“Ultralight” backpacking favors skills rather than gear. Folks have done entire 3k mile thru hikes with 5lbs of gear. The main way you get that low is simply by not taking much with you. You carry only the essentials. I don’t know if this is what the parent poster was referring to but it’s what my mind went to.
5lbs of gear is 5lbs of gear. And this seems like an extreme example - have you done 3k mile thru hikes on 5lbs of gear? What does that look like?
A Canadian company in the same space, Mountain Equipment Co-Op, was recently acquired by a hedge fund and is in the process of mutating into a for-profit company, to the dismay of many. https://www.outsideonline.com/business-journal/retailers/mec... Is REI being zombified the same way?
A co-op being acquired by a hedge fund should not be possible. What the hell?
Why not? A co-op is just a business owned by it's members. If the members decide to sell (through the board of directors), they it gets sold.
"yesterday a unanimous decision by its board of directors to sell substantially all of its assets to Kingswood Capital Management"
Once one is familiar enough with the brands that REI stocks and that are regarded as quality, nowadays those same brands can be bought, often for much cheaper, from other online retailers. Not with the same generous return policy, but still, it is harder for REI to compete compared to two decades ago when they were the only chain around for quality camping gear.
>nowadays those same brands can be bought, often for much cheaper, from other online retailers. Usually MSRP is constant across retailers. Is there an example you can easily bring up? If there's a price for an item that's too good to be true, it's usually a scam website.
Different online retailers do sales at different times and with different degrees of discount, so if REI is selling an item at MSRP, it could be that a customer can save a great deal by judiciously searching the competition and getting the item from somewhere else. Moreover, when I last shopped heavily from REI a decade ago, it was often claimed in the outdoor community that its prices were inevitably higher than other retailers, but one would enjoy the better return policy, and there was hope of getting money back through the co-op program.
It's a $30 fee for lifetime discounts. A co-op by way of self description rather than by cooperation.
How’s that different than something like Costco or BJ’s
Those companies have annual membership fees. REI is one-time. Also, REI is open to the public; the other stores only sell to members (aside from alcohol and pharmacy items, which in some states must be sold to anyone).
I'm curious about this opinion, and I don't want to make a snarky joke. Can you elaborate how you camp without needing any gear?
“Ultralight” backpacking favors skills rather than gear. Folks have done entire 3k mile thru hikes with 5lbs of gear. The main way you get that low is simply by not taking much with you. You carry only the essentials. I don’t know if this is what the parent poster was referring to but it’s what my mind went to.
You should be carrying more than 5 lbs of emergency water on anything more than day camping... yes finding water is a skill, but one that is dependent on there being water nearby.
Is this really important news or at all related to hackers? Much larger layoffs happen all the time. What's the interesting angle of this story?
So many Patagonia jackets are bought at REI and worn at companies that employ many hackers.
I wonder how common it is as a clothier of hackers. For the past few years I think I end up buying a lot of their lightweight hiking pants for travel and office work. And REI is the best store I’ve found to actually go in and check out stuff before buying.
Large outdoor goods retail chain in the form of a co-op. They're known for having a very open return policy as well as cash back to anyone who joins their cheap membership things. (Naturally, they're not perfect -- so they're known for putting small shops out of business when they arrive and for becoming more faceless to some of their employees as they grow.)
> They're known for having a very open return policy
Sadly not so much. Now it’s a one year limited warranty and I’ve been hassled about returning things because they ended up not fitting right.
They used to be great and would take anything back for any reason. And this always led to me buying tons more stuff.
With the new policy, I buy much less. Especially since the REI brand is pretty low quality now and no one supports it other than REI during that year.
5lbs of gear is 5lbs of gear. And this seems like an extreme example - have you done 3k mile thru hikes on 5lbs of gear? What does that look like?
5.87 lbs: https://lighterpack.com/r/89huvt
Sure is cheap, but I don't think the weight is correct. For example, the tent in this 880 grams alone (almost 2lbs). The sleeping bag/quilt is 626 grams, or around 1.6 lbs. The backpack is 765 grams or 1.7lbs. So that's 5.3lbs for just those three things. I'm assuming the price of an entire kit will also be more.