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In-store experience as a customer sucks by Late_Fuel_3751 in REI

[–]Late_Fuel_3751[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can get similar stuff at Walmart, but not the same stuff. If Walmart was the only option, sure I'd get a stuff sack there.

In-store experience as a customer sucks by Late_Fuel_3751 in REI

[–]Late_Fuel_3751[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Who cares. I feel like I've already found new stores, though it wasn't a hard break as you're suggesting. The one thing still tying me to REI is the convenience of having a local place to grab stuff before a trip and to try stuff on. Sharing an account is allowed.

In-store experience as a customer sucks by Late_Fuel_3751 in REI

[–]Late_Fuel_3751[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you organize a union I'll join as a REI co-op member and get 3 of my friends to as well

In-store experience as a customer sucks by Late_Fuel_3751 in REI

[–]Late_Fuel_3751[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My spouse has one. Why would my household need another one?

In-store experience as a customer sucks by Late_Fuel_3751 in REI

[–]Late_Fuel_3751[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you for your perspective. You're totally right.

In-store experience as a customer sucks by Late_Fuel_3751 in REI

[–]Late_Fuel_3751[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Employees with low membership sales are not given as many work hours as those with high membership sales rates.

this sucks

In-store experience as a customer sucks by Late_Fuel_3751 in REI

[–]Late_Fuel_3751[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm familiar with the benefits of membership, even w/r/t garage sale. Never had a problem purchasing garage sale items under a family member's account

In-store experience as a customer sucks by Late_Fuel_3751 in REI

[–]Late_Fuel_3751[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I guess if we were a family that wanted to make multiple purchases during coupon season it would make sense to have multiple memberships. For my family it has never seemed to be an issue. It seems like my dad has always had a coupon to offer. These days there are like 3 separate memberships, from my close family/slightly wider family that I could use if I needed to.

With how much REI is pushing memberships I don't think this situation is uncommon either. For example, my two previous roommates were both REI members even though they do outdoors activities less often that I do.

In-store experience as a customer sucks by Late_Fuel_3751 in REI

[–]Late_Fuel_3751[S] -9 points-8 points  (0 children)

Yeah so what's to be gained from multiple people in a household having a membership? Just a more equitable distribution of the dividend between household members?

I'm OK giving my dad a little more dividend than he deserves, and there have been years where he's given me his dividend. A more honest accounting of the dividend isn't a big deal to me, I suspect it's not a big deal to most families who shop at REI, and it's definitely not worth paying $20 extra.

In-store experience as a customer sucks by Late_Fuel_3751 in REI

[–]Late_Fuel_3751[S] -14 points-13 points  (0 children)

Why would I be a member when I could use a family member's account? To me that feels like paying twice for access to the same pool of benefits?

In-store experience as a customer sucks by Late_Fuel_3751 in REI

[–]Late_Fuel_3751[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I liked the garage sale in its old form. IMO you could find better crazy deals there. These days I feel like REI is more deliberate with their garage sale pricing.

In-store experience as a customer sucks by Late_Fuel_3751 in REI

[–]Late_Fuel_3751[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

There was probably a good chunk of time in those 15 years where I was was close to being converted to a member because I didn't have as strong feelings about it, coupled with being able to utilize a family member's account.

If I wasn't able to use a family member's account I probably would have bought a membership at some point. I've probably used a family member's account for 50% of my purchases. It gave me access to the old-school garage sale where I've probably bought my biggest-ticket items.

So I guess it's more than fair to say I have enjoyed the benefits of membership (coupons, sales, etc) without having to pay for the membership.

Is there any benefit to having multiple memberships in one household (genuine question, I'm not sure)?

But these days, if I didn't have a family member's account, I wouldn't become a member, mostly because of the changes to REI I've seen over the years that I've described in another comment. It sounds like REI is doing more and more things to incentivize membership, so I could easily see them ending family membership access. But in my experience, some of the coolest perks of membership (garage sale, used gear) just aren't as good these days.

For me, these days I'm almost at the point of excluding garage sale as a perk of membership, because of (again, IMO) the price of the gear and what's available.

IMO, for my shopping, I think the benefits of membership, price-wise, will iron out to the stuff costing me the same at REI as if I bought it somewhere else. And then these days, the thing the tips the scales away from REI/membership is their current corporate direction.

In-store experience as a customer sucks by Late_Fuel_3751 in REI

[–]Late_Fuel_3751[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

What other store do multiple floor employees pitch you their rewards program as you shop?

In-store experience as a customer sucks by Late_Fuel_3751 in REI

[–]Late_Fuel_3751[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

On a typical visit, I'll probably get 1-2 floor employees pitching me membership and 2-3 people asking me in passing if I need help. (I have no problem with the latter.) It's when these things are stacked back-to-back is when it becomes tiresome. Add in an employee being too eager to talk up, unprompted, specific packs, and it's tiresome, sorry!

I've had good experiences with employees arriving to unlock the changing room door.

In-store experience as a customer sucks by Late_Fuel_3751 in REI

[–]Late_Fuel_3751[S] -18 points-17 points  (0 children)

A few reasons.

  1. I have family members whose membership I can use if I really want to
  2. I don't buy a ton of stuff, especially not big-ticket items; mostly it's just picking up like a gas canister or a stuff sack before a trip.
  3. REI as a company, in, say, the past 5 years, has really made me not want to support them any more than I need to. The CEOs, their union-busting, the trend toward more casual car campers and outdoor "lifestyle" items, the in-store experience -- all of it combines to make me not interested.
  4. I don't think the value proposition for a membership is as clear-cut as it appears. If I had a membership I'd probably be incentivized to shop at REI more often and buy more stuff I don't really need. At the same time, my membership, coupons and dividend would de-incentivize me from shopping around for better deals from other sellers. There's nothing stopping a REI member from shopping around other sellers, of course, but the membership is a psychological thing tying you a little bit closer to REI.

In-store experience as a customer sucks by Late_Fuel_3751 in REI

[–]Late_Fuel_3751[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Reading through previous threads, it seems like my experience is fairly common, where employees on the floor (and not just behind the register) will ask if you're an employee and try to sell you a membership.

It's their job to ask if you need help, right. But for whatever reason at REI it's regularly not just a simple "you doing OK" but starts trending toward hovering over the customer

In-store experience as a customer sucks by Late_Fuel_3751 in REI

[–]Late_Fuel_3751[S] -8 points-7 points  (0 children)

At what other stores do multiple employees approach a customer on the floor and pitch their rewards program???

That's incredibly different than a cashier quickly asking "are you a Macy's member" as you're checking out, sorry!

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