|
Posted by frank megaweege on September 6, 2007, 10:38 am
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > Bernardo Gui wrote:
> >> wrote:
>
> >>>The other day SWMBO says to me "I'd like those Bordeaux colored
> >>>shutters that I saw at Lowes."
>
> >>>So I take the new shutters over to the paint counter and asked for a
> >>>quart of matching paint for the trim. The guy in the red vest tries to
> >>>find the color Bordeaux in his computer. No go. He tries a couple of
> >>>paint chips but nothing matches. He tries to hold the 48" shutters up
> >>>to the little tiny color matching computer lens - the resulting
> >>>formula is not even close. "Sorry, I don't think I can match it."
>
> >>>I drive down the road to a local paint store and bring the shutters
> >>>in. The guy behind the counter grabs a keychain full of little
> >>>miniature shutters and finds one that's fairly close. "Let's start
> >>>with this and we'll tweak it from there." He mixes the formula found
> >>>on the back of the mini-shutter, brings it over and declares it "too
> >>>purple". A couple of drops of this and that and he hits it perfect on
> >>>the next try.
>
> >>>When I told him what happened at Lowes he said the computers don't
> >>>work very well with dark colors and the guys behind the counter are
> >>>too lazy to try and match the paint manually. Guess where I'm going
> >>>the next time I need paint?
>
> >> You get what you pay for (most of the time). You were a customer with
> >> highly specific needs, and you should go to a higher-priced store to
> >> get the attention you wanted.
>
> >> Of course, you'd be a knucklehead to go to that same place for a can
> >> of standard-color paint that you can easily find on one of the
> >> gazillions of paint sample cards at Lowes.
>
> >> Bernardo
>
> > I would be a fool then. With the automatic discount that I get at the
> > real paint stores, plus the higher quality paint that I get, I come out
> > ahead every time. Plus, it only takes a minute or two unless I come in
> > when there are alot of customers. Even then, it is usually MUCH faster
> > than the big box stores. So I save money AND time. I guess I am just a
> > fool for economy.
>
> > The real fools are the ones that think that Home Depot and Lowes are
> > cheaper.
> > Robert Allison
>
> They're the fools who don't put any value at all on their own time. Do it
> right the first time, and you have more hours to spend with your family, go
> fishing, or just sit in the yard watching the clouds go by. When I bought my
> first house, I was fortunate enough to have a hardware store two blocks
> away. The owner and his wife knew how to fix every damned thing, from
> plaster to electrical to plumbing to painting. I'd walk in, learn something,
> buy the right thing the first time, and be done with the job fast. They'd
> introduce my kid to the store's official cat and keep him busy while I
> concentrated on hardware.
>
> Those places still exist, but in a nation of idiots, advertising is king,
> and too many people never find their local hardware store because Home
> Depot's ads are bigger and more frequent
I'm lucky enough to have one of those close by. I walk in and tell
the owner what I'm trying to do and he wanders back into the dark
cluttered aisles and returns with exactly what I need along with good
explanations and advice.
Maybe his mark up is higher than Lowe's. It's not worth it to check.
Peace of mind is priceless.
| 
Yahoo! 
Google 
Windows Live 
del.icio.us 
digg 
Netscape 
XML Sitemap