I regret ever getting involved with REI as a full-time gig. The pay is terrible. If this is your sole source of income, you will have a hard time affording prodeals, food, and rent. You will never have weekends off -- or even two days off in a row -- unless you request them weeks in advance. If you do make those requests, be prepared to have your weekly hours cut. You will also frequently be scheduled 6-9 days in a row, always over a weekend so you never work more than 38 hours in any given pay period. Hours are never consistent and management is constantly under pressure to cut payroll, so be prepared to feel understaffed on the floor. Corporate cannot seem to figure out what direction the company should be moving in. Policies are consistently nebulous, unexplained, or outright ignored. New software seems to be developed by people who have never actually worked in a retail location, and on top of that, the company has been incredibly slow at embracing technology. Advancement within the company involves a process that is almost never discussed and never fully explained. When questioned, management staff will give you a print out, claim it is "a very personal and self-reflective process" and never discuss it with you again. Moving up generally involves having to relocate as new stores open. Management seems like a pretty sweet deal: you set up a few displays and hang out in the back office talking with your fellow managers and occasionally answer pages and write the schedule. All that being said, if you are looking for a part-time gig and aren't relying on the income, it'd definitely be a fun part-time job.
