"Swipe or Insert Card" - Favorite Retail Store

[Chase]

Everyone has a few places that they can't help but either blow way too much money at -or- window shop from open to close.

Here's mine:

Recreational Equipment, Incorporated - A.K.A "REI"

REI is essentially a outdoor sporting goods store - emphasizing more than anything else "Camping" as opposed to things like "hunting".

Favorite brands for many people tend to be Gucci, Versace, Rolex to Nike, Oakley, and Adidas.

-MY- favorite brands happen to be the likes of Patagonia, North Face, Columbia, and Nalgene depending on the product.

Favorite items:

1. WATER BOTTLES - As an avid camper, hiker, former Boy Scout, Summer Camp Counselor, and Recreation Leader - there is no greater blessing than H2O. Particularly if it's cold - and if you're out in the woods and STILL have the access to the Lord's nectar (that's COFFEE, not TEA.....you heathens) - then you want something that keeps it hot too. REI has the WIDEST selection of bottles, tumblers, and camp diningware all the way to Camelbaks and easy-to-store large fluid containers. I don't know why simple drinkware causes me to window-shop...but whatever.
2. BACKPACKS - The neat thing about REI is that they have the most dependable (and on average MOST expensive) packs out there - but they are more than just your typical "Hello Kitty" two pocket pack or your drawstring sack. My favorite invention ever may just be the "day-pack" - a regular backpack sized contraption with MANY more pockets, bells, whistles, and features that allow for easy forest trekking - to urban exploration when hauling things like a laptop to a coffee bar in New York City... They also have your typical drawstring bags - but they have these things up to LUGGAGE and "actual" backpacker packs. - seriously, a whole corner of the first floor of this place is devoted to backpacks. It's great.
3. SWAG - Yep, the place even has threads for men, women, and children here too - with brands that can be pretty hard to find elsewhere. Take for example the "Chacos" - a type of sandal you can identify to quickly find out who in camp is a counselor without even asking a question.

Recommended brands-for-items:

Water Bottles and Containers - Nalgene, Yeti (Nalgene is MUCH cheaper than Yeti, but Yetis do work.)

Packs - REI, Osprey, North Face (REI's packs are just as good as the companies they middleman for.)

Clothing - Patagonia, Columbia, REI

[Arkhi]

Damn, I came here hoping to be the first person to say REI. I picked up an Osprey 2.5L hydration pack just last week and it's a beauty for hiking use. I could spend hours in REI poking through all the nifty gear and gadgets they've got. I really should've picked up a pocket sleeping back- 8 feet in length of insulated protection against the night packed into a nifty 3-inch cube. The REI I hit up had a portable kayak on display, and for as little faith I put in its integrity, the little ark looked pretty neat.

After REI?

I dunno, maybe American Eagle. They've got neat clothing.

[Chase]

Ark.

we gotta go camping some time.

[Shamitako]

WTF is a retail store? Is it like Amazon? owo

[Chase]

Amazon frustrates me...

I understand it is virtually a one-stop-shop for everything you would ever need - but buying online means stupid things like paying for shipping and hoping your items don't get to you damaged and arrive on time.

It also sucks the fun out of the "experience". Browsing the web for things like videos, games, and chatting with people in real time? Excellent, but you don't get to hands-on try products on the web, and you literally miss out on the "wonderland" effect of walking into a store and seeing neat items wall-to-wall.

Using REI as an example - I can shop on REI's website MUCH easier than I can travel to the nearest store (a solid hour and a half drive to Austin) - but if I searched up daypacks I would only see daypacks and not get the "wow factor" of seeing kayak and mountain bike equipment on the same floor. For me, REI isn't just go-buy-leave. It's go-browse-explore-wishyoucouldlivethere-buy-leave. And it's amazing.

REI also has things like "master classes" like how to repair a bike or how to cook using an open flame, that you don't get the same experience with when you use the internet.

I know you were just in jest, Lexi. - I just have bad experiences with Amazon and I really like shopping.

...got a problem with that?

[Arkhi]

Ark.

we gotta go camping some time.

We'll make this massive campfire and tell ghost stories and I am SO fucking down.

[Shadow Roxas]

I feel obligated to say Dollar General because I work there.

but really i love gamestop im gonna get a bunch of shit for it but its true i almost always go there and never buy anything i just talk with the workers because theyre cool as fuck

[NickCrash]

Forgive my ignorance, but what is so special about their water bottles?

[Chase]

I don't know if you're asking about REI or asking about Nalgene...so I'll cover both.

With stores, it's usually about selection and average quality of the products available. It's easy to go pick up a water bottle (Nalgene even) from your local supermarket sometimes, depending on where you live - but at REI, you essentially get access to every make and model of Nalgene out on the market - the only exception being specially marked containers (such as Nalgenes with the logo of a particular summer camp on them) where you have to actually travel to said camp or browse the camp's store on the web to purchase it.

It doesn't stop with Nalgene either - because it's a recreational equipment store, meaning if you like another brand like Sigg or Yeti or Camelbak - you can find wide selections of those too. As far as the store is concerned, REI provides bottles that suit your needs and in variety. I know the average person may not think about the kind of bottle they would need, so it's a good question.

---

The Nalgene water bottle is akin to the "iPod" in the camping and recreation world. Back in the day it was advertised pretty heavily and the product behind it ....for lack of a better phrase "holds water."

Nalgenes were invented originally in the laboratory container industry (you know - beakers, test tubes, the like) out of material known as "polyethylene" - a very light plastic that is surprisingly tough to break and doesn't bleed into whatever the container is holding.

In a water bottle, that's helpful because nobody wants their water tasting like plastic.

If you look it up on YouTube, Nalgene bottles are often subject to torture in efforts to try and break them. Because they are tough to crack, they are ideal bottles for rigorous climbing and hiking where a broken water bottle is definitely possible.

Nalgene also holds a LOT of water despite being deceptively average-sized. This makes it easy to carry around more water than you would think and makes stops to fill up happen less frequently.

It can also hold other liquids without retaining taste (as some other liquids do to water bottles) and odor (seriously - water bottles can get REAL smelly) - meaning you just have to wash the liquid out and the nalgene is as good as new.

Nalgene's wide-open lid allows you to put ice into the bottle with ease (and there are filters that can be easily put in the bottle to prevent spilling water on yourself if you find that to be problematic)

You can also survive temperature drops because even if the frozen water expands (and it is harder to freeze in a Nalgene) it won't break the bottle. - On the other hand, you can actually BOIL water in a Nalgene without damage as well in most cases (wouldn't use an open flame though. Hot water baths, heat mantles, or microwaves are better.)

Finally, the design allows for it to be used as storage for other things like food - and the lid doesn't leak.

It's just a decent water bottle. While not the cheapest available - 11 USD isn't terrifying.

[Arkhi]

Forgive my ignorance, but what is so special about their water bottles?

REI has a large variety of water bottles. Some of them are real neat- bottles that use UV rays to purify dirty water, canteens that also purify, and hydration packs, which are just backpacks with bladders inside that you may fill with water. It's hard to explain all the goodies at REI; you'd have to see the place in-person.

[Felicity]

uh

The reborn site shop? Fuck idk man I don't go to clothing retailers much cuz i'm cheap af with fashion, not sure supermarkets are actually retailers and everything else I get online.

[Tempest]

Microcenter.... I buy way too much computer shit.

[Bluewolf]

Guitar Center

Sorta like Temps place, except I buy way too much music shit. But come on, a beatpad with all the bells and whistles for 90 bucks is freaking awesome!

[Pocky]

I might as well post both my favorite online and irl shops:

Massdrop is my favorite online because group-buy help everyone save money, and you never know what's gonna come next. As a keyboard hobbyist, I always get surprised whenever i see new additions and sad when i realize that im still broke, lol.

Thrift Stores in general are my favorite in real life. I don't know why, but I really like the mystery of things when i go to a store. I usually check out the keyboard section first though, just in case i can find some vintage mechanical keyboard since it can happen, and then just look for anything cool I can get my hands on. I've always liked the sense of surprise you get when you go to a thrift store, so there's that.