REI reviews

3.6

64% would recommend to a friend

(4,365 total reviews)
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Mary Beth Laughton

38% approve of CEO

34% positive business outlook

REI has an employee rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars, based on 4,365 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The REI employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Retail & Wholesale industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

4K reviews
1.0
Apr 30, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Non management employees genuinely care about each other and the company but this is rapidly dissipating. The gear discounts are good at first but there is a point in time where you have all the gear one could possibly ever need not to mention that it is hard to afford the gear even at the discounted price. Remains a co-op...for now.

Cons

The Fairfax store, for many years, has been a home away from home and a place that you looked forward to the interactions of both employees and customers alike. Now, it takes every ounce of my being just to get out of the car and walk across the parking lot to work a dead end job where store moral has fallen off the table. Hours are cut during the slow periods to "meet business needs" all the while treated like a second class employee. Once business picks up, you are scheduled to the max of your availability and expected to care about a company that only a few short moths ago, cast you aside. Often times during this busy time you are scheduled six, seven, sometimes nine days in a row and if you speak up about it you are reminded how you wanted more hours. Employee turn-over is on the rise and there is nothing being done to retain the employees because management views you as expendable. The compensation and wage increases are a joke and are at the point of being just a notch above a slap in the face with no solid reason or goals of how you could do better and when asked how to make more money you are told to move up in the company but there is a lack of upward mobility and the "endorsement process" is a mythical process that has no guidelines. The endorsement process has lead to more departures of many, many high quality employees than is has seen promoted to the ranks of management. My advice to you is to seek employment with any other company but this one, if you are going to be treated like a second class employee, you might as well get paid more for it. There is a reason why this company dropped from a top 10 on Fortunes Top Companies To Work For list all the way down to 69th. The staff are crying out, lets not hope it falls on deaf ears.

2.0
Oct 11, 2013

A dose of reality!

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The employee discounts and at least half the employees you work with are interesting or accomplished folks and great to work with, many of the customers are the same.

Cons

It's just another corporate environment. It doesn't matter how much product you sell or how customers feel about you, the obsessive drive for memberships is the only thing they care about and managers are chosen on their ability to push the membership issue to the utmost. When you hire on you're told that the membership drive is important but what you are not told is that you work on commission...the joke is on you however because there is no extra benefit to selling memberships, the compensation is being allowed to work at all. Your livelihood is completely dependent on membership sales; the more memberships the more hours irregardless of how much product you sell. The problem is that many of the customers are already members but the worst part is the famous REI customer service becomes second to being a used car salesman pushing memberships. I've seen it over and over again where the top scorers go quickly from customer to customer seeking out those few customers who are not members or have other little scams for getting the most memberships. If you have the temerity to question this approach your reward for your effort is being assigned 4 hours a week instead of 25 hours as happened to one of the most accomplished sales associates at the store I work at....blatant payback. If you have never held a good job before or are experienced in the working world you will not be happy at REI and indeed may find feelings of contempt creeping into your thoughts about modern REI management policy, especially if you have been a co-op member for sometime. If this is your first job and you want to stay at REI my advice is forget customer service and concentrate on greeting people and asking if they are members just as quickly as you can during your shift and, I can't emphasize this enough, go as quickly as possible from customer to customer, that is by far the most important skill you will learn at REI.

3.0
May 16, 2013

Good intentions, but slow-moving and siloed.

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Genuine endorsement for spending time outdoors whether going out for a jog over the lunch hour or getting into the mountains on weekends.

Cons

Heavily bureaucratic and siloed in approach to decision-making and innovation. Lacking an inspiring organizational and brand vision beyond promoting discounts and sales.

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