I called last week to see if they carried 5.11 pants. I'm a technician, not a cop, but like wearing these items as they seem to serve my day to day tasks well. They told me to come in, no problem.
I finally stopped by this week. I left without buying anything.
They have a lot of boots and a lot of clothing. That being said, most of the 5.11 gear was in piles on top of the racks. There were no price tags on anything I picked up. It looked pretty disorganized. There were some pants on sized racks, to be fair. I only found one pair of pants in my size, 40x30. I grabbed them and a few other close sizes to try on in the dressing room.
The dressing room had several open boxes of product in them. It looks like its a dressing/storage room. After I found a few pairs of pants I liked, I tried to get the attention of the few people working the counter. To be fair, they didn't ignore me completely, they just never got to me.
You see, this is an excellent store for law enforcement and postal workers. They have a good selection of items for each and were very friendly with the several off duty officers in the store. They in fact seemed to be friends with a few of them. If I were the officers, I would love that level of service and comfortability.
I got tired of waiting and hadn't had any of my answers addressed at this point, so I decided to go back to the racks and pick up another one or two pairs of pants and just buy them, figuring the prices were probably about average.
At this point, several large law enforcement officers came and stood over next to me giving me what I would call the "stink eye." They then started talking loudly and in my direction about how non-law enforcement people shouldn't be in here. They went on to comment about how the staff will just kick you out if they figure you're there looking for a costume or you don't look like you "should" be buying "tactical" pants. The comments continued about how this is a serious place and civilians "shouldn't be in here playing cop."
I guess if I were on trial, I couldn't legally prove they were talking about me, but it sure felt like it. I'm 6'0, 235lbs and still have my high and tight haircut from the Army. I didn't look like what one might describe as a trouble maker, but at that point I sure felt like I didn't belong.
I put all of the clothes back on the rack and left without purchasing anything. I'm a big believer in supporting local business, and that was my plan. Instead, I ended up using them as a showroom to buy my items online for what I assume is less money.
Again, I don't 100% fault the store for this. If you're a postal worker or law enforcement, I believe you will get great service and a sense of community from your fellow officers, thus the 2 stars.
If you're a civilian, you could still try it out. You may have a better experience than me.
I for one, will shop elsewhere in the future.
P.S.- To my officer friends: 5.11 started as pants for mountain climbing. The 5.11 referred to a level of climbing difficulty at the founding of the company. They're not "cop pants," they're mountain climbing pants. Jerks. read more