint department” (wait a few
minutes) “The paint department didn’t get it. When did you say you sent it?”

Me talking slowly: “I sent it an hour and a half ago”
Schlep: “Well. Let me look around the desk?” ………….I don’t see the fax.”

Me: “I sent it to the email you gave me”

Schlep: “Oh….let me look”……..”Here it is.” ……”You should have faxed it.”

Me: "I was on the jobsite when I sent that. I don’t carry a fax machine, that’s like
riding a horse to work. Does anybody do that?”

Schlep: “Well….we only check the emails first thing in the morning. You
should fax them for now on.”

Me: “I don’t even own a fax any longer. Why would you give out the Pro desk
email if you don’t regularly check it?”

Schlep: “I’m sorry, just fax it next time.”

That is just one example. I have called, emailed at night so it can be picked up the next morning and you have a 50/50 chance of it being ready. That said, when I got there and it wasn’t ready, they jumped right on it.

Lowe’s (Actually Valspar) in Easton, MD was worse. They have called me a half dozen times and I kept telling them I wasn’t interested. Finally they wore me down to a nub and I agreed to meet with the Valspar Rep and the Lowe’s store manager, who was to call and set up a time. Several months later and have yet to hear from them and to be honest, I have been in that store a few times and the paint department people have an attitude.

Personally, I have thrown in the towel on the big boxes and so have most of the pros I know. Sure I’ll stop in for a quick bag of Easy Sand, or a box of trash bags, but if they want the bulk of pro painters business they need to start offering the things the small guys do.

Note to big box stores: Look at those seven categories. See if you can or even want to compete with the local specialty paint stores. Then call us, maybe we can do business.

Rain, rain go away. I still gotta paint today!

Rain, rain go away. I still gotta paint today!

For most paint contractors, weather plays a huge part in what they can get done.
This time of year our focus is on exteriors and we need all the dry weather we can get. All it takes is several days of bad weather to screw up the schedule and make customers angry.

In the past, we relied on the morning weatherperson, how the sky looked, roll of the dice and any other method that we could think of to decide if we were working that day. Some days you take a chance and knock off early because it starts to look gloomy. Who wants to fix a paint job because of bad weather?



With today's proliferation of smart phones it is no longer necessary to pack it up early because it looks like it might rain. You can tap into real time weather information maximized for your location. I use an app called my-cast, but there are several options. I just enter a zip code and download barometric pressure, Doppler radar maps, and more so we can make decisions based on real time info, instead of a best guess. It has kept us on the job more which translates into more work getting done.

What do you use, if anything to base weather related decisions on?

“Nothing gets done, ‘till something gets sold”

“Nothing gets done, ‘till something gets sold”

Here's a piece written today for "The Blogging Painters". Enjoy.

It's not the problem; it's how you handled it!

It's not the problem; it's how you handled it!


Life inevitably throws you a curveball. If you are in the painting industry and have not made a mistake, trust me, you will. Spilled paint, broken items or even applying the wrong color, it happens to everyone. Being on the front line means no matter who makes the mistake, you will be perceived as responsible.

Recently, we were given some material to try out. (Free is good) Having used Zinnser's excellent line of primers for years, it would be hard to switch from it. We use so much that we generally buy it a case at a time, and because of the cost savings at big box stores, we normally get it there.

One of our suppliers (Sherwin Williams) started to carry XIM's Primer Sealer 1125 touting it as a replacement for Zinnser's Bulls Eye 123, both being waterborne stain blocking primers. Fred Davis, my sales rep gave a gallon of the waterborne and the oil to try. (Although, he took the oil back and still owes me one.) Since we were doing some work at my next door neighbors, we decided to give it a try. (No review, that's a future blog)

Anyway, as we applied it, we noticed it was bubbling as we went over drywall repairs and even over previously painted areas. Now I am ready to pour it all back up and toss it. Switching back to a tried and true product. But first, we called the people at XIM. They took the time to ask a few questions and got the batch number off the can. A couple of minutes on hold and we were informed that they had received a bad batch of raw materials from somebody and that there was foaming issues. Not only were they willing to replace the gallon (I told them it was a freebie and not necessary) they shipped me two gallons for the one.

What's the point? I could have easily trashed the paint and XIM, telling everybody I know that the product was junk. BUT, they went out of their way to explain what happened, why it happened and what they were going to do to make it good. I wound up feeling good about the results and am going to give them another shot. Point is, do you treat your customers this way? When you make a mistake do you blow them off? Or do you "Make it good"?

If repeat customers and referrals are important to your business, you need to go the extra mile. Solve any problems ASAP and make sure the customer knows you've taken care of it and they are happy.

I'll submit to you that most people care less about the mistake, than the way you handle that mistake. If you are in the customer service business, you need to handle all mistakes in a way that re-enforces that you are going to take care of you customer.

Stroking Wooster's Chinex FTP.

A brush to a painter is like money to a banker. It really makes our world go round. Can't imagine being in the business and not using one daily.

The brush you choose not only has an impact on the finished look of the project, but also has a bearing on how quickly and with how much effort the job gets completed. Add the fact that bristle material, weather, product choice and even substrate all effect how well the brush works, make the choices daunting.

My friend John from Wooster sent one of their new Chinex FTP bristle brushes for an evaluation. For those not familiar with Chinex, it is a synthetic bristle that can be used in place of China bristle (animal hair) for alkyd (oil based) paints. It also has the ability to be used in latex paint without affecting the bristles. Something you can't do with natural bristle.

We've had the brush since April and have been slow to put it through the paces because I have found that summer heat makes Chinex too flimsy to use outdoors. So we waited for warm weather and used it in 90 plus degree heat.

Working on a cedar sided home, using PPG's Sun Proof exterior paint, we really got a feel for it. First, unlike the competitors Chinex brush, this one handles the hot stuff. While it did get a little limp in high temps, it did not become too wimpy to use. In fact the brush is pretty darn stiff to begin with.

When the day was done and it was time to clean up, the brush actually cleaned up faster than most. (One of Wooster's selling points for it.)

Other Wooster selling points for the FTP (stands for "For Today's Paints") was increased paint release and reduced drag. Can't testify to that one because I just didn't see it.

Am also bummed out about the lack of reservoir or the amount of paint it holds. I found myself dipping more often then normal. It was the first thing I noticed about the brush, lack of paint.

This is a short term test and we plan on using this brush in different environments and with different products. Right now though, I fail to see a reason to buy this. Wooster's excellent Alpha line does everything this brush does, only better.

Chinex FTP:

Pros:

1. Bristles beat the heat.

2. Can be used in both oil (alkyd) and latex (waterborne) paints.

3. Easy to clean.

Cons:

1. Doesn't hold much paint.

2. Wooster already has a superior product. (Alpha Brushes)

It's always nice to get noticed by your peers. American Paint Contractor Magazine has us listed as a "Who's Who In The Paint Industry 2011". (full article starts on page 16) Thanks to APC for supporting the contractors in the trenches.