This review is strictly for the paint department.. Before I begin, I want to be clear that this is not meant for purposes of complaining, but to forewarn people of the incompetence they are likely to encounter. To start on a positive note, their color/variety availability of paints is really good considering that this isn't a "paint store". Unfortunately that's where the positivity ends.
I am in the middle of remodeling my home and painting the entire interior (what I hoped was) the same color. I went to Fred Meyer about 2-3 times to get the paint for this endeavor. Each time, I came in asking for the same exact paint, gave the same information, and even spoke with the same employee. There was no miscommunication here. Each time, I was guaranteed that I was getting the exact same paint "with no differences". Well, after staying up until about 2am 3 nights in a row painting, and after the last coats and touch-ups had dried, I realized that each and every can was a different color and that there were obvious splotches of varyingly dark shakes ALL over my walls. Different shades, different finishes. This was not due to poor mixing, user error, or anything like that, this was due to the fact that I was given the wrong color of paint in several gallons. (they use a manual paint mixing methods which means the employees have to count out how many pumps of each color/finish to ad and if they miscount, or mess up, then WHOOPS, oh well)
If you go to ANY other store that sells paint, which I HIGHLY recommend that you do, they would give you your money back and do what they could to correct the mistake. Not Fred Meyer. After going thru 3 different managers, each said "once you leave the store with it, it's yours and we can't help you".
I calmly explained to them that I asked for the same color each time and was told that the colors would be the same, one manager looked at me and asked "well didn't you know that if you were buying them with these codes on it, it would be a different colors?" - - yes, the managers actually expect you to know more about mixing paint than their employees.
I said "no, that's why I came here. To buy paint from people that are supposed to know those things."
After way too much hassle, I got a refund on 3 (out of 10) gallons because the employee didn't put a dab of wet paint on the top. As if that would have made a bit of difference. None of the managers had a care in the world that they sold me 10 gallons of poorly made paint, or that I had spent three nights putting it on my walls to find that they were all different.
Long story short - go to Fred Meyer when it's late at night to get a soda or snack or something and you don't want to drive far. NOT when you need good customer service, quality products for your home, or anything that requires an employee to help you with. For goodness sake don't go there for paint.
Sidenote: home Depot will not only mix your paint correctly, but also refund your paint if you don't like it for any reason (without talking to a manager) (: read more