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Sometimes an event lives great because it offers so much more than it intends. When it's a store putting it on for the sake of it's customers (and I'd like to think as a thank you for loyalty) it goes far beyond a vehicle for making a sale.
We have loved the Garage Sale that this location put on for so very long. We would get in line at 5am with the other die hards and laugh at the people waking up in their sleeping bags (while secretly wishing that we had the cojones to do the same since they were going to get the VERY best deals). A couple years running Krispy Kreme came across the street with boxes of donuts to cheer our early morning wait.
But it was the people that made it. We'd hang out in the early morning hours with other outdoor enthusiasts trading stories and secrets about local trails, lakes and camping sites.
...and then, with nervous excitement we'd charge into the parking lot like mad men, snatching up sleeping bags and hiking shoes for pennies on the dollar, thanking the REI gods that we, the chosen few, the members, would have such an opportunity to feed our equipment cravings at unheard of prices.
Flash forward to yesterday...I evidently missed the memo that the "new and improved" garage sale was happening in the store, up in the clinic room. Clutching my 20% off coupon we made our way through the crowded parking lot, J. with visions of using it for a new bike seat while I ready to fight him for a chance to restock my hiking sock drawer at 20% savings. We walked in to signs advertising the garage sale and a very long line of people waiting to go up stairs for their finds of the year. J. got in line and I went to hunt for new feet cushions. Several minutes later, he found me to let me know that he had to get out of line to get tickets for the sale, but was assured that it was a 30 minute wait and he was going to the bike department until our numbers were called.
I was dubious...the line looked like it was for an E-ticket ride at Disneyland and the people in it weren't looking any happier than if it was 98ยบ with screaming kids at said park. Long story short...it was 2 full hours before we were called to that upstairs secret clubhouse. Once there, we were told we had a very generous 10 minutes to shop...we picked up a few things. set them down in frustration when neither of us could get to the clothes and walked out of the store empty handed.
REI management, this is an epic fail in my opinion. You turned a wonderful community event into a vehicle to hold your members hostage in hopes of their making full price purchases while waiting for a disappointing chance to make the killer buy that we dreamed yearly about...and worse yet, you didn't even make the sale that we intended...you didn't sell the $53 bike seat, you didn't sell the $17.95 socks but you did manage to piss off a couple of members who have been on your roster for 25 years.
Sometimes a sales event is more than the sum of the profits or in this case the decluttering of the returns bin. Sometimes it's a way to show your customers the loyalty they've shown you... we heard repeatedly that this was much easier on the employees and management than the old parking lot sale. This was much harder on us as consumers and so unsatisfying to wait two hours for a 10 minute opportunity. The parking lot sale was one day of chaos for the employees a couple times a year...is that too much to ask from a store that we've been loyal too for half our lives?
