Interesting Shoe Buying Experience — REI vs Sports Chalet

You should forward that to the manager at Sports Chalet so that guy gets credit for a job well done.

The Sports Chalet salesman did a great job.

Yes, great salesman. And I did let SC know. Unfortunately, we often get excited when someone does their job; what I would expect to be the minimum customer experience.

This general lack of service or knowledge today in the retail environment is generally not the fault of employees. It lies with management, as it is their responsibility to train. Since I have seen a large decline in customer service (ala knowledge), my take is that REI does not care enough about their customers, else they would put proper training programs in place.

Part of the problem with sales people is that we are not willing to pay them. I buy on the internet whenever possible to get the lowest price. In order for brick and mortor to compete they need to cut costs so wages drop to minimum and you use part time labour who dont stay long enough to become experts.

Imagine if treated retail sales like restraunts where you tipped based on service, would you pay 15% more for the in store experience. If that model worked you woukd see more experienced people working at stores.

Sounds like every REI I've ever been in. The slick cookbook for the 2 yacht family.

My advice for big retail places is ask who is the specialist for the area you are asking about.

Remember the guy/gal you are talking about is not getting paid a whole lot and the management expects them to know about a bunch of areas they may not be 100% familiar with. Sounds like the guy was

Did you ask the guy the most minimal shoe they had WITH a rock plate? Maybe you were both being too anal about the definition. Or they simply don't have what you wanted.

Cool the sports chalet person was so helpful. It, to me, sounds like the Sports Chalet guy knew a lot about minimalistic shoewear, and the REI people didn't. One topic, one one day, with one group of staff/member isn't enough to point to an institutional problem.

Also, minimalism is fringe. I'd walk in with less of an expectation, sadly. You could also try stores who specialize in footwear.

there is a new REI closer to my house, but i prefer to drive the extra distance to the original area REI because of the OP's experience. i see a clear difference in the knowledge of the staff at the original area REI, in fact, i have seen several of the staff while backpacking.

the new location is in a very yuppie area and many of the people there are more interested in the appearance of being outdoorsy rather than using the gear. that's fine and all, less people on the trails, but man i have heard some back advice given.

when i bought my Mountain Hardwear Phantom 32, i went to the closer location since it was in stock. the salesperson tried to up-sale me several times since it was so lightweight it would never be good at 32F and that i should get a 15F bag that was more weight so i would be warm. when i stated i had a very nice 15F bag already, they asked why i need another bag… like i'm going to use a 15F bag in August in the Mid-Atlantic. hahahaha.

I haven't been impressed by the shoe people at REI either. I went to the REI in Seattle when I was hiking the PCT. I told the guy I wanted mesh trail runners, no goretex, no boots. He brought me a stack of goretex boots! Then I couldn't get him to help me any further. I finally just picked a pair of street running shoes because they were advertised as having a 4E width and told him size 8. Size 8 was too big but I knew I'd get no further assistance, so I just bought them. I really needed shoes bad and wasn't familiar enough with Seattle to know where else I could go.

> I told the guy I wanted mesh trail runners, no goretex, no boots. He brought me a
> stack of goretex boots!
A truly depressing thought is that when he got out the back all he could remember was that you had said the words 'Goretex' and 'boots'.

Cheers

"My advice for big retail places is ask who is the specialist for the area you are asking about.

Remember the guy/gal you are talking about is not getting paid a whole lot and the management expects them to know about a bunch of areas they may not be 100% familiar with. Sounds like the guy was

Did you ask the guy the most minimal shoe they had WITH a rock plate? Maybe you were both being too anal about the definition. Or they simply don't have what you wanted."

Regarding management, it is management's responsibility to train their people… it is not the employees' fault if they are not trained — that is the point of my post. BTW for a living, I develop training programs for companies much larger than REI and many much smaller. These companies care about their customers and want to retain them.

Last point, the manager did not know which shoes had rock plates other than "the sole is usually stiffer."

Bottom line, REI is in sad shape compared to what they once were. I have been in many of their stores over the years to include the Seattle, Denver and Torrance, CA stores. My membership number only has 6 digits.

I always do my own research. I never rely on the retail sales people for advice on consumer products. In fact I tend to avoid brick and morter stores altogether because I find many (not all) sales personnel annoying. And I cant blame them for that, its just the wsy they're trained. Goes for anything from cars to socks and everything in between. Scary thing is an individual should be doing their own independent research on other things like finance and medicine too and not just blindly taking a broker's or doctor's advice as holy, yet it seems not many people share my attitude.

I would imagine a couple days researching minimalist shoe options and reviews on the Internet would arm you with better information than you will receive from a department store clerk. This kind of free information is all over the Internet, take advantage.

"I always do my own research. I never rely on the retail sales people for advice on consumer products. In fact I tend to avoid brick and morter stores altogether because I find many (not all) sales personnel annoying. And I cant blame them for that, its just the wsy they're trained"

This is exactly how I am. I never understood the idea that there may people out there who would actually want to talk to a salesman. "just browsing" is what I say every time any employee approaches me.
I do my homework at home, look at reviews, write down possible candidates and go to the store to try things on and see them in person.
I get very annoyed when my gf asks employees questions since I can not understand why she would think they would do anything but try to BS us? I wounder if its a little bit of a generational thing?

An educated consumer is the best customer.

I go along with the idea that you can't expect much from someone making probably $8 bucks an hour. It's really our fault as consumers. We base the majority of our purchase decision on price so the retailers have responded by going to the bottom of the barrel for salespeople.

Particularly with footwear it would be all but impossible to have a expert and true believer in every genre of shoes. That same Sports Chalet guy probably royally ticked off the next guy that came in looking for Gore-Tex boots. On another forum that guy is complaining that the salesperson didn't know squat about boots and kept trying to sell him woosy shoes for his backpacking trip.

Yep, usually the best approach these days.

I am pretty up-to-date on the selection of running shoes that fit my needs. Unfortunately I needed shoes right away. Time and selection/availability were my immediate needs.

I often have to do research on products, because of the lack of skillful, knowledge salespeople. But for me, I prefer to spend more money and less time if I can find a knowledgeable retailer. For me time is a valuable commodity. Less time researching means more leisure time to get out and do what I like.

About 10 years ago I wanted to get new inline skates (Roller Blades) for me and my wife. I heard that the REI in Torrance had some experts. The 4 hour round trip was well worth the drive. The salesman spent about 45 minutes with us and the fit/match was perfect. We ended up with different brands for each of us.

I have also bought many running shoes from a local running store, and one in Orange County, which is about 100 miles away.

The problem today is that cheap people go to stores like this to get fitted and educated; then don't buy… they go home and order on the Web.