I was trying to find a color chart for General Finishes stains for a current project.   Googled it and lo and behold, many, if not all, General Finishes  products are available at Walmart.  Now 1) I hate Walmart 2) Their in-store pickup used to really suck.

 

But for those of you who are not near a Woodcraft or Rockler (the usual places to find them),this may be a good way.

 

It seems that all of them have free shipping or free ship to store.   The customer service at Walmart's in store pick up desk used to be dreadful.   But at my local store, now  have a giant orange box at the front of the store.   You enter your order number and an internal robot brings your order to a niche in the front.  IF it's too big for the robot, there are a bunch of lockers to the side that apparently unlock for your order.

 

As an aside, I was in a Kroger this week and about half the shoppers there were store employees doing a pick and pay online ordering.   A couple months ago, I went to a different store and accidentally walked into the order pick up area for this and it was about 800 sq ft room of boxes sitting there ready for pickup.    A friend of my wife does the orders for Meijer (another grocery/hardgoods discount store) that not only shops for you but brings your order to your door.    Good to know that when I get old and decrepit, I can still eat and have clothes to wear.

I think Amazon is having an influence on how retailing is headed.

Herb

Interesting, I had a local source for the GF stuff (which I think is very good) for they have so little stock they never have what i want. I was ordering through Woodowrker's Hardware, but now I'll check Walmart.

On 8/27/2018 at 3:40 PM, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

Interesting, I had a local source for the GF stuff (which I think is very good) for they have so little stock they never have what i want. I was ordering through Woodowrker's Hardware, but now I'll check Walmart.

Fred, the thing you have to watch out for is the date on items in local stores. That is the reason I order dated items online. Some of the more popular online stores sell more in a day than local stores sell in a year.

I agree completely and buy my glue on line (mostly) for that reason. The date isn't that important for oil based finishes, but the waterbornes do have a short, finite, shelf life. It appears that Walmart doesn't stock the GF line, but offers it through their on line ordering process. That may lesson the chance of getting some that's seriously old.

Edited September 8, 20187 yr by Fred W. Hargis Jr