Lowes dropped Deft finishes


Nick2cd

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==> sales are not there

PB's, spot on. The high-volume guys switched to CV, pre-cat, Acrylics, etc. Deft has the great look, ease of application, low cost-of-entry, but doesn't offer the protection of the newer finishes...

 

Deft sales must be a small fraction of what they were 20 years ago...

 

The BORG really doesn't cater to the type of customer that's going to shoot lacquer...

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If that's the case, then that simply means that sales are not there.  Quite frankly, if it were selling like hotcakes, they wouldn't remove it from their inventory.

 

 

Every shelf slot or hanger peg in a retail store has an associated cost and expected return.  Sometimes, it's not even the sales of a specific item that determines if that item stays or goes. 

 

Nowadays, the smarter inventory systems can even go so far as to state an average margin for the typical ticket on which an item might leave the store.   For example, even if a can of Deft didn't return a high margin by itself, if it typically ended up on a ticket with high-margin items, it might be kept.  I can't speak specifically for Lowes, but a lot of today's inventory systems have some incredible analytics and correlation abilities, so there's often a lot of information that goes into adding or dropping an item.  

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My guess is this is part of a broader inventory change for what Lowes carries, rather than just an issue with Deft. To finish up a Christmas project, I need some gel stain and a rattle-can of Polycrylic water-based poly.  Turns out they dropped all gel stains, and Polycrylic in the rattle-cans and the quart container, along with Deft. My guess is someone did a sales analysis and decided to make some changes.

 

On the plus side, the employee took me back to the clearance rack and started taking 50% off the price of every remaining can I grabbed.

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  • 3 months later...

==>Maybe distribution depends on demand or state Eco regulations ? 

State Ego regs do play a part... And, I suspect, how companies implement their compliance programs...

 

For example, in NJ, we can order-in solvent-based products, but not in every put-up and not from every manufacturer. I can order Deft in any put-up I want, but not Arm-A-Seal (I used to order gals, but as of Jan 1, we can only get pints/quarts)...  Another twist: my dealer can order-in solvent-finishes if the project is metal/fiberglass/ceramics/etc and not wood...

 

Availability if lumpy -- I can order-in 1-gal, 5-gal, etc of some solvent-based products, but not for others... I suspect the variability is down to do individual companies's compliance programs and how they interpret/implement the regulations... Also has to do with distributors -- my local finish guy can only order-in what his distributor agrees to carry.

 

So availability could be down to local retailer, the regional distributor or the manufacturer and how each implements their own compliance program.

 

But one thing is clear, except in limited applications, solvent-based finishes are fading to black.

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