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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kevin Purcell" data-source="post: 1515720" data-attributes="member: 68323">Hey, me too. 21 and a bit years.I even remember when they were an outdoor store not a fashion store. And they had their original creaky floored store in funky Capitol Hill in Seattle rather than their new "faux" PNW recycled timber warehouse store (though it does look nice!).REI (even as it has remained a co-op) has drifted away from their original position as a bunch of folks who band together to buy good rope cheap for the group. Their REI own brand stuff is OK but its not designed so much for the outdoors person but for the middle aged and middle class demographic who camps a couple of times a year. Now I'm not sure why they try to sell some of their stuff (especially their optics). They are a shadow of their former (more hardcore) self. But I still buy stuff there every year. I have an REI credit card so I have a dividend every year but I always spend more than that. In fact I may be down at the flagship store tomorrow looking for a water bottle and a folding chair to take birding. But I don't buy optics there.Did I mention the crappy demo Monarch they had out with huge amounts of diffraction off the prism edge ... oh, yeah, I wrote a thread about it. The staff couldn't see the problem. In the flagship store.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REI" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REI</a>Clearly written by an old fart after my own heart (no, it wasn't me!).</blockquote>

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