walkswithblackflies
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Resident terrorist-supporting eco-freak bootlicker
Posts: 6,931
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Post by walkswithblackflies on Sept 27, 2019 4:17:42 GMT -8
Damn ingrates. I'll take all y'all's REIs.
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toejam
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Hiking to raise awareness
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Post by toejam on Sept 27, 2019 8:33:46 GMT -8
The new stores aren't that much different from any big box store. Just a different product than say, Home Depot or Costco. That's a cool story and I would have loved to see the original REI. The Seattle & Denver stores are very cool and nothing like a generic big box store. The store in Bend, OR also has personality. REI has always been a tourist destination for me, and some stores have a lot more personality than others, usually reflecting the location. The closest REI store to me currently is in Santa Barbara, about 100 miles away. I've never actually been there, but hear they sell lots of yoga pants to millionaires.
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Roger
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Posts: 200
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Post by Roger on Sept 27, 2019 14:36:46 GMT -8
A REI store is planned to open in Tampa in 2021. It will be the third REI store in the state. We do have a pretty good store, although expensive, across the bay. They are a family business that has been in operation since 1946. While there is overlap in camping and backpacking equipment and clothing they also sell guns, snow skies, fishing equipment and more kayaks and stand up boards than I have seen in REI. We also have a Pro Bass and Dicks in the area. Each have their own niche so they should not lose a major part of their business.
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Post by trinity on Sept 27, 2019 15:40:27 GMT -8
I'm still a pretty big fan of REI. Yes, they are more "sterile" than they once were, but they still have the best guarantee in the biz, reasonably knowledgeable staff, and outstanding customer service. Since I prefer to shop in person, but live out in the country, I like their balance between a brick and mortar and an on-line presence. Yes, they have adversely affected local retailers, but that's the world we live in. When they opened their first store in Austin, I think in the late 80s, it was widely assumed that the local Whole Earth Provisions would soon disappear, but they are still around 30 years later. Overall, their gear selection is not bad. I have bought numerous pairs of hiking boots from REI which felt great in the store, but took them out on the trail and they hurt my feet, so I have made good use of their return policy without, of course, ever abusing that policy. I purchase most of my gear from REI (unless I'm purchasing from a cottage gear manufacturer), because, in my opinion, they're doing everything right. BTW, I'm just returning from the north Austin REI, where I purchased a new Pocket Rocket Deluxe.
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whistlepunk
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I was an award winning honor student once. I have no idea what happened...
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Post by whistlepunk on Oct 11, 2019 16:21:09 GMT -8
Sign on a small store marquee: Shop Local. Because Amazon won't support your kid's sports team.
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Post by stevet on Oct 17, 2019 11:41:37 GMT -8
We have an REI coming to Albany. Moving into an old Sears store right next door to an LLBean. Backpacking gear-wise it will be an upgrade from EMS, LLBean, Dicks, but as has been mentioned a number of times in this thread they are a ghost of what they were away back in the mid-70's.
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toejam
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Hiking to raise awareness
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Post by toejam on Nov 4, 2019 11:53:25 GMT -8
I just visited the new REI. Damn. The local shop is toast.
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Post by High Sierra Fan on Nov 4, 2019 12:27:45 GMT -8
My locals (there’s three) are all huge upgrades to what they put in San Diego in the 70s (or was it 80’s?).
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davesenesac
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Our precious life is short within eternity, don't waste it!
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Post by davesenesac on Nov 4, 2019 15:51:55 GMT -8
I'm not a fan of the way marketing bean counters, financial institutions, and Wall Street investors continually push corporations to expand both locations and product lines. With short term stock prices in mind, they are never content to just exist where they are strong and safely entrenched but rather push for new stores while also continually probing new product areas to move into. Can be very disruptive to the status quo of working people. With the rise of corporations during the Reagan presidency and then the Internet, retail industries and their ordinary employed people and small businesses have suffered significantly at times. Another facet of endless growth and development our fragile blue water planet can do without.
There are 9 REIs here in the SF Bay Area and Santa Clara County with its large population of high tech people is a continuous battleground of all manner of retail stores, and that is especially the case with sporting goods stores. The size of the retail graveyard here over decades is incredible. Sports Basement a California chain has been moving into numbers of urban areas of the state and is the biggest competitor to REI though their product line of general sporting goods is wider. They moved into where a big Barnes and Noble book store had been here in Campbell about a mile from where I live. Dicks sporting goods has built 5 big stores in the county in recent years but have wisely concentrated in traditional sporting goods areas like team sports, golf, and track. With the 800 pound gorilla that is Amazon destroying so much previously entrenched brick and mortar retail, I wonder what things will look like in 10 or 20 years?
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Westy
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Diagnosed w/Post-Trail Transition Syndrome
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Post by Westy on Nov 10, 2019 4:10:45 GMT -8
Purchased a Chums SurfShort Wallet at Salt Lake REI the other day. Notices posted regarding new store opening in Farmington, UT very soon.
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almostthere
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putting on my hiking shoes....
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Post by almostthere on Nov 10, 2019 7:59:53 GMT -8
Here in Fresno we started out with a local store operated by a local family. We got a few low end stores like Big 5, then REI came to town. I liked our local store more than REI. They actually knew how to fit a pack and didn't have huge turnover of employees. REI kicks you to the curb if you don't perform - numbers gotta be there!
over the past couple years, Dicks, Sportsmans Warehouse have shown up. The local store closed - but I think it had to do with retirement, also with numbers but the guy was tired of competing. A chain called Turners Outdoorsman took over their building. Not a lot of backpacking gear there, mostly fishing and hunting.
I'm using the internet - amazon and small cottage gear backpacking sellers - these days. Unless I need something basic like a spool of fishing line or a can of fuel. I shop sales at REI for frontcountry clothes sometimes. The local REI has changed a lot - tons of biking stuff. Tons of camping stuff. But I see less backpacking stuff. Perhaps ordering online I would see more product, but I have no motivation when you can get the same things cheaper elsewhere.
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Post by autumnmist on Nov 10, 2019 8:47:28 GMT -8
davesenesac , there certainly are good lessons to be learned from aggressive overexpansion, but I'm not sure how much is corporate board decision vs. the Wall Street, financial or banking guys. K-Mart is a good example. In my area now it's a drugstore expansion, literally a Rite-Aid, Walgreen's or CVS on every major intersection. and like the Blob in the famous horror movie, they've pushed out or acquired independently operated drug stores, which offered more "real drug store" products. Over the past several years as larger retail stores have become subject to the switch from real live shopping to on-line shopping, Sears and Penney's have fallen into that category in this area. I suspect Lowe's and/or Home Depot are slipping in as well, from what I've read. Menards can be aggressive, erecting a store w/i about 1/2 mile from an existing Lowe's in one location. It's unfortunate that they're building on private property or leased on single lots and not in shopping centers, b/c if they were in the latter, they'd have the benefit of the Reciprocal Easement and Operating Agreements, which while governing various shopping center operations, also limit competing stores to specific geographic distances. I don't know of any way that noncompetitive clauses can affect individual lots, unless there are changes to building codes. If there's a store I'd like to see more of it's the family owned grocery store chains which expand their market to include a wider variety of offerings, including organic fruit, and the Dairy Queens, but I assume Buffett is more astute in expansion issues and isn't going to overpopulate the market.
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sarbar
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After being here since 2001...I couldn't say goodbye yet!
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Post by sarbar on Nov 12, 2019 13:59:21 GMT -8
There is that point for some of us...we just quit buying gear. I had finally tuned in what I liked - and then I had more kids and got out less, so my gear is fine. I also for a 10 year period got a LOT of gear free for reviewing, so why buy was also part of that.
Then this year I finally needed a new daypack. I stopped in at the nearest REI (which is a 2+ hour drive one way now) as they showed it having the pack I was interested in. It didn't matter where I bought it though - Deuter rarely is lower than MSP, even online.
I walked into the backpack section and was looking for the pack, but also checked out a few other models. A kid who was maybe my oldest kids age approached me - and with the #1 reason I quit going to REI - did the member spiel (gawd I hate that) and I shut him down quickly (my membership was older than him....lol). I asked him if he could find the pack I was looking for - to which he told me they "didn't carry those". Face palm. Then he mansplained me on day packs on how I had no idea what was right for me. I only wear Deuter packs as I have a low back injury and they don't irritate my injury. He was oddly defensive about how Deuter sucked and I should buy other brands. (Ummmmmmm......)
I turned around and there was the pack. It was being displayed. So I tore out all the stuff inside it and checked it out. At this point, the sales guy was lecturing me on how to fit a pack and was doing it horribly. I told him to stop.
He had already told me I should be measured for my torso (I am not kidding....) and that I needed to understand how to buy a daypack (he was telling me I needed a tiny purse size one).
His problem was he was assuming a lot about me. Probably figured I was a flabby middle aged white lady who had never hiked a day in her life.
He stomped off after I got testy with him - and told him that I know my torso, I know my back injury and I really know how to fit a backpack......
I might as well have ordered it from Amazon. I had just wanted to see it in person and feel it first!
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Post by bradmacmt on Nov 13, 2019 6:25:57 GMT -8
Sarbar, one of my favorite forms of entertainment is to go to the local REI and watch/listen to some kid trying to advise/fit a person with a pack. Occasionally you'll see someone that semi-knows what they're doing. Mostly they don't have a clue. "Mansplaining"... that gave me a chuckle. So did, "my REI membership is older than you!"
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rebeccad
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Writing like a maniac
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Post by rebeccad on Nov 13, 2019 8:25:38 GMT -8
Sarbar, one of my favorite forms of entertainment is to go to the local REI and watch/listen to some kid trying to advise/fit a person with a pack. Occasionally you'll see someone that semi-knows what they're doing. Mostly they don't have a clue. "Mansplaining"... that gave me a chuckle. So did, "my REI membership is older than you!" That last line just made me feel old, since I still think of Sar as one of the youngsters around here! (Yes, I know you were here ahead of me, but I recall begin startled by the age difference between the mothers of our same-year sons :D)
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