Clueless in Mechanicsburg

Yesterday, as I was working the paint desk, a young man came up (early twenties) with a quart can of Gel Stain and asked if we carried the product in gallon cans.  I told him we don't since it's mostly used for smaller projects.  He turned and left and I followed him to see if I could provide further assistance.  He joined a woman about his age and an older one, who seemed to be her mother, and told them it only came in quarts.  I asked what their project was and the young woman said they were going to be staining her hardwood floors.  Since I, myself, have actually refinished the hardwood floors in my house I started to talk to them and... the mother shut me down.  "I've done this before, I know what I'm doing," she said.  I wanted to ask her if she knew most people used Gel Stain for fiberglass and steel doors since it's too thick to run, but didn't.  I did bring up the process of sanding down the floors and... got shot down again.  However, I did learn that the young woman was planning on doing 4 rooms, and that they had just finished tearing up the carpet.

Too thick too run

And they were there to buy stain?  I was allowed to bring up the subject of finishes, briefly.  Most people put down a couple coats of polyurethane on freshly stained hardwood floors, and polys have an amber tint.  And the older woman said, "it's not going to make any difference, she's wants a dark stain."  And I knew she had no idea what she was talking about.  Perhaps she'd seen a show on HGTV, or read something, somewhere, or had maybe even paid someone to do one of the floors in her home.  But she knew absolutely nothing about floor refinishing.  When they left the department to go check out, all they had in their cart were 3 gallons of Dark Walnut stain, and 5 cheap chip brushes that are virtually useless because they shed so much.  There is a good possibility that stain will end up being returned because the only thing that woman was an authority on, was being clueless in Mechanicsburg.