Big Box store beats local Hardware/Lumber center for good service?!?

I need to re-stain my garage/workshop. I have about a gallon of the original stain, its from CABOT STAINS and is a solid color stain.

Simple, I look up CABOT on the internet, find the locally owned stores than are CABOT dealers and head out to have the stain matched. Figure it should be a pretty simple thing.

So I walk into Von Tobel lumber, a locally owned small chain that is a real lumber yard, paint store, etc that serves contractors. I've used them many times, they are staffed by experienced people, typically can answer any question I have. I've got my gallon of original stain with me, set it on the counter and wait for the 'paint' guy. He shows up and basically says he has no freaking clue how to help, no way he can match it up, and shakes his head. . .

Off I go to the local big box chain. A discount chain here in the midwest called MENARDS. They sell a lot of cheap crap, lower grade tools, lower grade everything else . . . but they also happen to be a CABOT STAIN dealer. I typically hate shopping at MENARDS. So I walk up to the paint counter and a 20ish year old girl is there, she pulls out a wooden stick, stains the stick with some of the stain that I brought in and dries it with a hair dryer.

Together we walk over to the sample chips and we decide which stain my sample matches. She mixes up a fresh bucket for me, tests it, and it turns out to be wrong. So we go back to the sample chips with the wooden stick that is now stained with 2 different stains, pick something else, she mixes that into the bucket she just mixed. We try again. Fail again. She is apologizing for her 'mistake' and asks if I have time to try again. We repeat the same process, still wrong, but each time we are getting closer. Each time she sticks a sticker onto the top of the bucket. One more time and we score a nearly perfect match, close enough that I have to hold the stick at an angle to see the dividing line between the original and the new color. I'd say its 99.5% correct. I tell her close enough. She then explains that if I ever need any more of this stain that I simply need to bring in the bucket lid with the stickers on it, the stickers are the code for all the colors added to the base and she can make me another batch.


So who would have thought that a 20ish year old kid, working at a discount warehouse/box type store could blow away the service and professionalism of a "real" lumber/hardware store?

Me, I may never go back to Von Tobels again.

I still don't really like the selection of products offered by MENARDS but they have, never the less, gained me as a customer. At least for some things.

Hey, we have a VonTobels up here in Stevensville, Michigan.

They need to get their crap together. They DO NOT understand customer service.

We had to go to Menard's in South Haven to get the cedar siding we wanted; it was too difficult for VonTobel to source. Since then, we've bought about $8,000 of it from Menard's.

I avoid Vontobels. How do they stay in business?

VonTobels has been expanding over the past decade. I'm pretty sure they started in Valparaiso, IN and they were the source for contractors over in Porter County. They have stayed in mostly the rural areas. Typically they have quality grade products. They are a bit out of my way, don't shop there often, but I try to support local businesses, which is why, when I checked the CABOT STAIN website, I was happy to see a local store. Oh well.

I cannot say enough good about Menards. I used to drive 90 miles to get to one in Effingham IL. Now we finally have one here in St Peter's MO.

Good prices, great selections. Beats Lowes to death with both.

And the staff are always helpful.

Not a place for high end appliances or surface finishes. Garden stuff is kinda lame. Although their manufactured wall block and patio pavers exceed Lowes and Home Depot with selection and price. But for everyday lumber, roofing and building supplies,,,,tops.

Menard's can get you the highest quality stuff if you ask. Alot of the stuff in the store is so-so, but they can get you what you want. And they don't complain about having to do the extra work.