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      REI

      Engaged Employer

      REI reviews

      3.6

      63% would recommend to a friend

      (4,367 total reviews)
      avatar

      Mary Beth Laughton

      35% approve of CEO

      34% positive business outlook

      Ratings by demographic groups

      REI has an employee rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars, based on 4,367 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
      Sep 20, 2014

      They are the Walmart of the outdoors for a reason.

      Sales associate
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      You will get paid slightly more than most other retail positions. You will get good discounts on gear if you are into the outdoors.

      Cons

      There is a reason that REI has fallen from the top ten of best companies to work for and is now in the bottom. I predict they will no longer be on the list in the coming years. With the hiring of a new CEO from Coach REI has decided to forget everything that made them a store people want to shop at. They are slowly becoming just another retail outlet, at present they have dropped many of their ideas such as "balance" for their employees. There are new availability requirements that mean you must work 16 hours per weekend. Which essentially means you must work an 8 hour shift on Saturday and open to close on Sunday. So much for balance. If you are someone who enjoys the outdoors and wants to have time to do those things, look elsewhere. If you are someone looking for a second job that they can work, look elsewhere. REI was my second job for a long time but they have started pushing out people like me with their new availability requirements and their new found inflexibility. If you want just another retail job, go for it. If you want to work somewhere that only cares about metrics that have very little to do with your actual job performance, go for it. If you want to work for a great company that values balance and is ready to be a great place to work then you'll want to find a time machine and go back about 6 years.

      4.0
      Aug 29, 2014

      Great culture, pretty good management and generally a fun place to work.

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      REI is the kind of place where you can bring your total self to work. It values "authenticity" in its employees. This doesn't mean you need to be an extreme athlete, just love the outdoors and be passionate about sharing that love with other people.

      Cons

      Despite being a good employer and having a strong culture, REI has struggled to figure out how to be relevant to younger consumers and at times seems uncomfortable being a retailer and competing with others. Online retailers such as Amazon and Backcountry have been eating REI's lunch and there has been lack of consensus with what to do about it.

      1.0
      Aug 11, 2014

      Fun place to work, but terrible, horrible, no-good management.

      Sales specialist
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      - If you're an outdoorsy person, you already know REI's your toy store. The employee discount was 10%-50%, so it was pretty easy to get whatever you wanted. - For retail, the training was significant. Vendors came in often and gave talks, and there was plenty of hands-on time. A minor downside is having to go all the way out to the store on a day off to attend a training. - There's a variety of things to do each day in the store, so it's pretty tough to get bored.

      Cons

      - Useless, utterly insulting store-level management. Apart from the day-to-day complete lack of leadership, there was all manner of corporate double-speak and bureacracies. The real kicker came when a co-worker was accused of stealing. Apparently management had, in their infinite wisdom, decided to put a hidden camera in the stock room(!) to combat huge shrink numbers. They used the footage to fire said co-worker for theft when they saw him "moving things around" in back. Needless to say, "moving things around" was part of the job, and the whole thing just came off as paranoid and nuts. I left soon after that. I heard later the manager got REI's version of 'employee of the year' a few months later. - The pay is pretty terrible. Granted, I haven't worked there in a couple years, but I really doubt it's magically jumped up to the living-wage range. Benefits are available to part-time employees after a certain amount of time, but the health coverage was negligible and I don't think it even included dental. - I had open availability, but had to pick up shifts my co-workers dumped because I only got scheduled for 25 hours a week. Somehow, people with other jobs/kids/school were still scheduled the same hours week after week when they dropped shifts. - Not much room for upward mobility. There are a couple supervisors per store, a store manager and his/her asssitant. If you want decent hours and pay, you'll have to shoot for one of those spots, which will probably involve a transfer.

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      Glassdoor has 4,506 REI reviews submitted anonymously by REI employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if REI is right for you.