Ours has different smells according to where you're at, but for the most part... a solventie kinda smell mixed with paint. Right now, something died in our refrigerator and that seems to have permeated the shop, but it's Okay.
Years ago, a lady came into our shop. She was asking questions about signs like prices, sizes and whatever and she said.... what's that awful smell ?? I sniffed around and said, sorry, ma'am but I don't smell it. A minute or two later she said, what is that horrible smell ?? I'm telling you, it's making me sick. I again said that I don't smell it and called the guys out from the back because my sniffer ain't what it used to be. Anyway, they didn't smell anything either. She said she had to go outside that she was getting very sick. Outside I asked her to describe the odor. She said it smelled like paint and was nothing she smelled in any of the other sign shops she was in so far.
I laughed and said, we're a sign shop and we paint signs for a living. You're smelling all the paints and solvents in the air. I'm sorry, but we're used to it and it doesn't offend us at all. I went on to tell her the other shops only use vinyl and pre-colored substrates because they don't have the whereto-do to do it any other way. She informed me that she couldn't do business with me and would go to one of the other places. I asked her if she wanted to continue the conversation with a phone call. She said that would work, but she couldn't come over to look at anything. I told her we had faxes, e-mail and regular snail mail for her to see anything and she agreed to go with us... even though she couldn't stand the way we smelled. :ROFLMAO: