some straight talk about REI

The Co-op and the Distance Between Us – Mountain Gazette

some solid writing on the part of mountain gazette on the tensions surrounding REI as of late.

a few paragraphs at the end here felt worth noting.

Inside the world of outdoor culture, REI has functioned as something more than your traditional retailer. For decades, it’s felt (intentionally) like an entry point into outdoor life–a place where beginners could ask basic questions without signaling inexperience, where knowledge was structured as access rather than gatekeeping, and where the boundary between consumer and participant felt unusually thin.

the above is spot on - for our household, REI hs been the gateway to all sorts of travel and outdoor experiences. we could go in figure out where we landed on the spectrum of introduction to an activity and get pretty solid guidance from experienced staff.

For me, that’s what makes the current conflict feel culturally significant. It’s not just a labor dispute, it’s a labor dispute over what kind of institution REI actually is, and what it means when a cooperative structure operates at the scale of a national retail chain.

As organizations grow, founding principles tend to compete with operational requirements. Over time, structure shapes culture more than intention does, and the gap between cooperative language and corporate-scale operations is showing.

this is one of the core questions that we probably need to be thinking about as a society. how big should things be allowed to get? #LateStageCapitalism abhors things that don’t scale. so much of what we’re dealing with are the second+ order effects associated with unchecked actors attempting to scale.

in this case a co-op, with the cliche ethics or social orientation that are associated with a co-op, has become a retail force in the outdoor industry writ large. it’s being bent in the capitalist direction. what comes of this?

i would be remiss if i didn’t also note that going into an REI the past few years has been an increasingly shitty experience. the quality of the products seem to be on the decline, the stock seems to be moving in the athleisure direction and the coverage for specialty gear seems to be on the wane. i suspect i’d be happier if they went back to less mass market appeal and focusing on the demographics of 1990s-2010s. but we (waves arms about wildly) seem to be doing something else.

For shoppers, the immediate question is more practical than structural. Memorial Day has passed, but if you’re still looking to gear up for summer, you’ve got options. And of those options, try thinking local, won’t you?

here’s anothe rub. even in a solid market like minneapolis/st. paul, we haven’t been able to sustain local alternatives to REI. midwest mountaineering (pour one out for our homies) closed up shop a couple of years ago. we have an incredible bike shop scene. but there are no real alternatives for backpacking, etc. we have solid ski shops, but there’s no alternatives for winter camping / hiking gear. canoe/kayak gear is yet another challenge.