Paint Chip Ethics

[cmightym]

Paint Chips: Do you take them for crafty endeavors? If so, how many? To me itt feels like stealing even though they're free, but then I usually have an overdeveloped sense of ethics. Do you think it's ethical to take paint chips for non-painting-related purposes?

Discuss. Assuage. Reassure.

xo
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[caropop]

Like free samples for anything: someone has to pay for them. If people abuse the system, the system will change--either the paint will become more expensive or the companies will start charging for the chips. I think it's okay to take a few here and there, but not to use them as a regular source of art supplies.
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[bookselves]

I think there is someone on g* who works for/owns a paint store?

I definitely remember reading on here that the chips are not free for store owners & yeah, if you aren't thinking about buying paint there, it's better to not just use them like free craft supplies.
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[Crumb]

I think it's ethical up to a point. If you're waltzing in and taking thousands, that's problematic. I actually pinned a project on my Pinterest today that used like 1800 of them, and the project is gorgeous but that's kind of horrifying. I'm not going to take that many and I"m not advocating for anyone else to do so, but I am planning to replicate the project on a much, much smaller scale.

I do use paint chips for crafting, but only when I have a specific project in mind and only when I'm going to buy something else from Lowe's. I don't make special runs to the hardware store to grab hundreds of free chips, and that feels ethically acceptable to me.

I did a bit of googling just now, and thought this was interesting:

"I followed up via email with the Behr folks (whom are very likeable people). They said that creative uses of leftover paint chips is great so long as they aren’t being used in products that would be sold. Cleverly worded! Even when I specifically asked about it being considered stealing, nowhere in that response did they say it’s considered stealing if you take paint chips for crafting. Clearly they can’t endorse crafters collecting paint chips solely for crafting purposes but I really don’t think they are going to condemn them either."

From http://handmakemyday.com/2011/07/15/paint-chip-gate/.

[WorkAndPlay]

Or you could just ask? That way no system is being fucked up, and you're also not stealing. In my experience, when you work all of your charisma and muster all the enthusiasm you have, people can be quite generous.

I think many ethical conundrums (how many free samples may I take/how should I address this person whose gender isn't clear to me/how close of a friend should someone be before I get to hug them/should I take some food at a Food Not Bombs cart serving the homeless/can I use my neighbor's WiFi when my provider's down?) can be resolved by asking.
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[PurpleDoor]

I agree that asking is the way to go. I am guessing that paint, like most anything else, experiences some changeover from season to season, and so paint stores probably have to ditch outdated paint chip stock periodically anyway. If you go in and ask, they might be able to let you know when these mass paint chip ditchings occur.

[Sleepyhouse]

[Croquette]

The way is see it is that the paint chips aren't truly "free", as in "This is a free thing for you to take for any reason!!!!!" They're tools you can use to help you determine which paint to buy. This, I think, is key. If you take a bunch because you're going to repaint your house and you're trying to pick out colors, that's fine because that's precisely why they're being offered. If you take them with no intention of buying paint, then yeah, I think taking them is unethical. I wouldn't consider it to be that high on the scale of shady things one can do, but it's still a no-no to me.

[checkersumthing]

I am of the opinion that a couple of paint chips here and there, for using to choose colours and then recycled into projects, is fine and dandy. That's what they are there for (choosing colours) and the projects are a bonus. But using oodles and oodles? Not cool.

I wonder if those paint chip crafts that do use oodles and oodles of paint chips, that I see on pinterest from time to time, actually came from a hardware store or if the creators bought fan decks (a set of all the colours in a line) specifically for that purpose? If they bought the fan deck, I see no problems whatsoever with those projects.
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[underage_elf]

That was me that previously complained about the popularity of “free” paint chip crafts, as evidenced by P!nterest. Until a few months ago I owned a green building supply store, but I had to close it down. Not, you know, because of paint chip thievery, but b/c of general economic malaise. I did have to pay for the chips, but I was also working with small, independent, non-toxic paint companies who couldn’t necessarily afford freebies. But like I think I said before, even with the big paint manufacturers, maybe the local Benjamin S’more retailers aren’t paying for those chips but *somebody* in the supply chain is. And so it definitely raises my hackles to see projects with a gazillion paint chips…moreso after reading a few people’s proud descriptions of how sneaky they were in acquiring so many.

On the other hand, I gave away thousands during my closeout sale, and I hope those people craft their asses off with them!
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