REI Reviews

Pros

I enjoyed my time here. I worked about 15-20 hours a week. It's very relaxed. Excellent employee discount. Cool coworkers. I got to be involved with my areas of interests. Managers cared about employees. Opportunities for advancement.

Cons

It's retail, so you have to deal with some real losers. Other than that no real complaints. I guess pay was a little on the low side, but I wasn't looking to support a family or anything, so no big deal.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to the staff in your markets. Generally speaking they understand the buying habits of locals better than some computer nut in Seattle.

Pros

Upbeat environment, fantastic medical benefits even for part-timers and seasonal employees, amazing discounts and vender connections, great advancement opportunities if you're mobile, awesome training

Cons

Getting hired is really difficult as a slew of people want to work at REI, hours can be hard to come by

Pros

The benefits are great. It's easy to change your work availability. They will give you time off when you ask for it. The other employees are nice people that are fun to work with.

Cons

There aren't too many. You have to work either an opening or a closing shift one day a week. There is a lot of pressure to sell memberships. You usually have to work holidays.

Pros

-The best thing about working at REI is the environment and the people. Most customers are very laid back and just need a listening ear to figure out what would suit them best.
-People rarely have complaints, and with the company's consumer friendly policies, there usually is a solution that will make them more than happy.
-Many people keep the job for the different perks of working here rather than the pay.
-Also, supervisors are very understanding about scheduling.

Cons

-Sometimes it is a bit disorganized.
-Some managers don't seem terribly competent.
-At times, it feels like you are doing the same task over and over many different ways because no one has the right answer.

Advice to Senior Management

-Please give more feedback. Other than memberships, it seems like everything else we are kept in the dark with.
-Set more uniform ways of doing things, so we don't repeat the same tasks endlessly.
-It would be nice to see management on the floor.

Pros

-Work life Balance: I work 40-45 hours a week tops
-Great customers and customer focus
-Autonomy when you are good at your job
-Awesome people to work with
-really really fun to work at REI...love my job.
-Decent money when you are at management level
-incredibly community focused and philanthropic
-We have the best CEO ever: Sally Jewell

Cons

-In retail you usually have to relocate to move your career forward
-Company is a little risk adverse as a whole
-accountability for poor performance is tolerated too long
-HQ seems a bit elitist, especially merchandising dpt.

Advice to Senior Management

Amazing company to work for. Only advice would be to decrease risk aversion especially as it relates to inventory depth. Not having a lot of it negatively effects our sales in store AND our ability to acquire multichannel customers.

Pros

Great discounts, enthusiastic coworkers. Good flexibility and work life balance. Get to be around cool products and gear on a regular basis.

Cons

Can be low hours, dependent on overall store sales performance. Customers, difficult or otherwise, can make or break your day.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to appeal to the entry-level customer but also provide support and products that the hardcore enthusiast will use as well.

Pros

You will find climbing partners, riding buddies, hiking pals and knowledgeable, motivated co-workers, and the type of customer REI seems to attract are mostly positive people. Health insurance for part time workers is brilliant, and the number of ProDeals available will tempt you.

Cons

REI caters to the beginning outdoors enthusiast, its mission is to bring people outdoors. Therefore, you wont find really high end gear there as part of their normal in store inventory, but it is available online. Its Retail, so say goodbye to your weekends. Hours assigned are unofficially tied to membership sales, and in some markets its policy.

Advice to Senior Management

Our outstanding level of customer attention and customer service is what separates REI from Amazon.com and Backcountry.com. We cant compete with their prices and free shipping, but we can keep customers loyal with our service. Staffing levels are barely adequate at the three stores I've worked with; customer service, merchandise zoning, and stocking levels will all improve if more staff are available to focus on their individual tasks.

Overall, REI is an excellent company, but we are losing touch with the co-op roots and it feels like any other high end retailer sometimes.

Pros

The great things about working at REI are: The prodeals, your fellow employees, how laid back most of the customers are and the fact that you can actually get health insurance if you work enough.

Cons

The downside to a job like this is that you're never going to get 40 hours a week, or at least its very rare. Its also difficult to support yourself on the hourly wage while you try and work your way up into the management team.

Advice to Senior Management

Your employees will continue to stream in and out of the revolving door because a job like this is never going to be a long term solution to their monetary needs. Its not bad for what it is though.

Pros

At REI, we are selling quality outdoor products to a customer base that loves to recreate outdoors. Most of the employees share that passion as well so the environment is very positive, which is rare in retail. The company takes its ethics seriously and treats its employees well, providing excellent benefits and decent pay. The review process is straightforward and there is a comprehensive plan for moving up and around the company. Middle and upper management values input from every employee and it shows in our annual surveys: REI ranks high in employee satisfaction. The company is well run, financially stable with steady growth and has weathered the economic downturn in the black while still opening stores. Online sales are rising rapidly expanding REI's reach into areas where brick and mortar stores do not currently exist.

Cons

It's retail. The cons are somewhat typical, but not to the extremes of some retailers. The pay is low, but it's probably at or above market rates. The hours are not guaranteed for non-management employees, so when it's slow, you are struggling to make ends meet. Although, if you're a student or this is a job to get out of the house, it's perfect. Again, it's retail.

Advice to Senior Management

I know it's under way, but updating technology in the stores is really going to pay off in employee and customer satisfaction. This must remain a top priority until slow networks and crashing POS systems are a thing of the past.

Pros

We are empowered to make decisions everyday. fabulous discount and fun working environment.

Cons

Its retail - but we are treated well.

Advice to Senior Management

Everyday there is something that the staff needs to know about but our store has not found an effective way to let us know..... word of mouth, if you specifically ask is how I find out.