REI Reviews

Pros

The atmosphere is great. Everyone is very supportive of your career goals and will go out of their way to help you along. That and the discount is a wonderful perk!

Cons

One of the biggest downsides to working here is that there are a lot of distractions. I don't know how other companies are, but it seems like there is a birthday or an anniversary, or a project conclusion party a few times per week.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the good work. When the economy was down, we kept growing. I'm proud to work for this organization.

Pros

Health benefits even for part-time employees
50% discount on REI brand items
Encouraged to maintain good work and personal-life balance

Cons

Upper management constantly push you to sell more memberships. If you do not sell at least one membership during your shift your name is highlighted for everyone to see in the staff room.
Inadequate training for people placed in departments they don't request.

Advice to Senior Management

Get back to REI being about a community of like-minded people rather than turning your employees into membership pushers. Humiliating employees who do not sell a membership during their shift creates poor morale within the company.

Pros

discounts on merchandise, most co workers also into the outdoors

Cons

part time work makes it hard to get insurance

Pros

Everyone working there is an outdoor enthusiast and conversation with co workers is usually about their past or upcoming outdoor activities. Offers higher pay, benefits and discounts than similar retailers such as L L Bean. Examples are free life insurance, basic low cost health insurance and dental insurance for part time help, pro deals usally providing 50% off big ticket items such as Bikes, Kyacks, etc. Free annual bike tune up, ski tuning, and use of rental equipment. Promotes from within.. but must be clearly a team player to get a promotion.

Cons

Been a REI CO OP member for 40 years before working there and current management while increasing sales and profits is taking the co-op away from it mission without any imput from the member owners who purportly run the show. Going from providing good quality outdoor equipement that members want at good prices to becoming with quick markdowns more like a Marshalls for mostly women causal clothing labels. Mangers are team players and do not tell headquarters anything negative, like we are not carrying the right product for our area or what product we should be carrying.

Advice to Senior Management

Remember that you are the nations largest co-op not a coprporation and develop a system ( and highlight it on the REI web site and in the catalogue) for what co-op member owners want REI to carry and then listen to and respond to what they say. Encourage direct feed back, not through their manager as is not the case, from every employee on what members tell them they want to see the co-op carry or not carry. Many, many long term co-op members told me that they did not like the changes in the types of causual clothing products e.g. dresses, skirts, blouses, etc being carried which was crowding out a bigger/better selections in clothing for outdoor recreation purposes. The can almost always get better prices on the casual clothes items now being carried at the discount stores.

Pros

friendly, relax, open, fun, fun

Cons

no career growth, manager is not competent, too much gossip, not sophiscated, technical support is weak

Pros

Excellent working environment with a company that supports its mission statement with stewardship and outfitting people for a lifetime of outdoor experiences and challenges.

Cons

Most staff is hired seasonally and hours are earned through performance. Retail can be challenging as we are a high end store and customer service is paramount.

Pros

Great company to work for. They care about their employees, give you lots of opportunities to give back to the community and have fun with fellow employees. They don't pretend like they aren't trying to make money as a company, but they still care about the customers and the environment.

Cons

Working in the contact center was dreadfully boring. You aren't allowed to do anything non-work related between calls and within two months I'd finished all the work-related things I could do between calls.

Pros

REI is a great place to work if you participate in the activities that we sell gear for. Discounts and pro deals are awesome, so it really helps if you're trying to gear up. The hours are really flexible and managers are accommodating if you are in school or have another job. The staff is friendly and its easy to make friends there. Everyone is willing to get you outside and do the activities they do even if you haven't done it before.

Cons

It's tough to move up if you start at the bottom. There are a lot of steps to complete to become a supervisor and so forth with each step you take. Also the pay isn't the best unless you are a store manager or higher. Its definitely not minimum wage but you can't survive on this job alone. Most of us have more than one job or are retired and just working for fun.

Pros

Balance. Fun. Benefits. People. Gear. Teamwork. Discounts. Culture!

Cons

Always wanting to buy the latest and greatest gear!

Pros

Fun, real, appreciative, respectful management and coworkers. Major focus on work/life balance. Cooperative, family-like staff. Transparent senior management and company policies. Same-sex partner benefits, part-timer insurance, life-partner benefits, focus on growth opportunities if you want them. Retirement contribution matching. Twice annual performance-based bonus- yes, that's a retail worker getting an extra check for doing well as an individual. Tremendous discounts. Lots of recognition for jobs well done. I can't say enough to put REI on a pedestal as an employer!

Cons

Light staffing can sometimes amount to a thankless day of hard work and cranky customers- but at least your management won't accuse you of being the source of their distress. Also, its retail, so its not likely that you'll get a consistent schedule (which for some is a pro, for some is a con).

Advice to Senior Management

Thank you for moving ahead with recent tech improvements planned (you know what I mean), give stores an inventory specialist again (we need them), and some of your efficiency is resulting in a less-than-comforting automated feeling: bring public transportation reimbursement, referrals and other things closer to home again so we don't feel like cattle. I've never felt like that at REI up until recently.