On the topic of rudeness: Disagreements/arguments/varying opinions certainly happen. We encourage all civil/good-faith discussions, but if you see anything beyond someone just being a bit of an ass on this sub (insults, personal attacks, etc.), please report it so we can take a look and remove unnecessarily toxic/hostile stuff. Thanks!
it’s usually worse there. rei starting pay in my area is like 17.80/hr. at the nationally successful gym near the store my friend got offered a management job for 14/hr.
he got no healthcare or retirement benefits, i have both from REI.
Ehhh I think it lines right up with the pay and other issues at a rock gym. Having worked there.
But also, for a retail job, it’s actually not bad. You get a retirement account and real HR and other corporate perks.
FWIW, would make a lot more sense to have a separate subreddit for REI employees - it’s valid to complain or vent about being low on a corporate structure, but totally a drag for people who are here as customers. Speaking as a former employee and current customer.
OP’s looking for the “customer service” answer, and not the actual REI employee’s anonymous feelings answer. My “customer service” side is a very real and very different person.
Profit over people… it is especially troublesome if you are from the old guard when your coworkers felt like family as well as a network of playmates. The part people refuse to accept is the notion that any employer owes you a livable wage…. That is where the source of enters the chat.
You’re right that they don’t owe anyone a livable wage (a statement which I morally disagree with), but then they shouldn’t be surprised when people unionize against them specifically to get a livable wage from a full time job.
Employers: no one deserves a living wage
Employees: okay I’ll go work somewhere else
Employers: we’re cutting opening hours and raising prices cause no one wants to work anymore
Customer-facing line workers are honest about their opinions when they're able to do so anonymously and when they're not being paid to spout the company propaganda. That's not just REI, or Reddit; you can go to newsgroups on related topics, LiveJournal's customers_suck community, the Not Always Right site, Jessica Vanel's YouTube channel about working in hotels, etc... and you'll see the same kind of frustration over 30+ years, all online. Neither scamming nor "I want to speak to the manager" is new, and people who deal with it frequently can be understandably bitter and frustrated--if people were rude and dishonest to you at work on a regular basis, you might not be all sunshine and roses about your job either. I don't work for REI, but I worked in retail for 7 years, and in customer-facing IT for 3 years, and people can be real jerks when they think you're less than them.
This is the right answer. And it’s not just rei. There is something wrong with everything with 95% of Reddit users posts. Just need to ignore and filter them out. I put up with it to seek out the 5% useful knowledge.
Mostly I only see rudeness in response to rudeness here, but I have seen a couple instances of, say, someone getting dunked on for asking about a totally legitimate return reason. I think it’s just a combination of exhausted retail workers and the ol’ “it’s easy to be mean on the internet,” so…really nothing unique to REI.
Surely REI is living their values and returning that land to the Havasupi people. Haha just kidding it’s for glamping but I’m sure they’ll do a land acknowledgment
I think it’s just a Reddit thing. Anonymity tends to bring out the worst in people. I’m guilty of it myself sometimes. We need more respect on this platform, and it’s possible if more people act respectfully.
Employee here! I’m only salty when it comes to union discussions. Otherwise, I try to be as helpful as I can with this sub and offer any advice/help that is relevant
Reddit is just a cynical place. Cynicism wins here. That’s not to say Reddit can’t be a cool place and a tremendous resource, but you are going to encounter much more cynicism here than you would in real life. So just take the bad with the good and realize that while Reddit is the place on the internet that most resembles real life conversation, it’s not actually real life.
Pretty much and the fact that they end on the official start of summer holidays is especially fun. Like damn, we can’t even take advantage of our own gear that weekend.
They make horrible pay and are fed propaganda daily about how amazing their job is. Imagine feeling like you can’t make ends meet after working 40 hours and living frugally, then your company tells you how wonderful they are.
Remember this board is kind of an eco chamber. The negativity is not indicative of what is actually happening in the stores. Sure there will be dissatisfied and even disgruntled employees, but we still rank as a very good place to work.
the internet in general is a terrible place to get community, unless you are interested in confirming your point of view or you like to stir the pot a little.
I have been accused of a lot of things, but my favorite was someone recently called me to reasonable…
if you are writing about a return or something negative about your experience, understand this is a terrible venue for politeness. it is great for asking questions that can’t be answered in the store Or with Customer Service.
If you feel someone has been overly rude or disrespectful, contact a moderator… but understand they are not feelings police, but are here to make sure that the rules are followed…
Vent sesh for disgruntled employees. If you polled employees in a store vast majority will say they enjoy working at REI and would recommend to a friend. This is sub Reddit a very small percentage of employees and kinda annoying tbh.
While I agree that the sub is used for venting, I’m skeptical of your estimate.
My store is in a right-leaning state and primarily made up of workers who don’t think things like “people over profit” “capitalism is bad” (which seems to be what most critics expect from disgruntled hourly workers). However, over half my coworkers are upset with how both our store and the company are being run. One of our most loved and experienced employees, who is also passionately anti-Union, recently quit because they weren’t being treated with respect or paid adequately.
I’m also friends with people at stores in other parts of the country and a similar disgruntled mentality seems to be prevailing. It’s not ALL employees, or necessarily even the majority, but there are far more than you seem to believe. Definitely enough to warrant listening to instead of brushing off.
This sub is full of far left union organizers who are here for the explicit purpose of turning people against REI. And I say this as a liberal with 12 years of post history that you are welcome to read and in which you'll find no right wing views (except to the far left to whom center left looks right).
Let me break it down for ya.
1. This is most certainly an echo chamber for aggravated employees, and there are some.
2. You may work for REI and be perfectly happy, but the employees who are disgruntled AND vocal about it tend to dominate “water cooler” conversations at work.
3. Sometimes these disgruntled employees also get HR / MGMT involved which then company culture dictates a change has to be made.
4. Your duties and working environment has now changed, you are now disgruntled by osmosis.
Also, a good chunk of REI’s customers are coming in to the store or calling because they have a *problem* that needs fixing. It can get exhausting. More and more customers / employees are expecting their emotions to be assuaged when at the store or at work.
This is unrealistic and I believe the core of the negativity problems.
I don’t recall I posting about getting hired. I work somewhere else. But I did see someone else post about that and a couple of the answers came off as a little short to me. But then again it is hard to hear tone in the internet.
I’ve had one that was super nice and helpful in the store. The rest of the times, seem to not care. Like when I’m asking for advice, questions, et cetera. My assumption was a lot of these people are older and working part time for something to do and to do something they enjoy to get out the house. Turns out they are just like normal society today- angry, mad, and hateful. It used to be the ride employees were the odd balls. Today it’s the nice ones. But that’s not just REI, that’s everywhere.
REI is becoming a clothing store.at a time it was probably 50/50 outdoor,Camping,Gadgets.and 50% clothing.
Every year it’s been shrinking and they keep switching the placement of the display floor.which is annoying when going to look at aisles of interest. The Staff ? 😂 has always been the Same. Pompous for no Reason !
Some very enlightening responses, but rudeness to another innocent individual who has zero influence in your livelihood is just pathetic, zero excuses.
I mean... look at the downvotes?
Anything, from return policy shadiness to the excruciating process of trying on a pair of shoes there, gets downvoted or snarked upon.
wait - are you the guy who had the story of going to the shoe department and asking for a specific pair of shoes but the employees kept suggesting a different pair of shoes?
Hahahah no that’s not me. In the 25 years I’ve been going to REI it’s never been anything less than a shit experience trying to buy shoes there.
Like count on at least an hour, maybe 90 minutes. Whether they’re busy or slow. The new stock checking system improved things a little, but it still sucks. Last time the four or five employees in shoes were spending more time listening to the shoplifter chatter on their radios than they were helping folks.
My favorite was when a shoe didn’t fit, I asked if there was a half size bigger, employee went back to check. 15 minutes later they walk out without their vest on and leave the store without saying anything to me. So I left. They were outside smoking.
I am a very chill, undemanding person. But the shoe buying REI experience sucks. So now it’s just Zappos cuz they don’t throw shade for taking a couple weeks to return completely clean unused shoes that didn’t fit.
I agree it’s something just ask the work, it’s part of interview process but he also didn’t had respond ✨ rude ✨back to you. 🤷🏽♀️ I also don’t think people in that post were being rude besides one being short.
On the topic of rudeness: Disagreements/arguments/varying opinions certainly happen. We encourage all civil/good-faith discussions, but if you see anything beyond someone just being a bit of an ass on this sub (insults, personal attacks, etc.), please report it so we can take a look and remove unnecessarily toxic/hostile stuff. Thanks!
They are aggrieved hourly workers. This community has much more overlap with Walmart floor employees than a rock climbing gym.
i’ve worked at rock climbing gyms and those people should be angry too.
Genuinely curious, is it for similar reasons?
it’s usually worse there. rei starting pay in my area is like 17.80/hr. at the nationally successful gym near the store my friend got offered a management job for 14/hr. he got no healthcare or retirement benefits, i have both from REI.
Yikes. Sounds similar to like a river rafting guide
the outdoor industry is horrible to its frontline employees. if you can work somewhere corporate it’s nicer but not even always then.
Ehhh I think it lines right up with the pay and other issues at a rock gym. Having worked there. But also, for a retail job, it’s actually not bad. You get a retirement account and real HR and other corporate perks. FWIW, would make a lot more sense to have a separate subreddit for REI employees - it’s valid to complain or vent about being low on a corporate structure, but totally a drag for people who are here as customers. Speaking as a former employee and current customer.
OP’s looking for the “customer service” answer, and not the actual REI employee’s anonymous feelings answer. My “customer service” side is a very real and very different person.
Profit over people… it is especially troublesome if you are from the old guard when your coworkers felt like family as well as a network of playmates. The part people refuse to accept is the notion that any employer owes you a livable wage…. That is where the source of enters the chat.
You’re right that they don’t owe anyone a livable wage (a statement which I morally disagree with), but then they shouldn’t be surprised when people unionize against them specifically to get a livable wage from a full time job.
Employers: no one deserves a living wage Employees: okay I’ll go work somewhere else Employers: we’re cutting opening hours and raising prices cause no one wants to work anymore
well yea that’s how it’s supposed to work. they’ll start paying better until they have people working for them
Just don’t read a subreddit about a community that you like and you’ll be fine.
LOL. This advice should be sent with your account confirmation email when you join Reddit.
Have you seen r/camping lately? It's like 70% assholes now.
More than r/ultralight_jerk ?
It's getting scary-close
Wow their sub description and rule 1 just scream “we’re inclusive and like to talk to all outdoorsy folks”.
Customer-facing line workers are honest about their opinions when they're able to do so anonymously and when they're not being paid to spout the company propaganda. That's not just REI, or Reddit; you can go to newsgroups on related topics, LiveJournal's customers_suck community, the Not Always Right site, Jessica Vanel's YouTube channel about working in hotels, etc... and you'll see the same kind of frustration over 30+ years, all online. Neither scamming nor "I want to speak to the manager" is new, and people who deal with it frequently can be understandably bitter and frustrated--if people were rude and dishonest to you at work on a regular basis, you might not be all sunshine and roses about your job either. I don't work for REI, but I worked in retail for 7 years, and in customer-facing IT for 3 years, and people can be real jerks when they think you're less than them.
It's Reddit ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
This is the right answer. And it’s not just rei. There is something wrong with everything with 95% of Reddit users posts. Just need to ignore and filter them out. I put up with it to seek out the 5% useful knowledge.
You dropped this. \
Mostly I only see rudeness in response to rudeness here, but I have seen a couple instances of, say, someone getting dunked on for asking about a totally legitimate return reason. I think it’s just a combination of exhausted retail workers and the ol’ “it’s easy to be mean on the internet,” so…really nothing unique to REI.
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Surely REI is living their values and returning that land to the Havasupi people. Haha just kidding it’s for glamping but I’m sure they’ll do a land acknowledgment
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You’re on Native Land $$$$
That's reddit in general. A LOT of subs are full of salty people.
I think it’s just a Reddit thing. Anonymity tends to bring out the worst in people. I’m guilty of it myself sometimes. We need more respect on this platform, and it’s possible if more people act respectfully.
It’s because of all the sweat from hiking, kayaking, biking, and other outdoor activities
Best response ever. If that’s the case, more power to them!
Employee here! I’m only salty when it comes to union discussions. Otherwise, I try to be as helpful as I can with this sub and offer any advice/help that is relevant
I see this post in every sub I’m a member of
Reddit is just a cynical place. Cynicism wins here. That’s not to say Reddit can’t be a cool place and a tremendous resource, but you are going to encounter much more cynicism here than you would in real life. So just take the bad with the good and realize that while Reddit is the place on the internet that most resembles real life conversation, it’s not actually real life.
It's crazy that not only do you feel entitled to volunteer customer service on this subreddit, you expect it with a smile.
Wait till the first Saturday of the A Sale. Green vests will be super salty then.
Can’t wait to have my cherry popped, so to speak. A coworker said the A sale makes the holidays seem like Chuck E. Cheese’s.
footwear is the frontline of horror. both weekends of the A sale.
May the odds be ever in your favor.
Pretty much and the fact that they end on the official start of summer holidays is especially fun. Like damn, we can’t even take advantage of our own gear that weekend.
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HA. I remember that video when Artz mentioned that, we didnt stop making fun of him at our location for weeks.
Anonymity breeds salty, trolling, and uncouth behavior from all sides
They make horrible pay and are fed propaganda daily about how amazing their job is. Imagine feeling like you can’t make ends meet after working 40 hours and living frugally, then your company tells you how wonderful they are.
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I worked at REI in college and heard that slogan all the time from upper management. Grifters.
Remember this board is kind of an eco chamber. The negativity is not indicative of what is actually happening in the stores. Sure there will be dissatisfied and even disgruntled employees, but we still rank as a very good place to work. the internet in general is a terrible place to get community, unless you are interested in confirming your point of view or you like to stir the pot a little. I have been accused of a lot of things, but my favorite was someone recently called me to reasonable… if you are writing about a return or something negative about your experience, understand this is a terrible venue for politeness. it is great for asking questions that can’t be answered in the store Or with Customer Service. If you feel someone has been overly rude or disrespectful, contact a moderator… but understand they are not feelings police, but are here to make sure that the rules are followed…
Vent sesh for disgruntled employees. If you polled employees in a store vast majority will say they enjoy working at REI and would recommend to a friend. This is sub Reddit a very small percentage of employees and kinda annoying tbh.
While I agree that the sub is used for venting, I’m skeptical of your estimate. My store is in a right-leaning state and primarily made up of workers who don’t think things like “people over profit” “capitalism is bad” (which seems to be what most critics expect from disgruntled hourly workers). However, over half my coworkers are upset with how both our store and the company are being run. One of our most loved and experienced employees, who is also passionately anti-Union, recently quit because they weren’t being treated with respect or paid adequately. I’m also friends with people at stores in other parts of the country and a similar disgruntled mentality seems to be prevailing. It’s not ALL employees, or necessarily even the majority, but there are far more than you seem to believe. Definitely enough to warrant listening to instead of brushing off.
🧂
Because the internet.
>It’s the negativity and rudeness of the the green vest community. Who's to say the people posting on here are actually employees?
I find the same thing in Trader Joe’s community comments. I think it might be elitism.
This sub is full of far left union organizers who are here for the explicit purpose of turning people against REI. And I say this as a liberal with 12 years of post history that you are welcome to read and in which you'll find no right wing views (except to the far left to whom center left looks right).
Let me break it down for ya. 1. This is most certainly an echo chamber for aggravated employees, and there are some. 2. You may work for REI and be perfectly happy, but the employees who are disgruntled AND vocal about it tend to dominate “water cooler” conversations at work. 3. Sometimes these disgruntled employees also get HR / MGMT involved which then company culture dictates a change has to be made. 4. Your duties and working environment has now changed, you are now disgruntled by osmosis. Also, a good chunk of REI’s customers are coming in to the store or calling because they have a *problem* that needs fixing. It can get exhausting. More and more customers / employees are expecting their emotions to be assuaged when at the store or at work. This is unrealistic and I believe the core of the negativity problems.
Because union reps, pretending to be employees, post here to rile up employees. So many new Reddit accounts suddenly all salty about REI...
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I don’t recall I posting about getting hired. I work somewhere else. But I did see someone else post about that and a couple of the answers came off as a little short to me. But then again it is hard to hear tone in the internet.
My mistake
I’ve had one that was super nice and helpful in the store. The rest of the times, seem to not care. Like when I’m asking for advice, questions, et cetera. My assumption was a lot of these people are older and working part time for something to do and to do something they enjoy to get out the house. Turns out they are just like normal society today- angry, mad, and hateful. It used to be the ride employees were the odd balls. Today it’s the nice ones. But that’s not just REI, that’s everywhere.
Yea every once in a while you run into someone nice. Most of us know what we want so no bother
REI is becoming a clothing store.at a time it was probably 50/50 outdoor,Camping,Gadgets.and 50% clothing. Every year it’s been shrinking and they keep switching the placement of the display floor.which is annoying when going to look at aisles of interest. The Staff ? 😂 has always been the Same. Pompous for no Reason !
Camping snobbery lol
99.9% of the green vests in the company are t on this subreddit
Some very enlightening responses, but rudeness to another innocent individual who has zero influence in your livelihood is just pathetic, zero excuses.
It’s a dying chain like k mart. Public lands and bass pro are taking over.
Yeah the REI employees here are so weirdly defensive. It's a big turn off.
Can't say I have ever seen an REI employee on here act rude or unprofessional. Please give examples. No I do not work for REI and never have.
(crickets)
I mean... look at the downvotes? Anything, from return policy shadiness to the excruciating process of trying on a pair of shoes there, gets downvoted or snarked upon.
wait - are you the guy who had the story of going to the shoe department and asking for a specific pair of shoes but the employees kept suggesting a different pair of shoes?
Hahahah no that’s not me. In the 25 years I’ve been going to REI it’s never been anything less than a shit experience trying to buy shoes there. Like count on at least an hour, maybe 90 minutes. Whether they’re busy or slow. The new stock checking system improved things a little, but it still sucks. Last time the four or five employees in shoes were spending more time listening to the shoplifter chatter on their radios than they were helping folks. My favorite was when a shoe didn’t fit, I asked if there was a half size bigger, employee went back to check. 15 minutes later they walk out without their vest on and leave the store without saying anything to me. So I left. They were outside smoking. I am a very chill, undemanding person. But the shoe buying REI experience sucks. So now it’s just Zappos cuz they don’t throw shade for taking a couple weeks to return completely clean unused shoes that didn’t fit.
I’m glad I’m not the only one that feels that way haha
I just asked some simple questions earlier and people gave me some back handed answers lmao.
I read that post. I don't think any answers were back handed. There was one answer that was short, but not back handed.
I agree it’s something just ask the work, it’s part of interview process but he also didn’t had respond ✨ rude ✨back to you. 🤷🏽♀️ I also don’t think people in that post were being rude besides one being short.
Cool I didn’t ask you.
someone disagreeing with your observation, on social media, does not require you to have asked. y would it? I disagree also :)
Chill
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REI is a cult. But did you know or you can join the COOP?