A 107-year-old, family owned Bronx business has undergone some changes lately.
Tremont Paint’s decade-old Throggs Neck location recently moved about half a mile up the road to 3391 East Tremont Avenue.
The new location adds an advantage for the consumer because it is next door to Flannery Hardware, said owner Mark Lipton, the great-grandson of the store’s founder.
This way, people working on home-improvement projects can just pop over from Flannery’s to grab the paint to complete the project, or vice versa.
“There is tremendous convenience for the consumer,” said Lipton. “And it’s very much the same customer.”
The new space also offers a better environment to view the color choices in, said Lipton. It has more windows and natural light, along with natural looking laminate floors.
Those small differences are important because paint colors can look very different depending on the space, said Lipton.
“We try to create an environment that replicates what people tend to have at home,” he said. “So what they see in the store is closer to what the color would be there.”
But he said it’s still a good idea to try a sample of paint on the wall to make sure it looks good.
The popularity of paint samples is just one way the paint business has changed over the years, said Lipton. Previously, Tremont Paint would offer their own samples, but big-name manufactures began to offer them several years ago and the practice took off.
Another shift in the business has been the demand, and supply, of environmentally-friendly paint, said Lipton.
He said the business recently added another line of paints, called Pratt & Lambert, which has a good variety of enviromentally-friendly options.
More and more people are coming in to the store looking for low-impact or no-impact paint, said Lipton.
“The trend has become bigger and bigger,” he said.
The benefit of these paints is that while it’s drying, the paint doesn’t give off fumes that are known to contribute to smog. The lack of fumes means you can have kids or other people around while you’re painting your house.
“It’s a big advantage,” he said.
The business has also recently expanded beyond its two physical locations. About six months ago, the store began selling paint online, said Lipton.
He feels some people value the convenience of having paint delivered to their door, although it’s a small part of the store’s sales.
“It’s still building,” said Lipton.
More information about Tremont Paint can be found at tremontpaint.com.
