Pros
Company's slow-growth policy seems theoretically stable, unlikely to lead to bankruptcy, for example REI's environmental stewardship is laudable I wish REI was the MINIMUM standard for all retail jobs. The health insurance is ok-to-decent even for half-timers
Cons
Selling memberships is the name of the game. They don't value much of what you contribute if you don't also sell memberships. As an REI employee I can't actually afford many of the activities that I prepare customers for. Most coworkers don't do basic upkeep tasks. If YOU do these, you are essentially penalized because it's tough to sell enough memberships while picking up the slack for others. Life at REI seems to be a constant cycle of insufficient hours for most employees followed by very hectic times where there are not enough staff on the floor to man the store and cover breaks. It's implicit that you're not a team player if you want to take all your breaks. On annual reviews, again, it's all about the memberships. But even in other areas, they'll rate you poorly on something that you excel in to justify only giving a small raise. And there is no warning during the year that they think you haven't been doing something well. We'll see in July if this improves with the new review guidelines, but I'm not holding my breath, because we are supposed to have been getting more feedback for months now, and I'm getting nothing. Store inventory is often off by one unit, even right after inventory has been done! Inventory is seldom right! Digital infrastructure: our intranet is excruciatingly slow. The registers are awful, RPS has down times during very busy days, hand scanners take forever to process some requests We need some ongoing paid training, not just for new hires: our electronics offerings have changed dramatically since I was first trained. People come in with very specific questions about even the stupidest of cheapo products. The product information guides for the various electronics and watches are abysmal. They don't contain answers to many customers' questions. Worse, RPS info also often lacks important data about these products, yet it's very wordy! REI coupon exclusions are getting finer and finer print, to the point that they recent moved the coupon's terms OFF of the coupon to the internet, leaving employees holding the bag when customers want to use the coupon improperly. WE have to be the bad guys and explain our sneaky coupons. It makes me feel dirty, making excuses for all of our poorly written coupons. I hate it.