The beautiful new Sherwin Williams paint store held their grand opening Saturday, May 14th with huge discounts and valuable door prizes. The paved parking lot and landscaped perimeter pleased customers as they lined up for consultations and free food. Formerly Columbia Paint store, which was well known for personal service and customer care Sherwin Williams bought the while at its former location next to Sweeney’s Clothing in Soldotna. “It’s been a great day exceeding our expectations with constant traffic and a huge acceptance from the community. Sure paints are available at the big mega stores, but people buy from people so we have worked hard to make this new store a friendly warm atmosphere with the additional touch of a hometown company that is here to help our customers get the best product at the lowest prices. We appreciate the community and we appreciate being here in this new facility,” Rich Younts, district manager for Sherwin Williams who was present at the grand opening and talking personally with customers.

Younts says he has been in the paint business for 32 years and that cutting edge technology has become part of the game, “There are a lot of new products out there we at Sherwin Williams spend more on research and development than most companies actually do in sales every year. We have a thousand people working in our research and development department. We have new products with anti-microbial materials and products that will kill mersa infections and different diseases that may be in some of our health care facilities and we have new technology in color retention and frankly the new technology is changing daily but we’re staying on top of it and pride ourselves in our free consultations. Technology is great but when it comes to color we like to give it our personal touch,” he said. With over three decades in the business Younts says he considers working with people the best part of his job, “I’ve had a lot of chances to move up the corporate ladder but I consider myself a field general who loves to be in the store training people. Friends by from friends so we are anxious to make friends with our customers and being here is a chance for me to coach my team and work with public personally and that’s what makes it worthwhile, making long lasting relationships and bringing some color into the community.” The new Sherwin Williams store is open Mon-Fri 7:00am-7:00pm, Saturday 8:00am – 6:00pm and Sunday 10:00am-6:00pm call 262-4674 for more information.