The first time I entered a paint store I would have been pushed over the threshold in a pram. Before I took my first step, I knew my family smelled like paint thinner!
That perfume, an occupational hazard of paint dealers before the advent of sealed containers!
By the end of my first decade, school breaks would often include a full day in my father's paint store where I found fun in filling the tint machines and stocking the counter with mixing sticks and pens.
But by 15-years-old I was expected to perform all the tasks a store employee could perform including answering the phones, making orders and taking care of customers at the counter.
Though it would still be a few years until my father paid me for those efforts!
By the end of my second decade I was often pressed into service by a father when he needed an extra pair of hands in a busy paint store, or had an early tee-time!
Thanks to my mother, by then at-least I was getting paid!
I became a full-time employee of the then 81-year-old family business before I turned 30 and while I had my plans, my father always made sure I knew that it was still his store. Mostly by refusing such advancements as automatic colorant dispensers, point-of-sale systems and fax machines.
Those conflicts among the many we would negotiate until his retirement just three-years later!
With his retirement the Lipton’s had birthed their fourth paint dealer, this one less confident in the single-store model. Within a few years of my father's retirement I had my second store, with plans to add more!
But while that store was successful, the experience of opening a second location conspired with the added responsibilities to change my thinking on how many stores I wanted.
Or–if I even wanted the two I had?!
Five decades out of the pram it was those doubts which mused a reimagining of my career to one with less time spent tinting and mixing and more spent writing and recording.
That journey leaving me with the soul of a paint dealer, but with none of the hassles!
No Moore
After laying off more than half their staff and shuttering their lone manufacturing facility in Texas, paint maker Kelly-Moore may begin the year with a bankruptcy filing.
THE news not surprising to close followers of the soon-to-be former paint brand!
Not long after the private equity firm Flacks Group acquired Kelly-Moore in October of 2022 word began spreading through the channel of troubles at Kelly-Moore, including persistent rumors that THE plan was to strip off any assets and file a quick bankruptcy.
As private equity is wont to do.
Worse still for Kelly-Moore's prospects though were the accusations of unethical behavior I heard of towards both employees and vendors, beginning immediately after Flacks acquired the company.
Which it turns out is exactly the history Kelly-Moore CEO Charles Gassenheimer has a pattern of!
Stay tuned, #MooreToCome!
