I’ve been around paint cans and price books since I was a kid. My journey in the industry began not out of a business plan, but because of family. My father founded Lewis Paint back in 1977, shortly after leaving the reserves. He had already spent over a decade working in paint retail, and eventually saved up enough to open our first location in Half Hour.
From the start, it was a true family business. My sister Cherrie and I grew up in the store—sweeping floors, cleaning shelves, stocking inventory, unloading deliveries. We learned by doing, just like our dad did back in the ’60s. In 1993, we opened a second store in Glenside, and when our dad retired in 2016, Cherrie and I took over full time. We've been running it ever since, staying true to the family-run model while looking for ways to improve.
For the longest time, our operations were entirely manual. We used handwritten receipts, calculated sales tax on paper, looked up prices in physical books, and did every transaction the slow, old-fashioned way. It worked for decades, but it wasn’t efficient. Mistakes happened. Things took longer. And as customer expectations evolved, we knew we had to make a change.
We started exploring point-of-sale systems about a year before making the switch. We looked into QuickBooks and a few other options. Rundoo wasn’t even on our radar until they reached out with a deal that caught our attention. The pricing was significantly better than what we had seen elsewhere, and that honestly was the first “aha” moment for us.
What really tipped the scales was Rundoo’s integration with AllPro. We’re proud AllPro members and needed a solution that worked within that ecosystem—from credit handling to backend tracking. Rundoo didn’t just meet the requirement—they made the process seamless. Other companies we evaluated had partial integrations or lacked features we needed. Rundoo checked all the boxes.
Since switching, our business has seen a massive transformation. We no longer waste time flipping through pricing books or doing manual calculations. The checkout process is faster, more accurate, and a whole lot easier—for us and our customers. What used to take several steps now takes a few clicks.
And I can’t say enough about Rundoo’s customer support. Lej, one of their team members, has been a lifesaver. Anytime I have a question or hit a snag, he’s right there through the chat, ready to help. That kind of real-time, knowledgeable support has made a huge difference for us.
Looking back, it’s incredible how much we’ve grown—not just in size, but in efficiency. Rundoo helped us modernize without losing the essence of who we are. We’re still a proud, family-run business. But now, we’ve got the tools to match the times.
If you’re running on paper like we were, trust me: the leap is worth it.
