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The store I work in is only 2 years old. The machines I work with seem to be about 10 years old.
The actual paint shakers are all right. I'm sure there's been no major technological breakthroughs in paint shaking technology.
My main beef is with the color sampler/matching machine. For those of you that don't know, a color matching computer has a component that emits a laser that reads a paint chip, or fabric, or wallpaper, etc., reads the desired color, and sends it to the computer so the worker drone can make paint from it. Home Depot, our major competition, has a reader the size of a small handheld scanner. My department has a reader the size of a concrete block. It is not handheld; it sits heavily on the counter, mocking me.
It estimates the correct color 8 out of 10 times; therefore, I have to do a lot of manual adjusting to get close to the correct color. I admit, it's made me a lot better at mixing paint, because I can now tell what colors are in something just by looking. But it makes for a lot of unnecessary work, and slows down my paint making groove. If a customer brings in something larger than, say, a greeting card, then it's very awkward for me to hold it to the reader. An old cabinet door? Forget it; I need extra hands.
I had a customer today bring in a little totable flower box. She wanted a color that was in the handle. For the life of me, I couldn't position the box to be read. I tried so many times, but I couldn't make the lens of the machine come in contact with the flower box. Customer ended up going to Home Depot.
Want some stain matched? Might as well go to our competition. Want the same color as your pillow? Go to our competition.
I always try my best when it comes to color matching. But I always let the customer know that it may take longer than anticipated to get the right color. That makes me and my store look bad.
The actual paint shakers are all right. I'm sure there's been no major technological breakthroughs in paint shaking technology.
My main beef is with the color sampler/matching machine. For those of you that don't know, a color matching computer has a component that emits a laser that reads a paint chip, or fabric, or wallpaper, etc., reads the desired color, and sends it to the computer so the worker drone can make paint from it. Home Depot, our major competition, has a reader the size of a small handheld scanner. My department has a reader the size of a concrete block. It is not handheld; it sits heavily on the counter, mocking me.
It estimates the correct color 8 out of 10 times; therefore, I have to do a lot of manual adjusting to get close to the correct color. I admit, it's made me a lot better at mixing paint, because I can now tell what colors are in something just by looking. But it makes for a lot of unnecessary work, and slows down my paint making groove. If a customer brings in something larger than, say, a greeting card, then it's very awkward for me to hold it to the reader. An old cabinet door? Forget it; I need extra hands.
I had a customer today bring in a little totable flower box. She wanted a color that was in the handle. For the life of me, I couldn't position the box to be read. I tried so many times, but I couldn't make the lens of the machine come in contact with the flower box. Customer ended up going to Home Depot.
Want some stain matched? Might as well go to our competition. Want the same color as your pillow? Go to our competition.
I always try my best when it comes to color matching. But I always let the customer know that it may take longer than anticipated to get the right color. That makes me and my store look bad.
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