REI to cut wages for recent employees, reduce benefits for all
Upvoters37
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Wasn't REI supposed to be one of the "good guys"?
They were great up until covid. Once that happened a lot of bad things started coming down the pike. Per a employee who has been there for 10+ years. He has been begging to get trained on new equipment but mgmt keeps placating him. Got a .20 cent raise after 10 years!
They stopped being the “good guys” and getting my business when they laid off a disabled employee in Portland instead of transferring them to a store that wasn’t closing. No severance, no nothing, just f’off after 7 years.
It’s a façade, REI is anti employee and has practiced union busting in the recent past.
I stopped shopping REI a few years ago despite being a coop member for most of my life. I went in and it was a completely different place. None of the employees knew anything about the products in store or anything related to the outdoors. I used to be able to ask about gear/b...
So you're saying the employees deserve a pay cut?
Yeah I went in for a bike measurement. I'm only 5 feet tall, but they tried putting me on a child's bike... I stopped going back.
This doesn't really take anything into account, just old man yelling at cloud vibes \- Most of this shopping is now online \- REI can't set additional margins on products to staff experts at all stores You are dreaming of a bygone era that does not exist, YOU aren't gonna ...
I worked for REI about a decade ago, they were one of the worst employers I've had. The people were individually amazing but the company succkkkeddd. So many people kept part time so they didn't get benefits including myself. Same bullshit culture of, "were a family so you're ...
I worked at the store in OKC five years ago and was hired as part time, moved to full-time after 3 months, and got regular wage increases. Even got into the bike shop to work as a service advisor and worked as a sales lead. Made over $20 bucks an hour. I think YMMV wildly depe...
Sounds like the large national retail chain I work for: "Just hang in there, you'll be sitting pretty when you top out ten years from now because we constantly reset your goal hours", "Want to complain, well, now a manager is going to follow you around the store, for weeks, lo...
Now that I think about it, that's how my family expects "family" to work. "We're family, so we get to abuse you and you don't get anything you actually want". So, I guess it's been overused at this point, so when are we officially changing family to mean "an abusive system...
Don’t spend your money at rei, got it.
I really only ever shop sales, or their returned items. Most of their shit is so expensive
more people need to vote to get better leaders in to make the cooperative more fair to everyone. other corporate chains also pay workers poorly
What’s Rei?
Too many businesses focusing on making their ceo and board money these days. There’s never enough money to fill the void of being a fucking loser your whole life.
And share holders.
Way to tell the customer base to support them even less..
Back in the Olden Times, when dinosaurs walked the earth, the REI board was made up of campers and hikers like you and me. Then, in around the mid-'80s, corporate types started running for and winning places on the board, and there were no more "regular" people running things....
I know this is just a comment on a post but I love this, thanks from Missouri.
As someone who has been working for HQ for ten years, having near a week cut each year from my earned PTO is a slap in the face after giving me barely a 2.5% cost of living adjustment and calling it a merit increase is embarrassing. Raised it up through management but feel lik...
Removing the lifetime guarantee was the end for me. Haven't been in since.
That and the expiring dividend.
You know, I don't really fault them for this. People abused the *shit* out of that. I have a former friend who would routinely return items she'd used for years just because she didn't want them anymore. I saw her return a pair of tights because they got a hole…after *five yea...
Goddamnit, REI!
Enshittification
Ehh, it's bc the company is bleeding cash.
This feels like if Patagonia decided to start polluting rivers. I thought he co-op was supposed to be the good guys wtf!
I don’t remember seeing that in the coop member bulletins
It’s quittin time again.
Shop local.
So be a leftist, to signal you aren't a bad person, but work for a big corporation doing evil things, right?
And stop supporting the big behemoth manufacturers that have enshittified their product lineups and support smaller, cottage gear manufacturers instead (and find them on [Garage Grown Gear](https://www.garagegrowngear.com/)).
as if most of us even have a choice. i live in a major city. rei is 20 miles into the suburbs. the alternative is eddie bauer at a mall that’s 15 miles out
Imagine hearing endlessly of our cost of living crisis and lack of proper employment benefits….. and what you choose to do is *cut wages and reduce benefits* They’re just outright saying they hate us at this point
Well shit. I used to like this place.
Let me guess. Top management received raises and bonuses.
With the absurd prices they sell things for you would imagine that their issue is less related to employee pay and more related to mismanagement.
Im pretty sure this is the first time i have heard of a company *reducing* pay and benefits, that’s absolutely insane, especially with the economy the way it is. Everyone is battling for higher wages everywhere, and they say “yeah…but what if we lowered them?”
the starting wage is $15-20/hour. the minimum wage in seattle is $21.30 an hour. I think it's gonna be illegal to lower the wage here.
one of the most expensive outdoor stores fucking over their employees. what a shock.
Thank you, capitalism.
> "We were transparent with employees about this and provided additional resources for them to learn more." "We explained to our staff in detail how we were fucking them over."
https://www.ourrei.com/
I suppose they’ll have also changed how the members vote for the board then?
That can’t be far behind since the membership rejected their slate of candidates for board members.
Sports Basement
Between this crap and being asked to pay 100 bucks for a sweatshirt they can go fuck themselves.
REI is circling the drain, if you're still working there you've not been paying attention. These guys just like Starbucks aren't companies you want to be working for, and that's been abundantly clear for at least the last 5 years and really more like the last decade.
They lost their soul a while back when Management went right wing.
REI was pretty cool like 26 years ago when I was getting into backpacking. Back then the vibe was more like dirtbag climber types and used gear. Used to look forward to REI trips and I've collected a ton of gear from there over the years. It has definitely changed though. Just...
Wonder what their CEO’s take home pay for the year was
The beginning of the end for REI.
Their CEO is an unmitigated egotistical asshole. This is par for the course with his direction.
Just so you are aware, you can absolutely cancel your membership and get refunded.
Well, I’m out; I have bought some camping stuff there before, but this news makes me sick.
Fuck REI
Private equity licking its chops…
I never thought that Iid say this but It's time to stop shopping there.
It’s because of their business model plus the overall inflation. Hard to convince people to overpay 50-200% markup on items for “lifetime” warranty.
REI does not over mark the price of products by 50-200 percent. Every item they sell is sold at or below MSRP. Every item.
For whose who've never heard of the brand before, Recreational Equipment, Inc is a multibilliondollar American sports-store corporation. [They've had issues with labor and employee relations for over a decade.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REI_worker_organization)
Gonna be a chain reaction Don’t fuck with people’s money and well being
sits and waits for the inevitable no one wants to work for us article from them. also i'd be damned if i stayed working at a place that cut my pay and benefits. i hope they all quit
I stopped going there a while ago. Anything they had I could find cheaper or better elsewhere or online. My main reason to go was for the experience and employee knowledge. But it seems the employees stopped being knowledgeable fans of the outdoors and became teens who needed ...
Corps ain’t making enough money, fuck the workers
REI selling you the outdoor lifestyle while treating their employees like theyre disposable is peak corporate irony. "live your best life! just not on our wages"
Nice to know where to never do business again
Damn. Employee haves always been top notch in multiple locations.
This sucks, I have a friend who works for them and they were a really good company for employees when I last talked to him (it's been ten years as I moved from the area and only see him on occasion). The constant moving to worse and worse conditions is maddening for the averag...
>The pay cut percentage was not disclosed. A quick Google search shows the average starting pay for REI store employees is between $15-$20 I mean, the minimum wage just went above $17/hr in Washington state this year, so not sure how much lower they can go...
i will say, i don't want to sound anti union here, but the numbers need to be looked at closely, right now spending is way down across the board in a lot of sectors and with how costly going on some of those outdoor activities can be i can see them having financial difficultie...
I guess the big boys got to keep their paychecks high so they got to cut the at the bottom. Wow...
REI has been steadily losing credibility as a legitimate outdoor store. They are becoming Cabela's or fleet Farm quickly. They sell almost exclusively KEEN boots now which are by far the worst quality hiking shoes and boots for their price point. They went heavy into the ...
Won’t someone please think of the shareholders!?
So let’s see. The CEO in 2021 was given a salary of $850K. Plus he was given an annual incentive plan of $1,657,500 + long-term incentive plan of $2,007,672 + profit starting of $14,500 + deferred compensation plan of 1990 of $28,000 = $4,563,312 For $468,000 a year they can...
Really Expensive Items (REI)
REI has also had virtual interviews for years. Fuck these guys
Cool cool cool... so from "co op" to co-opted. They wife used to be a major customer. That just came to a screeching halt.
Reduce Employment Incentives
I mean, tbf, the company lost over $100 million last year, they have to cut costs somewhere lol.
Consumers about to cut spending
Seems to be related to their very anti-union stance. Ugh.
Let me guess, prices going up too?
Haveny bought anything new there in years. Way too expensive.
This sucks all around but REI is doing what they feel the need to do to right the ship. We’re talking about an organization that has lost money every year since 2021. I know they are also working to reform their return policy so people stop using them as a free seasonal renta...
REI is crazy overpriced, i have no idea at all how they stay in business
by being based in seattle and portland…
They charge retail prices... They don't inflate MSRP. Maybe they don't do sales as often as other outdoor retailers but they are not ripping you off. Their stance on labor is abhorrent for a company and strives to "do good."
Their stuff isn't any more expensive than their competitors. My guess is you may not appreciate the difference between 'outdoor leisure' and 'outdoor sports'. If your idea of being in the outdoors is through-hiking the PCT or climbing a mountain, you aren't going to be lugging...