In most retail situations, especially those involving crowds and lines, one would think frigid temperatures and steady snow would encourage people to stay home. But these mean nothing to the REI crowd. Today all the local REI’s had an attic sale. I went up to College Park, planning to arrive just as the store opened and get my pick of the merch. Apparently I was supposed to get there far before the store opened, and pick up a ticket. Instead I arrived as the store opened, and spent an hour browsing around the normal REI, before they let me into the warehouse-style back room to pick and choose what was left.
The REI attic sale is semi-annual sale REI retail stores hold to get rid of the somewhat large quantity of imperfect returns they get, thanks to their very generous return policy. Plenty of clothes that have been worn once, but also shoes that have seen week long hiking trips, water bottles without lids, cycling shoe wind covers with broken zippers, and – somehow- tripods with only two legs. People will apparently return anything. I got a pair of running shoes, normally $90, for $30, with no explanation for what was wrong with them. They seem new. I also got a pair of XS women’s tights for $19 – not for myself, obviously. They were normally $70. Apparently these tights were involved in a photoshoot of some sort, though they also seem new. And then I got a pair of cleats for my cycling shoes, normally $30 (at REI, somewhat less elsewhere) for $15, missing the hardware – screws you use to attach the cleats to your shoes. But while cleats wear out, the hardware usually doesn’t, so I’ll just what I have.
Overall, it was just barely worth the effort, but I had nothing better to do on a 18 degree snowy morning. At some point I’ll give it another shot, and I will plan on getting there half an hour or so before the store opens.
