This is my real job. I can't call it a nine-to-five job, or my forty-hours-a-week job. This is my part time job. It's one I've had for eleven years. It's a paint store. It is a locally, family owned paint store. In fact, it is my family. We are not Home Depot, nor would we ever, ever strive to be. Our philosophy is simple: We care. We don't have fancy decorations, top of the line sales equipment, no orange aprons for us, but if you've been in the store more than once or twice, we can usually remember you. More than likely I will remember what you painted and what color of paint you got. We've color matched everything from a weed to a pair of underwear.
As more and more big box stores move in, we feel the crunch. In these hard times with the economy being what it is, we feel it even harder. People complain about the bad service they receive at these big box stores, yet they continue to go there. Why? Our prices are competetive, our salespeople are knowledgeable. I have seen so many small stores close recently. At what price? Remember pharmacies that actually remembered you? Remember the butcher at the grocery store who was a real man (or woman) that gave you a piece of bologna when you were a kid? If this trend of the big stores monopolizing the market continues, soon our only option will be the big box stores. We will become just a number to them. You can choose. Take a stand and choose to shop small - at small stores, that is. This holiday season remember the little guys. The locally owned shops are going to get my business this year. Take a stand. Or take a number.
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I've learned to never just pick out a color and mixing up the paint without that customer seeing it first. A customer came in this week asking me to help him pick out a "tan" color. I was thinking of something like these:
He landed up picking this as his tan:
Quite a difference!
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