Faces Of Nantucket: Jeff Knab & Mike Eldridge

Mike Eldridge and Jeff Knab had spent two decades on Nantucket working various jobs around the island - cooking, bartending, painting, and in property management - before the two friends hatched a business plan that has become an unlikely success story on Old South Road.

It was 2019, and Eldridge had just had a terrible experience at one of the island’s primary paint suppliers. Frustrated by the situation, he started making some calls.

“I was walking to work at Slip 14, and he just called me up and said, ‘Want to open a paint store?’ And I said sure!” Knab recalled.

“I didn’t want to do this by myself; it was gonna be an endeavor,” Eldridge said. “Plus, if I fail, then someone else can fail too. And so I knew Jeff was going to be 100 percent in, so I said let's give it a try.”

That was the genesis for The Paint Department, Edridge and Knab’s small shop at 63 Old South Road, which has succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.

“We’re officially painttenders,” Knab says with a laugh.

The two friends and founders run the store together with one employee, handling all the inventory and deliveries themselves, keeping the operation lean and nimble. They open earlier and close later than their bigger competitors. But if you spend even a few minutes at The Paint Department, it becomes clear that it’s not the hours, or the paint, or the products that are driving its success. It’s the relationships and trust they’ve built with their many clients. Eldridge - better known as “Bubba” - and Knab are notorious ballbusters and shit-talkers, skills they honed during their years in the island restaurant industry. The jovial atmosphere they’ve created inside The Paint Department has developed a loyal following.

“People just come in and just chat,” Knab says. “You come in here any day of the week, and literally, there are five or six guys just hanging out. What are you doing? It really is like a bar or a restaurant. It's those relationships. We know everybody's name who walks in. We know their kids’ names. We actually care. We know everyone, and we know their job names - sometimes better than they do.”

“We want that small town feel,” Eldridge added. “Some guys come in and just look at the mail or go next door and grab their coffee. They come back here and sit down. Everyone's welcome.”

These days, they even get invited to their customers’ weddings and staff parties.

But six years ago, when Eldridge and Knab first opened The Paint Department, it was a different story. While Eldridge had previously managed the paint operation at the Lowe’s in Raynham, Mass., they had little to no experience running their own retail store, let alone going up against the island’s established operators. Then, within just two weeks of them opening the doors of The Paint Department, the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, shutting down most of the work around the island.

“I thought, ‘what do we do now’?” Eldridge recalled.

But what could have been a disaster for the fledgling business turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

“It was the best thing that could have happened,” Knab said. “Instead of being inundated with customers and making fools of ourselves, which we would have because we didn't have it yet, we would have been a laughing stock - so instead of that, we were able to stay open, because we would sell masks and we would sell cleaning solutions. Even though the painters weren't painting, they would walk in and kick the tires. They would just come in and be like, ‘You don't need that. You need three of those. You need 25 more of those when you have only one. And get rid of that.’ Every painter kind of came in and gave us little nudges, and we did everything they said.”

The listening they did during the pandemic ultimately paid off. Not immediately, but the business has continued to grow by double digits every year since The Paint Department opened.

“It took a good two or three years for people to even remember we were here, you know, but now we’re the first stop,” Eldridge said.

They also credited Phil Pastan, the developer of the nearby Richmond Great Point subdivision and owner of the property where The Paint Department is located, for helping them to get the business off the ground.

“Phil has been nothing but generous and helpful to us,” Knab said. “He made it really fair and easy for us to do this.”

But what wasn’t easy, at least initially, was learning the ropes of the paint industry. Certain vendors wouldn’t even discuss selling their products through The Paint Department due to exclusive deals with other retailers. Eldridge recalled a sales representative for one paint company asking him how he got his phone number when he called.

“It’s the most cutthroat, mafioso business I’ve ever been in,” Knab said with a laugh. “Marine (Home Center) has Benjamin Moore. So we cannot get Benjamin Moore. They will not sell to anybody else. There are these exclusivity deals. But the good news is, they have what they have, and we have the other lines that they don’t have.”

Now six years into the business, The Paint Department has hit its stride and is even starting to outgrow its small space on Old South Road. The shelves are stocked to the ceiling on some days. So what comes next?

“We’re constantly planning and scheming,” Eldridge said. “But as far as the paint store is concerned, this suits us quite well. There's always potential to grow and do more. So we're not done.”