I believed the feel-good hype, until I started working here
Pros
Prodeals, mostly good coworkers, getting to try out new gear.
Cons
Selling memberships is their number one goal. Not customer service, not community service, not educating their employees to be experts in camping or footwear or action sports. The REI "expert in a green vest" is an expert at selling memberships, not at hiking, biking, skiing, or backpacking. Outreach classes have been almost non-existent over the last 6 months, informational 'morning huddles' deal exclusively with membership sales and not with product information, knowledgeable employees have been forced out due to "scheduling conflicts" while employees with no product knowledge and limited outdoor experience who have become close friends with management get almost 40 hours a week. Store management has become insular, hiding in their offices for hours on end, never coming out to the sales floor, ignoring employees whose views do not align perfectly with their own, promoting only those one or two employees who only tell them how wonderful they are, the store manager allows the sales managers to rule through fear and ignorance while he sits in his office and waits to retire.