Recent experience buying custom color paint

vulcanman

Senior member
Apr 11, 2001
614
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I wanted to touch up on a portion of our living room wall ... so I took a color sample to the hardware store and had them do a color match.

All I wanted was a quart of paint to touch up a small area ... but the store policy dictates that customers purchase a min. of 1 gallon of custom paint.

Why ?

Even I could afford to pay ... I would end up wasting the rest of it ...

Is that environmentally a good policy to force customers to purchase more than they need ?

I am willing to pay a premium for the quartz can ... since its more sensible than forcing me to buy a gallon can.

What do you think ?
 

ponyo

Lifer
Feb 14, 2002
19,689
2,811
126
If you want a quart, take it to a paint store. They'll sell you a quart. Home Depot will also sell you by the quart. At least they did years back.

If I was you, I would buy the gallon. It's not much more and you might need it. Unless you're touching up with original paint using the same application method, touch up area will not match 100%. So you might have to repaint the entire section of the wall if you don't want touch up areas to show. It just depend on how picky you are.
 

ManyBeers

Platinum Member
Aug 30, 2004
2,519
1
81
Originally posted by: vulcanman
I wanted to touch up on a portion of our living room wall ... so I took a color sample to the hardware store and had them do a color match.

All I wanted was a quart of paint to touch up a small area ... but the store policy dictates that customers purchase a min. of 1 gallon of custom paint.

Why ?

Even I could afford to pay ... I would end up wasting the rest of it ...

Is that environmentally a good policy to force customers to purchase more than they need ?

I am willing to pay a premium for the quartz can ... since its more sensible than forcing me to buy a gallon can.

What do you think ?

If it doesn't match absolutely perfectly you will probably have to paint the whole wall anyway.
And what is wrong with a store having a minimum requirement for custon colors?
 

QED

Diamond Member
Dec 16, 2005
3,428
3
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The same reason most hardware stores won't sell you a single nail, or a grocery store won't sell you a single hamburger bun.

The fixed costs for selling a quart or a gallon of custom paint are about the same, so the profit margin is obviously much less on the quart-sized container. Rather than charge a premium to sell a quart-sized container of paint (which would run the risk of seeming unfair to a customer), they just don't offer it at all.