I wish we had 'Decathlon' in the US. It's kind of similar to REI, but the gear is much cheaper, and in some cases of more modest quality (but still quite functional rather than 'cheap crap'). This is a great tradeoff to make if you're pretty casual about this or that activity and not ready to invest the big bucks.
Mary Anderson, a Founder of the Outdoor Cooperative REI, Dies at 107
81–90 of 119 posts
Re: Mary Anderson, a Founder of the Outdoor Cooperative REI, Dies at 107
#82What a great company, always feel like they have good products, good sales, and helpful employees. Never regretted buying something from REI.
Except for the insane prices for everything, sure. It's great for people with money to burn, but it's definitely not a good place to shop if you're into outdoor activities and not rich.
They basically price stuff at retail. It's expensive because they tend to carry nice gear.
Re: Mary Anderson, a Founder of the Outdoor Cooperative REI, Dies at 107
#83REI is my favorite toy store. I know their prices are higher than, say, Wal-Mart, but I actually feel good supporting them. Plus, you can find insanely good sales if you're a member and you go to their garage sales. One year I got an entire ski setup (boots, skis, bindings, and installation) for under $300. Ended up reselling them for like $500 3 years later when I moved away from Boston. Got great boots at a garage…
> REI is my favorite toy store. It's mine too. Do they advertise garage sales or you have to be friends with the store manager to get the scoop?
They advertise them. Just go to the store's page, for example Mountain View is at https://www.rei.com/stores/mountain-view.html
Re: Mary Anderson, a Founder of the Outdoor Cooperative REI, Dies at 107
#84I wish we had 'Decathlon' in the US. It's kind of similar to REI, but the gear is much cheaper, and in some cases of more modest quality (but still quite functional rather than 'cheap crap'). This is a great tradeoff to make if you're pretty casual about this or that activity and not ready to invest the big bucks.
Decathlon just reminded me of Sports Authority or Dicks or something like that. Except, you know: French.
Re: Mary Anderson, a Founder of the Outdoor Cooperative REI, Dies at 107
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
EMS used to be a go-to of mine. High prices, but good student discounts and sales. I stuck with them because they were incredibly good to their customers - they actually cared about getting people outside and had permanent return/replace on their gear. But... then an equity firm bought them out. The discounts shrunk, the warranty vanished, and even for material defects within a year there's enormous flak when you try…
LLBean doesn't have the same reputation as an outdoors/backcountry store, but there's a large overlap and they still offer the unconditional warranty REI has since abandoned.
This could change:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-ll-bean-shipping-r...
Re: Mary Anderson, a Founder of the Outdoor Cooperative REI, Dies at 107
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
A lot of mountaineering gear costs a lot , but lasts for a really long time. It's like buying a car in some ways. So your go-to solution should be to buy used. There's no shortage of people who bought an $800 backpack along with $2000 of other gear, who thought they'd be using them regularly, who later find out that they made a significant investment in a hobby they don't care much about. Unless you're swimming in mo…
> A lot of mountaineering gear costs a lot, but lasts for a really long time. Precisely. REI has some stuff which is wildly overpriced - I wouldn't buy hiking shorts there. But if I'm buying climbing gear, no one will sell it cheap anywhere . REI dividends and a good warranty make the competitive, because I'm expecting to keep the gear for a decade or more.
Being cheap when buying climbing gear is like being cheap when getting a tattoo, except the latter won't kill you. Usually.
Re: Mary Anderson, a Founder of the Outdoor Cooperative REI, Dies at 107
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
> A lot of mountaineering gear costs a lot, but lasts for a really long time. Precisely. REI has some stuff which is wildly overpriced - I wouldn't buy hiking shorts there. But if I'm buying climbing gear, no one will sell it cheap anywhere . REI dividends and a good warranty make the competitive, because I'm expecting to keep the gear for a decade or more.
They changed the return policy on climbing gear to be much shorter. The gear coop has pretty good climbing deals and a good selection and a lifetime return policy(iirc) just don't abuse it. Edit not lifetime anymore. Both places are one year.
But most other places don't offer return on climbing gear. Even REI said they wouldn't take back my approach shoes if I didn't like them.
Re: Mary Anderson, a Founder of the Outdoor Cooperative REI, Dies at 107
#88I wish we had 'Decathlon' in the US. It's kind of similar to REI, but the gear is much cheaper, and in some cases of more modest quality (but still quite functional rather than 'cheap crap'). This is a great tradeoff to make if you're pretty casual about this or that activity and not ready to invest the big bucks.
Decathlon just reminded me of Sports Authority or Dicks or something like that. Except, you know: French.
I found their stuff to be a bit better than the 'cheap outdoor stuff' places in the US. It's not super high quality, but it seems to get the job done and not fall apart.
Re: Mary Anderson, a Founder of the Outdoor Cooperative REI, Dies at 107
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've lived in California for 27 of my 41 years, about equally split between SoCal and Northern California, and I have never heard someone call a woman 'dude' without it being a mistake or a joke.
The Atlantic notes that women use "dude" to address other women[1]. I'm not from California, and I'd agree that the most typical usage seems to be towards men, but I have heard women refer to other women as "dude". [1] https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/11/dude-tr...
There are two distinct uses of "dude". One is as an exclamation (not a form of address). "Dude, I'd never do that" is the approximate example in the article, and a woman might say that to another woman. She is not calling the other woman a dude. Test this claim by trying the following: "Man, I'd never do that." "Gentleman, I'd never do that." "Fellow, I'd never do that." etc. The use of "man" and "dude" as an exclamation has made it into everyday conversation. "Man that sucks!" has become an expression of dismay devoid of gender and indeed not even directed at any particular human.
Then there is the use of "dude" to refer to a specific person (singular). This is a very rare use of "dude" in reference a woman, and usually is used as commentary rather than a literal descriptor, or ironically. "She's such a dude." It is definitely making a comment on gender or stereotypes.
I would be very confused if you referred to me as a dude in everyday conversation, wondering what you were trying to say. On the other hand, I did recently say about myself, "I'm such a dude" when making a comment about my approach to an unfortunately often-gender-stereotyped activity, housekeeping.
Re: Mary Anderson, a Founder of the Outdoor Cooperative REI, Dies at 107
#90REI is my favorite toy store. I know their prices are higher than, say, Wal-Mart, but I actually feel good supporting them. Plus, you can find insanely good sales if you're a member and you go to their garage sales. One year I got an entire ski setup (boots, skis, bindings, and installation) for under $300. Ended up reselling them for like $500 3 years later when I moved away from Boston. Got great boots at a garage…
I was into hiking and camping at a young age (Boy Scouts, friends who's parents did it) but my parents weren't what you'd call outdoorsy. We were good for about one or two family camping trips a year.
I'd saved up some cash and bought a few things from REI over the years but now it was a week before freshman year of high school and I needed a new backpack. I also had my eye on an REI house brand beauty for hiking that was a whopping $99 (this was 1997 and we weren't exactly the kind of family spending $99 on frivolous things).
Shocked at the outrageous price (being used to $15 Jansport) my mom proclaimed that it would never happen. I brought up the fact that I had never made it through an entire school year with one single cheap bag and that one REI bag would last me all of high school, so we'd be saving money.
Smash cut to 18 years later the water proof interior lining had all but completely flaked off and the drawstring channel tore in such a way that it was time to just call it quits.
That bag survived through 4 years of high school, 4 more of university, 200+ (maybe twice more) days of real backwoods camping, at least 500 fishing and hunting trips, 4 continents, and two kids of my own.
It was a very sad day when I finally had to admit it was time to put that old bag down to rest, but I didn't even think twice about where I was going to replace it from.