[Johnson] Ranger Paint: some observations

[Glen Zook]

I get the "best" paint available and, at least in the Dallas, Texas, area, the price is right at $13 a quart and sometimes, when it is "on sale", it is even cheaper.  I would venture to say that at least 75% of the paint sales at this store are to contractors (maybe even more).  There is a larger Sherwin-Williams facility that is about 10 miles from my house that deals primarily with industrial customers including quite a number of electronics manufacturing firms.  They can provide considerably more types of paint than that is available from my "local" store.  However, I can usually get what I need at the store that is only about 2 miles away so I generally go there.

Both of these stores are "company owned" rather than franchise operations.  Possibly that has something to do with the price as well as the "professionalism" of the employees.  I have nothing against Home Depot or Lowe's when it comes to things like house paint.  In fact, especially when they are having one of their pretty often "sales", the price of such paints are definitely cheaper and I purchase such paints from the home improvement centers when the price is less.

One thing that I have found is that the "computer" doesn't always come up with the best match.  Close, usually, but sometimes not close enough!  That is where having a human involved can result in a much closer match.  My eldest daughter is an artist/commercial artist (she does both) and she has what might be called "perfect color" (like "perfect pitch" in the musical world).  She can look at a particular shade of paint and tell you what colors make up that particular shade.  In fact, she can mix paint that when applied cannot be told different from the original color.

Her website is

http://rebeccazook.com

Unfortunately, she lives about 75 miles away and I can't always get her to mix paint!  Also, I do like to know the "formula" so that I can get more paint when required.

Glen, K9STH

Website:  http://k9sth.com


--- On Thu, 6/17/10, Harry Vaught, KT4AE <kt4ae at bellsouth.net> wrote:

The price for a quart of acrylic at Sherwin was $18.67.  It may have been a high-grade version, but that's what he showed me.
 
The last time I had something matched at Home Depot, the computer did the measuring and dispensing which removed the human error element from the process.
 
I stopped using Sherwin Williams for house paint at my old QTH when I had to repaint my house every other year with their solid stain, but when I changed to Behr at Home Depot it lasted more like five years at lower cost.  Everyone's mileage varies and I was surprised at the problem I had at the Sherwin store since normally any shopping experience here is a happy one with friendly and helpful people.
 
The Home Depot guy said he'd heard a lot of this from customers and it seemed that the Sherwin Williams store catered mostly to the contractor trade.