There are lots of reasons to shop at REI. The great product selection, the knowledgeable and friendly staff, their environmentalism, their community activism, their general corporate policies. But here is another. We bought a child carrier for Wesley sometime last summer. Its the kind you can actually do some hiking in and it wasn’t cheap. So I was a little distressed to see it starting to tear in one place. So, here we are in Seattle and we dropped into REI. Without a receipt they looked me up in their system (I’m a member, quite worth the small fee) and gave me a refund of the price I paid. No questions, no problems. I went upstairs to grab a replacement and realized that it was about $80 more than I had paid last year. I admit I had some concerns. Are we about to be out $80? Nope. Without any conjoling or “can I talk to a manager” the guy just says, we’ll just charge you the same price we just refunded so it will all work out. This is a great store. They treat their customers with respect and as importantly give their employees the power to do the right thing without asking for permission. Can you imagine this going at Wal Mart? I might have saved $10 on the initial purchase, but I probably couldn’t have gotten my money back in the first place and if I had I most certainly would have been screwed when I went to buy the new one. So go out their and support good retailers. Shop local, shop friendly, shop responsible places that act the way they should.
