New REI Bitch Thread

[kevbone]

Rei used to be a climbing store with a little bit of clothing in it, now its a clothing store with a little bit of climbing in it.

Clothing is were they make there money! Its the biggest markup.

[willstrickland]

wow... you guys are the most hard to please bastards I have ever seen... REI, while not perfect, certainly doesn't deserve the crap you throw at it. Good place to shop, great place to work; and it carries a broad spectrum of gear. Prices aren't the best, but the return policy kicks the crap out of any other... quit your complaining, and shop somewhere else if you really can't stand it.

 

Go eat crayons beyotch. The "co-op" is anything but, the board is rigged, the merch selection is shit, and they have fundamnetally abandoned their mission to chase the dollar.

 

I'm glad you enjoy working for them...by the way, are you a REI member? Would you like to become one? Do you repeat this phrase 800 times a day to a gaggle of latte sipping soccer moms and overweight desk jockeys?

 

[Dechristo]

an REI Bitch?

[minx]

About four years ago I went to REI for crampons. I ended up getting the most expensive pair, because I couldn't say no to the salesgirl. Recently at the mothership I tried on every softshell there, came home and ordered the one I wanted online for 30% off, no tax, no shipping. Now who's bitchin?

 

not that you're wrong to do it. not that i wouldn't do it. but that's one reason why it's hard for retail, brink and mortar business to stay in business.

[kevbone]

great place to work;

 

Great place to work, what are you smoking, I want some of it. I worked for REI for 7 years. Full time. I could pump gas and make more money. It’s a monster of a company. Its also voted one of 100 best employers every year. Who the hell votes for this? Not the EE’s. REI has more disgruntled EE’s than any other outdoor retailer. I would say the only good thing about it is the friends you make there and the return policy. Oh yeah. The benefits are pretty good as well. I had a 30,000 dollar surgery about 3 years ago, I only paid $10 co-pay.

REI needs to pay there EE’s what they are worth. Some of them are smart and very knowledgeable about what they are selling. These long time EE’s need to be compensated for there time there. They are not! This is a shame.

Edited November 6, 2006 by kevbone

[Dechristo]

I had a 30,000 dollar surgery about 3 years ago, I only paid $10 co-pay.

 

seems you're unappreciative of the $4,200+/year bonus you realized.

[kevbone]

seems you're unappreciative

 

Im for surely unappreciative!

Edited November 6, 2006 by kevbone

[zeroforhire]

yes, I am a member... was before I started working there. As far as the employees being underappreciated... I second what dechristo said... While a ton of people there have a ton of knowledge, they are paid pretty fairly. What else could they do with that knowledge anywhere else and get better pay? Besides maybe open their own shop and manage it themselves, or work in the outdoor media... there isn't much out there. As far as the comment that there are more disgruntled employees at REI, than any other outdoor business, that is unfounded. If there really are more, that is becuase of the sheer number of REI employees.

[zeroforhire]

welcome to the real world. In order for a company to grow, they need to chase the almighty dollar. As far as them abandoning their core principals, that isn't really true. REI still outfitts many people (including climbers) for the outdoors. They still continue to give tons of time and money to local organizations that share the same core values as them. (Boy scouts, girl scouts etc.) So instead of throwning out aimless propaganda that sounds cool, do some research. While REI isn't perfect, (no large company is) they aren't nearly as bad as y'all think.

[cj001f]

So instead of throwning out aimless propaganda that sounds cool, do some research. While REI isn't perfect, (no large company is) they aren't nearly as bad as y'all think.

 

Once again: REI members are owners.

 

No, I'm not running Bill - they no longer allow writeins

[knelson]

welcome to the real world. In order for a company to grow, they need to chase the almighty dollar.

 

Why... please tell me... why, does a company need to grow?

 

If a company is doing what its mission is, giving its owners/employees a good living, and basically keeping up in their market, why does it need to grow?

 

Oh. Greed. Sorry... I forgot I was in the real world there for a minute.

 

Seriously - think of all the "great" stores you've come across. Are most of them still around? Nope. When did things start going sour for them? When they grew. Growth is good if that's what your goal is in life. But what's wrong with just having the goal of making a good living for you and your employees, treating them well, and giving your customers reasons to keep coming back?

 

This really doesn't apply to REI - they changed course long ago and ain't comin' back. Eventually, they'll "grow" themselves right out of business. I guess I'm just tired of hearing that "you have to grow grow grow" mantra spewed out constantly.

[Kraken]

I work at a small mom and pop high end gear shop that is literally right across the street from REI. For more than 30 years, it has been competing with REI, and doing well. We dominate the XC ski business as well as the climbing one in terms of what we carry and the quantity we sell.

 

I think the reason we do so well stems from our expertise, experience, and knowledge. We also have those who will only shop at the local biz too.

 

Shops like Feathered Friends, Second Ascent, etc need to continue delivering that expert customer service, knowledge and climbing/skiing/etc experience. At the end of the day...anyone can sell a coat to anyone, but not everyone can sell the right coat to the right customer.

 

As far as whether REI is a great company to work for...I think it depends who you are. I know lots of people who have worked there...some like it, some think it sucks. Some people know their craft, others don't.

 

No one can really blame a company for expanding and growing...that's capitalism. Don't get me wrong, I don't always agree with it, but what can you do?

[Baltoro]

I wouldn't say that FF and REI are really competing. If you think about it, neither of them can really provide the products and service that the other one provides and still be very successful. REI can't get the super gear intensive product people like FF can because a lot of these people don't want to talk about Nalgene bottles and Denali jackets (who does?). FF can't carry all the crap that REI does and still cater to the higher end climbing crowd. It is a symboitic relationship. I would imagine that both locations would not do as well if the other one was there. REI probably wouldn't notice it much but FF would deifinitely feel it. I wouldn't argue that FF is only able to stay in business due to the proximity to REI but it certainly doesn't hurt them.

 

As for the questioning the need for growth, how many people were born with a harness on? Probably not many. The point is that we were all new to the outdoors at some point. We all tied in for the first time once and some people would have called you a noob or gumbie or whatever. All the growth does is get more people outside for the first time enjoying what we've grown to love or get people out more often and I don't see a problem with that. If they can make a buck (and stay in business) off soccer moms and mid-life crisis dads I don't have a problem with it. And I can guaruntee (sp?) you this: Fancy materials like Gtex, primaloft, schoeller, etc. are not made for hardcore outdoor users like all of us (ha) but they are made and marketed to soccer mom and crisis dad to be sold at REI. The return on investment is not enough. Quit bitching and enjoy the benefits. If REI has what you need and someone else doesn't, go there. If they don't, then don't. It's not that hard and certainly not as emotionally involved as some of you gys make it. My advice: get a hangboard and take out all your REI aggression on that. I'm sure you'll enjoy the benefits of that more than the affirming pat on the back by the other REI-bitchmasters.

[knelson]

I wouldn't argue that FF is only able to stay in business due to the proximity to REI but it certainly doesn't hurt them.

 

My feeble old mind may be failing me, but I believe FF was there first! Seems like they were doing OK before the neighborhood went to hell.

[cj001f]

Quit bitching and enjoy the benefits.

 

We are complaining because we can't find any benefits dingleberry

[pu]

I know of a place far worse than REI. You should feel lucky you get ANY benefits.

[Baltoro]

KNelson

I wasn't making a jab at FF at all or saying that REI is better. I'm saying that they both serve totally different purposes and both benefit from one another. I realize FF has been doing their thing for quite some time but many shops have gone the way of the online only path and hopefully REI's presence has helped to keep FF from having to go down that route. Maybe so, maybe not. Like someone pointed out earlier, brick and mortar is expensive, websites are not.

 

cj001f, a benefit might be that you can go in and fondle gear and try stuff on and waste all the time of the staff that you want if you can put up with being asked about membership fourteen times in a half an hour. Then go online and buy it from JoeBlowgear.com at a reduced cost. If you can't handle that then don't shop there. If you ever did shop there you probably went there for some reason. Obviously on that particular day there were benefits to going there rather than somewhere else or not shopping at all. It would be one thing if REI was destroying local economies or damaging entire industries a la Walmart but I just don't get why people get so worked up because REI doesn't carry hemp ropes and bongs ( big pitons not... well bongs).

[knelson]

It would be one thing if REI was destroying local economies or damaging entire industries a la Walmart but I just don't get why people get so worked up because REI doesn't carry hemp ropes and bongs ( big pitons not... well bongs).

 

If you don't think REI is using it's buying clout to dictate to the manufacturers, then you must be using that non-REI bong. When retail stores (not distributors, mind you... just the stores) can have that much sway over what kinds of things make it to market or not, industries are damaged - whether it's Walmart or REI.

[Baltoro]

Try any one of these. I don't totally disagree with you guys but I think you're a little overboard on how bad a co-op this is. There's also the deal where REI will no longer buy from certain climbing manufacturers if they do not meet certain certification criteria (CCH). That's using industry influence to do good. 20% green power. That sets the bar for other industry leaders. Try and contact Kevin Hagen at REI corp. Ask him some questions.

 

http://www.rei.com/aboutrei/gives02.html

 

http://www.rei.com/aboutrei/cce.html

 

http://www.rei.com/aboutrei/releases/04stewards.html

 

http://www.rei.com/aboutrei/releases/04peak.html

 

http://www.rei.com/aboutrei/table1.pdf

[Mr_Phil]

There's also the deal where REI will no longer buy from certain climbing manufacturers if they do not meet certain certification criteria (CCH).

 

Of course, REI *sold* all of their remaining stock of Aliens.

 

[Baltoro]

Mr_Phil

After confirming like all other retailers that the rest of the aliens were legit? I don't see your point there. Sure they sold through existing stock but they also sent a message to gear companies that if you don't have your sh!t together then we won't buy from you anymore. Selling through what you've got doesn't change that. We could probably have an entire forum for just REI bitch threads and we could all go back and forth forever. You guys have what you feel to be good points and reasons not to shop there and lots of people have what they feel are good reasons why they aren't so bad and they continue to shop there. There are certainly some legit issues but until teh consensus arguement goes beyond "it's not like it used to be..." then I don't have much sympathy. Shop somewhere else.

[knelson]

Try any one of these. I don't totally disagree with you guys but I think you're a little overboard on how bad a co-op this is.

 

It's not a co-op, it's a business in my book, but that's just my opinionated opinion. Regarding that gear certification PR - they're just covering their butts, like any good business would do. They're not pushing for a "higher standard", they're just making sure they have a good defense when someone eventually sues them for selling faulty gear.

 

Yeah yeah yeah... REI gave $2.5 million back to the community in 2005. That is fantastic - don't get me wrong. But let's put that in to perspective.

 

In 2005, REI had over 1 billion (that's with a 'B') in sales. To be exact, they had $1,022,326,000 and probably a few pennies. Their charitable giving amounts to 0.25% of their total sales. No... I didn't get the decimal point in the wrong place - that's a quarter of one percent.

 

Go here and this guy knows what charitable giving means...

 

http://www.onepercentfortheplanet.org/

 

I think he knows about outdoor schtuff too.

 

Even if you factor out salaries, cost of goods, land, green power, advertising, blah blah blah, then that 2.5 million still only equates to about 7.5% of their income. Commendable, but not trend setting when it comes to charitable giving by any means. And don't forget that some unknown percentage of that 2.5 million in donations is in the form of gear and clothing. Pretty darn sure those donations are on the books at retail value, and not their cost.

 

I'm not knocking any donation anyone gives to a good cause. Shoot... I'm sure Walmart gives quite a chunk of change back to the "community." I just think we need to put it in perspective. REI's numbers are equal to this: let's say you make $40,000 a year. You gave $100 over the course of the year to a charitable cause - which might include some clothes you didn't want anymore. Do you think this is good enough? REI does.

[archenemy]

let's say you make $40,000 a year. You gave $100 over the course of the year to a charitable cause - which might include some clothes you didn't want anymore. Do you think this is good enough?

No.

[magellan]

Yeah yeah yeah... REI gave $2.5 million back to the community in 2005. That is fantastic - don't get me wrong. But let's put that in to perspective.

 

Check your (or somebody else's) dividend statement. It shows how much $ in refund checks were not cashed. I'm thinking it was more than $2.5 million...

[SemoreJugs]

Knelson,

 

I'm not a big fan of their "Co-op" structure, but I also believe in fair criticism.

 

Your math skills leave a bit to be desired, or is it your logic skills?

 

.075 x $40,000 = $3,000, not $100 as you suggest by your analogy.