SCORE!! had a great find at HD Oops paint shelf...

[brecklundin]

Yesterday made one of my quad-weekly trips to HD this honey-do season. Well, I always make a point to visit the Oops! paint shelf. Yesterday I found 5-gallons of Behr Premium Ultra in the EXACT color I needed to paint the trim on our place this summer.

I am refinishing an extension to our deck and needed a color to match the green I got for the accent color on the deck. And danged of this paint I found does not match almost exactly the deck color.

I did a test section of the trim today and it looks nice and captures the color I was looking for...now I just need a big bucket or two of pale/pastel kinda pistachio for the main color...

So instead of about $125 on a bucket of trim paint I got it all for $25. Made my day...of course then I had to drive a 90mi round-trip to Goleta to grab the last two cans of the stain I used on the planter boxes I built around the deck railing. Seems Behr lost a class action suit because this stain (Rawhide) killed some finishes on some log homes to the point of some very pricey and lengthy repairs. So they took off the shelves at HD and might have D/C'd it for good. But now I have enough until these boxes die or I do...either way works.

I know it is not a $25 Dewalt planer but it's still fun to get a deal!!

BTW, I asked the paint counter dudes about why there is so much Opps! paint some days and they explained that most of the time it is not because they screwed it up or a bad batch of paint but rather a customer askes for a bunch of paint to be mixed then never comes back for it...that is actually pretty rotten of people. But hey, someone has to buy the paint.

[Cheeky]

BTW, I asked the paint counter dudes about why there is so much Opps! paint some days and they explained that most of the time it is not because they screwed it up or a bad batch of paint but rather a customer askes for a bunch of paint to be mixed then never comes back for it...that is actually pretty rotten of people. But hey, someone has to buy the paint.

have you ever noticed how slow the paint department is? it's ridiculous how few people they have staffed there at the locations near me. i decided to use behr a couple weeks ago because i wanted to see how their #1 rating from CR came about (interior).

i was one of 3 people at the counter and it took almost an hour. he had my order and paint, some mixing and some on the verge, and i was about to leave. i'm never going back to hd for paint, partially due to that experience, but mainly because behr premium plus flat enamel takes 3 coats, of light color nonetheless, to cover.

[goslin23]

We always hit the oops paint shelf at HD, we have about a dozen quarts of good quality paints in different colors that we usually pick up for $2 each and a couple of gallons that we got for $5. Some of the colors are not exactly ones that you would have bought, but I've mixed a couple together and got some pretty good results.

-=gos=-

[Thalermade]

While it is disappointing to hear that people order and then don't buy the paint, I am glad that the stores do try to sell the paint before just throwing it away and writing it off. Some cities have groups that ask for paint and mix it together to provide paint for a variety of volunteer civic fix-up projects.

Have fun painting.

Russ

[brecklundin]

cheeky:

I have to say our local HD provides supperior service in every department. Never have they been rude, slow or anything close. But this is a small town where you will run into the person on the other side of the counter somewhere in town.

Also it is a very CLEAN and organized store. Which is amazing considering how busy this store is...but the owner (not the manager) is here all the time and expects it kept ship shape and the customer happy. Mind they are pretty much the only game in town and do not have to go the these lengths but they do, this makes all the difference and yup, we are LUCKY.

I can say the HD's 30mi in either direction are HORRIBLE in terms of being clean, organized, polite and efficent. I had refused to shop there before our local HD opened a few years ago.

goslin:

I do the same thing...I never do not have paint that will be "good enough" for a project here and there. I keep a couple 5-gal buckets and then some of the smaller cans which I can use to adjust a color to something close to what we might want.

Of course it all ends up being a semi-gloss-satin-emamel-latex paint... ...but hey, it still works fine.

A few days back I grabbed some masonry paint that will work wonderfully for some pavers I also bought on a clearence for a nice discount. But the color was off...then I remembered I had the masonry paint...perfect or at least good enough. Saved another $150 between the paver discount and the paint mark down. It all seems to add up lately which helps cuz the Rx's are not getting cheaper...hehehehe...

A few months back I found a 5-gal bucket of drywall primer for $15. I have a couple rooms I am going to drywall this summer so that will be good to have and again saved me a bit of cash to do the job right.

Thalermade:

I think it goes back to the type of management each store has...good managers just want to move things and generate revenue. But then there are some managers who will "step-over-dollars-to-pick-up-nickles" which will kill the bottom line more so then just making the best out of a loss and just moving forward. Though I seem to recall the Behr rep ends up having to approve the mark-down. It might be part of that "just-in-time" purchasing most stores do anymore. Where the store, even grocery stores, do not actually buy a product on their self until a customer purchases the product. It's weird but how they all seem to work anymore. It's also yet another reason small companies have a very difficult time staying in business.

I suspect some stores have been burned by organized folks who will go in on Sunday, order a bunch of paint mixed, not pick it up and then a different person visits the paint dept the following day to snag the paint they actually wanted for a fraction of the price. So if a store is burned enough times that way, or feels they have been, I could see a move to a different way of disposing of the paint.

I never thought of civic groups getting the paint for their needs too...love that idea. Nice way to support the community as well as keep the fraud factor down.

[jking]

I have used several other brands of paint & Behr is my preferred brand. I've never had coverage problems with it. I've never used any paint that actually delivers on the promise of "one coat coverage". Dutch Boy was highly recommended to me by a friend & after trying it, I was not pleased with it at all. Way too runny, almost transparent, & had an odd look to it when dry (just didn't look right). I've also tried Lowe's American Traditions exterior trim paint. It's ok, but seems to get chalky easily.