Earlier this week I posted the pilot episode of a new podcast series called Mark Lipton Live , where I summarized the findings of my investigation of wage theft at Sherwin-Williams .    Recorded earlier this month, the episode lays out my case against Sherwin, which forces employees to work without pay as a matter of practice according to the hundreds of Sherwin-Williams employees I interviewed.  In the episode I speak to how each class of employee is impacted by these schem

In July of 2022 I pondered whether slowing sales in Sherwin’s Consumer Brands Group portended a shift in DIY shopping habits , as early data suggested.  Four years later that trend is easily seen, and not just in the results at Sherwin’s CBG but also in the results at Masco. Which, like Sherwin, is struggling to maintain its market share in the DIY segment.   Last week Masco reported a 15% decrease in their volume through Home Depot during the fourth quarter of 2025, a stagge

On Monday I reported that Pittsburgh Paints had removed their eponymously branded products from the shelves at Home Depot, unwinding the first of Irick’s Follies .  The second being he belief that Walmart could sell paint .   When the agreement to put PPG’s best-selling store and dealer brands into Home Depot was announced in 2022, I opined the idea seemed fraught: unlikely to generate growth in excess of the cannibalism which seemed assured. And the move was certain to lo

After all that , former Sherwin-Williams executive Monty Griffin had some advice for me, like a bug on the windshield telling the driver to change lanes. Still  unable to hold his thumbs, allowing me to call his basic comprehension  into question.     In an email sent in reply to my post, Griffin suggested I seek legal counsel prior to mentioning his name again, perhaps thinking there was some law protecting assholes from being called out?  His threat begs further rebuke,

I was befuddled when former Sherwin-Williams executive Monty Griffin showed up hot in my LinkedIn threads more than a month ago asserting that, “everything about me was offensive” in a reply to one post.    Had he only said most things, I might have plead guilty.    Despite that introduction and our vastly different perspectives, I invited Monty to keep replying to my posts, asking only that he keep those replies on topic rather than ad hominem. The first of many words I ha

Last week I reported that more than 400 paint geeks had lost their jobs in layoffs at Pittsburgh, Rust-Oleum (owned by RPM), Ace Hardware and Chemours, the country’s leading TiO2 producer.  Those 400 are among an estimated 1,000 laid off in paint in the last three-quarters, though a detailed accounting might make that number closer to 1,200.   I further shared my belief that more layoffs were still to come, a forecast which became fact the next day when Carboline let anot

Last week was a bad one for paint geeks who were forced to watch their ranks diminish by nearly 400 after layoffs at Pittsburgh, Rust-Oleum, Ace Hardware and Chemours—a leading producer of TiO2.  That bloodbath leaving Dan Calkins’ opportunism as the week’s only good news.    Which was only good for independent paint retailers .   Combined with layoffs at Pittsburgh , Behr , Sherwin-Williams and Benjamin Moore during the second half of last year and more than 1,000 of us

The economy of the United States was still recovering from the Great Depression in 1936, with unemployment down to 15% from its high of 25% in 1933.  With Gross Domestic Product also on the rise, things were probably looking up for the first time since 1929 in my grandfather’s Bronx, New York, paint store.    In an era before DIY projects and ready-made paints, customers in Gramps’ store were all painters, buying lead, solvent, pigments and driers in bulk before blending the

British rock star Chrissie Hynde is best known for her dark contralto , a captivating tone which maintains its haunt even as the octaves rise.    Lead singer and guitarist for the band the Pretenders , Hynde played the University of Maryland’s Ritchie Coliseum in 1981 where I was a freshman working concert security. Just a short walk from my room in the fraternity house , the gig ensured a front row seat for the best campus events, while putting enough cash in my pocket t

Less than a week before Christmas, Sherwin-Williams told managers at 28 stores, eight of which were in the Southwestern division, that their stores would be closing permanently on February 20 th with their positions eliminated effective that day.   Merry fucking Christmas from CEO Heidi Petz , who could not find the compassion or few Pennie’s necessary to allow an estimated 50+ employees to enjoy the holidays before dealing with this bad news. A guilty plea to my charge of

Last week the Federal Trade Commission sued to block Henkel AG & Co . from acquiring Liquid Nails Construction Adhesive , alleging that the acquisition would “eliminate competition leading to higher prices for consumers.”   Henkel is the manufacturer of Loctite , which along with Liquid Nails are the nation’s two largest construction adhesive brands.      Under the terms of the proposed deal, Henkel was to acquire Liquid Nails for $725 million from American Industrial Partne

A trade war and buy-Canadian impulse activated by US President Donald Trump have conspired to seismically shift the competitive landscape for architectural coatings in Canada according to my sources.    Last week an expert in that market reported to me that Sherwin-Williams, Pittsburgh and Benjamin Moore were all down 20% in that country for the first half of this year.    A source at Benjamin Moore confirmed the probability of that scoop, sharing that the company was down

For the first three decades independent paint retailers and handful of the field and executive staff who called on them were the only readers of my screeds, at that time available only by thumbing a copy of the Paint Dealer Magazine. When the Paint Dealer closed in 2020 I became a blogger, though the demographics did not change much.      Until I announced that I had been hired as the Strategic Counselor by Dan Calkins , THE freshly-minted CEO of Benjamin Moore, readership

Last week paint makers AkzoNobel and Axalta Coatings Systems announced that the companies would be merging to create an enterprise with combined revenues of more than $17 billion.  THE planet’s second largest coatings manufacturer after Sherwin-Williams now that PPG has divested .   I plan to add coverage of the merger as it seems likely to impact the US market but don’t worry, I won’t start that today.       I Redditt   An employee at Pittsburgh Paints created a new sub

My reporting on a price increase at Pittsburgh Paints last week shifted the demographics from Cleveland to Cranberry, though it was not the price of paint which Pittsburgh's employees were looking to discuss.     Like the 7% price increase announced by Sherwin-Williams Pittsburgh’s increase reflects the changing priorities of the largest paint retailers, coveting profits more than revenue in a stark reversal for both brands which are known by dealers to use their scale to

Stamford, Connecticut based internet service provider Frontier Internet wants my hometown to know that if you sign up for their five-gig service you get a free $300 Visa gift card.  So excited are they to share the news that a representative of Frontier shouted it through my door last week, after I had refused to open it.    THE reverse ding-dong-ditch had me back at my desk in less time than my father would have needed to throw out a sales rep who came into the store withou

When paint manufacturer Kelly-Moore was shuttered during the Charles Gassenheimer affair the victims were spread across paint’s landscape, the vendors and employees of that company who had become incidental to Gassenheimer’s greed.   And amongst the employees was a special class of victims, ones who lost more than just their jobs when Kelly-Moore was exploded.   In the months leading up to Kelly’s demise field reps whose vehicles came off lease were instructed to acquire th

A week off  the Sherwin-Williams beat helped lower the temperature of the beef I was sharing with the trolls I've attracted on a sub-Reddit for Sherwin-Williams employees  since I began investigating wage theft at that company.    Though they're still serving it well-done.     In an effort to find cost reductions Sherwin-Williams is piloting a new position in the field, that of a Multi-Store Manager who as the name suggests will, “oversee the operations of multiple stores wi

There’s more you can do to affront an Italian than just speaking to them in English and ordering a cappuccino in the afternoon , though both of those would do the trick.   You can eat your spaghetti with a spoon or take too long to give way to a Beemer serpentining the Autostrade , either of which might garner a hand gesture from the offended native.  One you won’t need Tony Soprano to translate .   But breach protocol for food and you risk more than a side eye or hand gestu

One of my trolls on the sub-Reddit for Sherwin-Williams employees believes I’m a shill for the competition, only investigating wage...