REI - Opening CRANSTON, RI - Yay!

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REI opened a store down in Marlton, NJ which is in south Jersey, by Cherry Hill. Frankly, I kind of wish they didn't cause it's still farther away than Campmor and now whenever I order stuff from REI, I get charged sales tax. I would actually prefer they closed it cause it's far away from me anyway.

Jay
 
Hey Jay, for us south jerseyites, Marlton is much closer than the REI in Conshohocken PA and infinitely closer than Campmor (at least 165 miles to Campmor for me...)
 
Carmel said:
For all you Southern, MA and Rhode Islander's:

http://www.rei.com/stores/110

apparently, there is a new REI opening soon. Hopefully it will not be just another clothing store. All of our EMS's around here barely sell any gear, it is all clothing for yuppies.

anyways, REI..yay!
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I just went to the opening of the new REI in Cranston, RI. Quite the event. More clapping and yelling than some concerts I've been to. As far as gear, I don't think you'll be disappointed. Two floors. First floor is a gearaholics dream. Second floor is pretty much all clothing, you know, to cater to those young yuppy engineers. ;)
 
And we still wait for one in CT. Set to open in the fall of 2007 in West hartford. This could be trouble...is there a 12 step program for this addiction?
 
I'm jealous

When they closed the one in New Rochelle, NY, I wrote Seattle and was informed that they were scouting for a new NY location and expected to be open in a few years. Now they're opening all around me, but none are really close enough (to get me in trouble).
 
I've been in a bunch of REI's. The two story design is one of the larger store designs-I think they have four different ones. All the two story ones I've been in are like yours-gear on the bottom, clothes and footwear upstairs. The one story stores I've been in tend to have less gear.

Don't forget-you can order online at home or from the online kiosk in the store and pick up your item at the store with no shipping added. I've done that a few times when they were out of stock of what I wanted. They can transfer stuff from store to store too. And no, I don't work there, I just like the convenience. Plus, there's a Trader Joe's (sort of a specialty food store-great for all kinds of trail mix and dried fruit) in the same mall as the REI I usually go to.
 
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Carmel,

Thanks for posting that- I had no idea and that is great to know and I can't wait to get up there.



John
 
I was there yesterday, good store with plenty of gear and guidebooks as well. Enjoy. :)
 
the verdict is in.

way more gear than the EMSs down here. i recognized a bunch of the workers, seemed like they jumped ship from ems and decided to work at rei, or maybe they are working both places

as far as gear, they had enough, but their boot section was lacking in selection, there were no winter crampon compatible boots, but they did sell crampons.

there was also no ski section at all. i'm not sure if its because its march, or becasue there is a ski market right nearby (i doubt THAT is the case).

the upstairs was all clothes, i wasn't completely impressed with the jacket selection. but i didn't spend too much time upstairs, because from the eye, it looked like a lot of clothes.

so that's my take on it. they need a ski section and more boots, but still better than ems (in RI only).
 
Carmel said:
there was also no ski section at all. i'm not sure if its because its march, or becasue there is a ski market right nearby
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Early in the season (before the first good snowfall), the powers that be panicked and moved all the Tele skis from the Reading store to stores in the west. If they do plan to carry skis, perhaps they figured it was too late in the season.

Doug
 
My take was that it was indeed better than the EMS's that are South of NH. It didn't seem to have as much gear as the Framingham, MA store though. As Carmel said, the second floor (other than the lacking boot section) seemed to be all clothes. I didn't feel like crutching all around it to check it out, but it sure looked like just clothes. Now that I think of it, I don't think it has as much gear as the 1 floor Reading store. Oh well, at least it is better than the poofdah EMS stores down here.

- d

ps: oh yah, it is better than anything in Hawaii. :(
 
Im working part time at the cranston REI before I move back to NH, I was there helping to get it open.

They are planning on having a huge ski/snowboard section, though they dont plan on starting to stock it until end of the summer going into fall. They also plan to have some more mountaineering equipment (plastic boots, etc...) as for other gear items, I think the plan is to see what depts do best and stock up on that stuff. Right now there are over 60 Kayaks in the store, and mountain bikes like crazy.
 
REI /Northeast

Glad to see another REI open in the NE. I wish we'd get one in the Capital District of NY. EMS tried to go back to focusing more on gear and blew it big time. Of Course when your buyers don't know what they're doing that's what happens. Let them do what they think they can do ... Sell OUTDOOR LIFESTYLE clothes, And slowly but surely cheapen their home brand's quality and sell them in galvanized steel and toxic chip board music blaring Mall settings. Oh well with any luck REI will see the opportunity when Wil Manzer's luck runs out and his loan defaults. They can buy them out of the NE once and for all. CO-Ops far out rule. EMS...Expensive Mountain S..t.
 
brushhog said:
Glad to see another REI open in the NE. I wish we'd get one in the Capital District of NY. EMS tried to go back to focusing more on gear and blew it big time. Of Course when your buyers don't know what they're doing that's what happens. Let them do what they think they can do ... Sell OUTDOOR LIFESTYLE clothes, And slowly but surely cheapen their home brand's quality and sell them in galvanized steel and toxic chip board music blaring Mall settings. Oh well with any luck REI will see the opportunity when Wil Manzer's luck runs out and his loan defaults. They can buy them out of the NE once and for all. CO-Ops far out rule. EMS...Expensive Mountain S..t.
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Lol, such anger... you MUST work for EMS :D
 
Nope!!!

No, I didn't work for them. I used to shop there. Bad experience with some of their products. I do know people who work and worked for them. It's sad when you hear employees talk like that. An old wise man once told me "People sometimes confuse reality and anger" I guess I might be a little biased, I've been a loyal REI member since the mid 70's Nuff sed
 
The new REI in Cranston, RI actually stole quite a few EMS employees. It's a much better store than the REI in Boston which I thought was a disappointment.

If you're looking for a kayak this is the place to go; plenty to choose from.
 
more than 1/2 of the 50 person staff is ex-EMS employees. Also the assistant Manager and one supervisor were recent former managers at local EMSs.

The reason for this is not because of REI's selection, but they treat their staff much better. They have higher wages, and offer all part time staff a full medical and dental health plan. There are plenty of other percs of them as well. I guess its why they ended up in Forbes top100 list a few times.
 
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