You would think with all the Home Depots and OSH’s in the San Francisco Bay Area that it would be easy to find Minwax Water Based WoodStain Clear Tint. It WASN’T!
When we needed our first can we went to the nearest Home Depot. The one in San Leandro off Davis Street. Here is a bit of trivia you didn’t know. This store is the worst in the nation. IN THE NATION. That is NOT personal opinion. I knew the Human Resources Manager and she told me! Anyway you probably already guessed I did not find what i was looking for. So we went to Walmart which is 200 yards away. Guess what, yup, they didn’t have it either. We really wanted this damn stain. So we went to the 24 hour Walmart in Union City. This place is awful but that’s another post. Yet again they didn’t have it either! We didn’t understand why this stain was so hard to find. Was it that unpopular that they carry very small quantities? We were now forced to wait until the next day so we could go to OSH (Orchard Supply Hardware). We went and finally found it but, the story doesn’t end there. We needed it mixed to get the Onyx color on their chart. We waited around 10 minutes until we finally went to get someone. If you have been to OSH you know that paint mixing area is easily seen from the all the cashier isles yet no one saw us to come over and help. The entire time i was thinking how easily i could do this myself. So someone came over finally after waiting another 5 minutes after we asked for help and he got the can of stain, put on his coke bottle glasses and proceeded to read the instructions…..?! I was thinking, “You can’t be serious?! He’s never done this?!” So he opens the can, i think he clicked on 3 options on the screen and puts the color in, closes it and then uses the machine to shake it. We finally had what we wanted!
We eventually needed a second can. Simple right? WRONG. We happened to be in Dublin, CA coming back from a family function when we remembered we need some more stain. So we went to the nearest Home Depot. Did they have it? NOPE. So guess where we go next, yup, the nearest OSH. They did have it. Amazingly the same exact thing happened. We waited 10 minutes before we went to go get help and waited another 5 minutes for someone to get there. So she proceeded to read the instructions…. Don’t they train these people?! She asks us, “What color do you want?” we said, “Onyx.” She had a very bewildered look on her face like we were speaking japanese to her and she tried her hardest to understand. She says, “What?” “Onyx” She still had that crazy bewildered look on her face. “Onyx.” Still nothing. “ONYX.” we said it louder but to no avail. So she had us go with her and point to the color we wanted. Maybe she thought we were making up the color. The torture doesn’t end there. She opens the can, puts color in it. Now the fun part of her trying to close it. This must have been the first time she tried closing any type of paint can in her life. She started with the mallet. She wasn’t even hitting the lid but the edge of the can. For some reason the can wasn’t closing so she starts hitting it a little harder. She now starts spilling some stain with every strike… wonderful. She eventually angles her strikes to start barely hitting the lid but she thought she was making great strides. So she starts going around the can but every strike made the previous spot pop up but that didn’t stop her. I was on the verge of laughing at her. She eventually angled her mallet strikes enough to barely keep the lid closed. Now it was time for the machine the shakes the can. I swore to my wife that the can was going to exploded in the machine and it will be a great site to see. By some miracle of god the lid stayed shut and we finally got to leave with another can of stain….
I really hope we dont need another can of Minwax Water Based WoodStain Clear Tint.
