CELEBRATING 70 YEARS
Randall’s hits a milestone
When Randall’s Decor opened its first paint store on Bank Street in 1948, William Lyon Mackenzie King was prime minister, the current leader’s mother, Margaret Trudeau, was a newborn and a loaf of bread cost 14 cents.
Back then, the tiny shop at 385 Bank St. featured rows of paint cans on rustic wood shelving. Seventy years later, Randall’s has morphed into a slick, 8,400-square-foot flagship store with soaring windows — just a few blocks from its original location — with two other stores in Orléans and Bells Corners. While the business has blossomed into a full-service decor centre, with a full range of window coverings, wallpaper and paint, and custom furniture, one thing remains the same: Personable customer service that makes clients feel like family.
“Because we are a smaller independent shop, I’m not ... standing behind a cash register, I’m out on the floor the whole day saying good morning or good afternoon to people,” says Lynne Hornbrook, a loyal 35-year employee who specializes in window coverings and colour consulting. “Every day is different … and I find that our staff feels like a family, so I enjoy coming to work. We work hard, but we actually have a lot of fun. And our clients do pick up on that.”
The independent shop was founded by Percy Randall in 1948, known at that time as Randall’s Paints, on Bank Street near Gladstone Avenue. He ran it for five years before selling it to George Smith in 1953. Smith ran the business until David Martin took it over around 1976, with thenpartners Hank Van Rijswijk and Rick Dare. Martin is now retired and the store is managed by his son Lee Martin, who has worked at Randall’s since the early ’90s and is now the general manager of the operation.
Randall’s was forced to move in 1987 after a fire destroyed the business and others located in the same building — including Bond’s Decor and the Capital Bowling Alley — in the early morning hours of Easter weekend. The owners soon purchased a pie shaped lot at 555 Bank St. at the corner of Chamberlain Avenue, and built a grand glass and red brick store to blend into the surrounding Glebe neighbourhood.
Their traditional approach to customer relations has kept Randall’s humming, despite the advent of big box stores — although competitors often send customers their way because Randall’s specializes in challenging stain and paint matches. The paint department is led by longtime employee Murray Dean who has worked there for 45 years.
Dean truly is the “Dean” of customer service because everyone knows his name.
“Every day he comes to work, you know it’s going to be a fun day if you get to work with him,” says Martin, who practically has paint running through his veins given his grandfather and great-grandfather were also in the business. “He’s always in a good mood, he’s always funny, he’s always positive, no matter what’s going on and it’s rare to find people like that. He’s got that kind of (charisma) that rubs off on the people around him.”
The business remained mostly paint and wallpaper until the ’80s and over time more products and services were introduced, including a free Shop-At-Home service that boosted their custom blinds business. Before that, customers would have to go to one of the stores — and still can if they prefer — to place orders for blinds and drapery. But as the technology evolved, blinds such as those made by Hunter Douglas, ShadeO -Matic, and Altex, became bigger and more complicated to measure, so Randall’s hired consultants to travel around the city in trucks, Martin calls “a store on wheels,” with samples, ladders and measuring tapes.
Trends have inevitably come and gone over the decades. In particular, wallpaper has taken the front and back seat over time, sometimes for more practical reasons.
For example, in the ’50s and ’60s paint was not as durable as today and also emitted more toxic chemical odours, so customers tended to lean toward wallpaper. This is why homes built — or decorated — around that period had most of the walls covered in a variety of patterns and colours.
“It (wallpaper) hid imperfections on the walls,” says Martin.
“You could put wallpaper up and not touch the walls for 10 years in a lot of cases. And then that market, it slowly started to decline in the ’70s as paints got better, and then into the ’80s it re- ally started a fairly steep decline.”
While wallpaper made up 50 per cent of their sales in the ’50s, Martin estimates that has dropped to around four per cent today. But despite the drop, customers and designers are still drawn to Randall’s vast variety of contemporary and traditional patterns. However, the shift has changed to quality over quantity.
“Years ago, you used to see rooms that were wallpapered in all the same pattern, usually it’s a big floral, and of course a border or a border as a chair rail sort of thing,” says Cindy Desjardins, who has been an interior decorator at Randall’s for 19 years.
“Now what you are seeing in wallpaper is it’s one wall (customers) accent. So instead of using a different paint colour, you can just accent one wall, maybe it’s a dining room wall.”
To celebrate the 70th anniversary, Randall’s is running a contest to win a $5,000 room makeover. The public can enter the contest through Randall’s Facebook page until June 21.
While good products and service are key to Randall’s staying power, Martin says the measure of a company isn’t just how they treat customers when a transaction goes right, but how they deal with a situation when a challenge or problem arises.
“It’s usually what has the biggest impression on people long term,” he says.
“And if you view those situations, there’s an opportunity to do what’s right and take care of the customer efficiently and fairly, and generally, that ends up being a customer for life.”
Years ago, you used to see rooms that were wallpapered in all the same pattern, usually it’s a big floral, and of course a border.