Vantaggi
Outdoorsy stuff is inherently interesting and entertaining. You can meet some cool people if you play your cards right and keep your eyes open.
Svantaggi
REI's a lot like communism. It looks good on paper, but fails in practice. It's just another big box store. Retail is retail is retail. And the focus on memberships has a cult-like feel to it. I just read that REI only donates $18 per member annually, less than the $20 lifetime membership fee. This is less than .3% of sales. Patagonia donates 1%. (figures from 2005) And I really cannot convey in words the amount of attitude I get from the vast majority of my co-workers. They're all haughty, judgmental jocks who take themselves super seriously because they go outside. I have felt excluded since I started there a year ago, which bothered me at first. Now I thoroughly enjoy it, since they took me off the sales floor and stuck me in the back. I don't have to talk to anyone. And I was thankfully relieved of my membership cult member duties. I was hoping for more hippie-types, and I have been sorely disappointed.