Originally Posted by
indyfabz
I posted a link about the REI closings. SoHo I can sort of understand. I’ve been to that store twice. My visits were during the Labor Day sale, so I am sure it was busier than normal. But Paramus, NJ, with the population density in that area? Then I got to thinking. Paramus is also home to Campmor and has been for decades. I drove up to Campmor in the fall of 1999 to get gear for my tour the following March. Just took a quick look at its website. It still seems to be closer to what REI used to be. The example I like to use is quarts of MSR White Gas. Campmor still sells them. REI no longer does, but you do have your choice of different colors of Yeti coffee mugs.
I like your comparison:
The example I like to use is quarts of MSR White Gas. Campmor still sells them. REI no longer does, but you do have your choice of different colors of Yeti coffee mugs.
I paraphrased this from memory - REI started out as a coop with the primary goal of creating a means for people in this country to buy good climbing gear at a good price that was otherwise not easily obtained. Soon after they broadened that to other camping and backpacking gear.
But what you just described for Campmor, they are serving the role of REI better than REI is, only thing that Campmor missed was that they are not a Coop.
When I joined REI, they only had about a half dozen retail stores, all on the west coast. I was ordering from REI by mail order for several years before they opened a retail store in a suburb of Minneapolis where I lived, that was decades before the internet became a thing.
Now, I rarely buy anything at REI anymore, even when their store is only about two miles away from my home. They rarely have the camping gear I want to buy, but like you said, they have lots of colors for the Yeti coffee mugs.
Oops, getting off topic again. Sorry.