Pros
It can be a fun place to work, with great people that share a love of the outdoors and enjoy working at the nations largest retail co-op. All the pros I have written are true, and all the pros written by those with nothing but positive things to say about working for REI are also probably true. I do not dispute that REI can be a great place to work. However, during my 5 years there I had the chance to work on a few different teams both in and out of the retail stores and I found the consistency with which the "REI" values are applied to be rather lacking...
Cons
...Some managers really walk the talk and believe in supporting their people and protecting work life balance, others support the positive attributes of the culture in word only and yet others blatantly feel its a waste of time that doesn't apply to them. It can be really hit or miss and I began to feel like changing teams was a risky move cause if you got stuck on a team lead by someone that didn't value the things you value or the things REI claims to value there was really nothing you could do about it. The system they have in place to address work place issues like this are really toothless. REI has grown a lot from the small mountaineering co-op it once was and not all the growth was for the better or well managed. A lot of support services were neglected and are just now starting to get the resources they need to catch up.