Twists of fate forcing paint store to close

When large retailers come to town, smaller competitors must and often do change to meet the new challenge - adjusting inventory, improving customer service, and finding and focusing on the customers that are key to business survival.

Many do this and continue to thrive. The large stores have one consistent advantage, though - they have more resources to weather the unexpected.

The unexpected is what's causing Rainbow Paints in Kalispell to close by the end of the year, forced out of business because of a couple of twists of fate that kept the store from adjusting to the influx of big box retailers.

The paint store has been in a space on Meridian Road near Center Street for about 20 years. The current owner, Regina Holloway, bought it in 2001 from Jerry and Janice Sommers, who were retiring. Regina's husband, Dave, helps run the store.

Though Home Depot's arrival prompted changes in the couple's business and took a bite out of receipts, Rainbow Paints still had a customer database of almost 4,000 people.

When the large home improvement store came to town, the Holloways looked for ways to compete: increasing available inventory, making the warehouse more efficient, ensuring color control quality on mixed paint and modernizing equipment.

Still, it was a struggle: "[Customers] have a conception that they're going to get a better price" at a large store, Holloway said, which she called "a misconception."

Another action they planned to take was to add a third line of paints. The store already stocked Spectra-tone and Aspen, which are regional brands. They were ready to add Benjamin Moore paints to their stock because it's a national brand not available at big boxes that could attract the attention of new customers.

"We were adjusting, and we got to the point where we knew we had to bring in a new brand," Dave Holloway said. But that would be expensive, and "we couldn't afford to make the adjustment."

A pair of car accidents in 2003 proved to be the store's undoing. The wrecks aggravated injuries Regina Holloway sustained in an earlier accident, and she's no longer able to do the heavy lifting the trade requires. Her husband has done his best to keep things going, but it's not feasible, she said.

"That's been a key to its survival, is that it's a two-person operation," Regina said. "Because we're mom and pop, if other factors come into play - it hurts a lot."

The addition of Lowe's Home Improvement, which is scheduled to open in January, didn't help, and probably made any potential buyers for the paint store skittish.

"They're going to take a percentage of the pie, and our percentages are too tight," Regina Holloway said. "There's no room for another one."