I like this REI. Parking is easy to find, staff are nice, the store feels smaller than other REIs which is nice because its easy to navigate through and find others in your party (maybe it just feels smaller because its 2 stories). HOWEVER, they need more staff! It is really hard to ask questions or get someone to help you. I was looking at the watches, which are behind glass, and needed someone to come over and help me. I waited there for 5 minutes hoping that someone would walk by. No one did. I searched the entire first floor looking for people to help me. There were two people for the whole floor, and they were busy in conversation with other customers. I waited for these conversations to end, but 10 minutes later they were still in deep conversation. I walked upstairs to the women's corner to ask the staff member up there if she could page someone to come downstairs and help me. She did. I waited at the counter another 10 minutes, no one came. I really wanted this watch! Finally I went over to the bike station and found someone who was in the back warehouse area. I let them know that I had been waiting at the watch station for 10 minutes after another staff member had already paged on the loud speaker, and that no one was coming. She stopped what she was doing and helped me. However, on the way, she saw someone looking at items and said "Do you need help finding something?". He said yes, so she told me "hold on, I'll be with you in a second". She left for a minute to page someone to the bike area, and then came back to help me.
Their system for helping customers is really inefficient, and if you have areas where items are locked up its important to have staff members around that area to help if anyone wants to buy one of those items. It was a Sunday, but the store didn't seem particularly packed. Overall, the staff members are very nice but there are too few of them which can make getting the items that you want take a lot longer...
Also, we stopped by because their system showed that they had the shoe that we wanted in the right size. They did mention on the phone that the system showed only 1 left, and that it can be iffy, thus no promises. When we got there, of course the system had been wrong and there were no shoes. It would nice if their system updated faster, etc.
On a side note, the older Asian guy in the shoe section is always there and juggling between customers. You never have to wait long in the shoe section! He is very helpful and friendly. read more
