The most boring and annoying store in Portland is Snow Peak

For what its worth I dont think I have ever seen or heard of a Snow Peak store. So in my eyes they are more than welcome even if they are completley clueless about how to set up thier store and product. I mean, thier store is better than mine so who are you or me to judge them? They will either improve or shut down, thats what happens. I actually think its kind of funny.

I didnt even know they had more than a few stove and titanium pots, etc. honestly so AM I IMPRESSED?

So how much did you spend? :)

How's the Montbell store in Portlandia?

But yet you've been there more than once….

"But yet you've been there more than once…."

Two old men eating lunch – one says "This food has to be the worst food I've ever had!" The other retorts "Yeah, and the portions are so small!"

…"and the service is always so bad", says their friend at the next table.

Shouldn't this be posted in reader reviews? Or Chaff.

With all due respect you didn't mention anyone holding a gun to your head. It is what it is. Maybe your due for some more time on the trail and less shopping. It works for me. Or you could kindly give them some advise on how they could improve their first customer impressions. That would be nice of you and keep you in a positive mind set too.

I suggest reserving rants for poor customer service, warranty follow through and bad behavior of others. If we rant on the aspects of personal business choices we'll never get to the trail head :)

jimmyb

I didn't even know there was a Snow Peak store

I'll have to go check it out…

I've been to the Snow Peak store and it didn't bother me, I just looked around and left…no big deal. The Montbell store I liked, especially the discount section and no tax(thank you Oregon).

I think you are completely missing the point. Snow Peak came over here with a flagship store and aimed their marketing at a high end luxury glamping sort of brand. Which is what they are mainly focused on in the mainland (check out their iron grill sets for example). The store isn't focused at servicing the backpacking community because they already have that market, ever since the introduction of the store they've latched themselves onto young cooler brands such as topo. To build a larger audience than just the already dedicated backpacker, they need the casual campers and the fashionista with deep pockets to afford their gear. A 99 dollar lantern isn't going to sell very well to the average camper because the proposition value isn't there. We don't have the same aesthetics and value sense the japanese do.

You have to compare them to other fashion focused brands like Aether apparel or even Arcteryx's Veilance line to understand the reason why they've setup the store the way it is. Walk into a fashion boutique like steven alan or frances may down the street in portland and you'll see 200 button up shirts and 500 jackets that is the same market and appeal they are going after with snow peak's clothing line. Nobody who buys their clothes is going to ever hear or care about feathered friends or western mountaineering, its not about the feather count.

I fear one problem with posts like this is that it's a very narrowed view. Many other posts have come up with a similar sense where there isn't a realization that we are a very small niche community in a large large world. If the outdoor industry had to live on just the hardcore adventurers. REI wouldn't exist at all today.

I spoke with a store associate there and they mentioned that they don't really know what shipment they'll get from japan. They seem to just get whatever japan decides to ship them and they can only sell and merchandise what they have. Which is really crappy on their part because they never have anything stock. And the store is lackluster, i left after 10 minutes and spent an hour in montbell. It's not their fault, it's who they are trying to target.

I went in a while ago and told them my LiteMax was clogged. They said they have a guy there that can fix it. That's cool to me

But yeah its a boutique… if you wanted a gear store you 'd be caught off-guard and probably (as in the case of the OP) leave confused and upset

In the 2 or 3 years it has been open I have been in the store 5 times. I purchased one item for my brother because he wanted a coffee cup for his birthday. I went back to see if they had improved anything the other times. They have not. As I mentioned, I like some of their product, but they don't want to display what I like on the online catalog too much. As I said, just go down a little ways on the same street to REI and you will notice a huge difference. REI sells Snowpeak stoves and they do a better job of displaying them than Snow Peak, plus when REI is running the sale in the store you can actually get it cheaper there.

The Montbell store in Portland is wonderful. They have a fantastic store and they know how to display their gear. Excellent place to visit in Portland. It is almost dangerous to go in because the temptation to buy another sleeping bag is there. The bags look really cool and the colors are amazing. Snow Peak makes a sleeping bag but it weighs 7 pounds, fiberfill, and costs more than some of the down Montbell. So mental!

The Mountain Hardwear store is okay as is the Northface, those two are a notch more interesting than the Arc'Teryx and the Prana store.

The two best stores are independent stores The Mountain Shop and OEC. Mountain Shop features Feathered Friends, Six Moon Designs, Hyperlite Mountain Gear, Crux, Hilleberg, and many more ultralight companies. They sell the Titanium Frame pack that just came out a little while ago. OEC features Western Mountaineering.

I appreciate the comments of the poster regarding the "glamping" issue and maybe there target market is not geared towards the backpacker. I would point out that they have failed even with the market they are trying to impress. Nobody is ever in the store. If you wanted the glamping stuff the Poler store down the street is far superior and the price point is much better too. The Lizard Lounge around the corner sells the Nau jackets on discount all the time, Snow Peak does not, they have them, but no discount. So regardless of what market or what kind of consumer they are trying to impress, they have failed and failed big time. It is a disgrace. It has the potential to be good, but it will never be. The fact there is never a customer (I went on the weekends at various times which is the best time for retail) and the place was as empty as the Sahara Desert. It is sad, but it is a failure. If they had any customers, than it would be another story, but they don't.

The most boring and annoying post is the OP

This store is the worst and i hate it so much and i have only been back five times.

Oh, and also complained about it on the internet.

So boring and annoying!

Sounded interesting enough for me to have a look.
Here are some photos of that store :




Found this comment from ,I would think, a non paid "reviewer" :
"Store is fun to visit and the titanium products are great. Tents don't work even setting up though. Tried to set up two with four people and struggled with two different tents. Drove 150 miles one way and was very disappointed they had not even attempted to set up the tent I had called about so many times that week. It was apparent the tents I tried were never set up, in Japan nor Portland because the poles did not fit, so I drove home without."
Obviously the store is set up as a SnowPeak showroom so not the type of retail store some may be looking for and yes those stores typically sell only at RRP .
Maybe worth a visit,thank you for sharing.

I've visited one of their stores in Tokyo, and was underwhelmed.

*But* I love their titanium cookware. The items I've got have been flawless in the ~8 years I've been using them.

I imagine it is a difficult task to arrange small dull gray bowls and pots in an interesting way.

I followed Franco and googled the store as well…

Whether or not it's a great store with the most dynamic displays and the best prices are subjective. But I think OP's comparison to Goodwill or St. Vincent de Paul is so far off as to be absurd.

The Goodwill stores in Portland must be pretty posh…;)

"But I think OP's comparison to Goodwill or St. Vincent de Paul is so far off as to be absurd."

May OP got the cities confused. Beverly Hills instead of Portland?

Maybe I 'm like the one guy in the listerine commercial (I'm dating myself here) that likes the taste, or the one guy in the crowd chanting "We Are All Individuals!" in The Life of Brian that says "I'm not!" … but I like it!! I approve!

Its kind of crypto-cottage display style! Its subversive! Henry Miller would say it is a gob of spit in the face of the whole MacOutdoors industry. It says "We are a Japanese company that makes high quality lightweight stuff that is very expensive. If you are too stupid to buy the stuff for what it is, can't distinguish style from substance, and want us to ply you with image, or kiss your fanny, just get out of here already – I heard they are giving away free cheetos down the street at WallMart. Hey, why are you coming back again and again? What, is this like your 5th time in the last two years? Geez, what do we have to do? Just leave already! And while you are at it please tell all your friends this place is 'boring' and write something about it on 'social media'. Why don't you please pan us on "the yelp"? We don't care. We come from a culture that appreciates UL backpacking tea ceremony kits, for crying out loud! There is no way to hype something like that! Either you want it or you don't. By the way, don't you have an iphone game to get back to punk! "

At least that is what is says to me. :-)

I am glad the photos were posted. It proves the very lack of customers. It is not like they were all polite just waiting to stay out of the way. The store is boring. Since most of you have not even been there, nor ever will go there I think you should realize that it is like listening to golf on radio. It is boring.

Thanks for posting the pictures!

Saying a store is boring enough to start a few hundred word thread about it is akin to taking the time to tell someone you don't care – if you really didn't care, you wouldn't take the time to say you didn't.

It took me about 15 years to realize their logo was not an asterix – that is how good their marketing is. But I still own and cherish a bunch of their fantastic gear.

It's true… the Logo used steroids during its heyday.

And its also true we have high end Goowills
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2011/03/goodwill_opens_boutique_in_se.html