REI Let Customers Return Anything, at Any Time, for 75 Years. Among the Things That Came Back Was a Snowsuit Bought in 1970 to Climb Mount Rainier.

Recreational Equipment Inc. was founded in 1938 and is organised as a cooperative. From the start it offered a 100 percent satisfaction guarantee, and the guarantee had no expiry date. If a piece of gear failed to satisfy, it could be brought back to the store, and the store took it back. Customers were left to decide for themselves what satisfaction meant and how long it was supposed to last.

The arrangement suited a co-op. REI returns part of its profit to members every year as a dividend, and in March 2013 that dividend came to $104 million. A generous returns desk and a generous dividend were paid for out of the same margin, which worked for as long as the members treated both with roughly equal restraint. Customers took to calling the company "Rental Equipment Inc." and "Rent Every Item." It was meant fondly, mostly.

What Came Back

The Seattle Times, reporting on the policy's end, listed some of the returns. A mother brought back a stroller because her children had grown out of it. A father returned a bike rack because it clashed with his new car. A climber described taking knockoff gear to the Eugene, Oregon, store, where it was exchanged for cash because it had an REI logo on it, though REI had never made some of it.

The Wall Street Journal later found hikers, kayakers and climbers who had used the policy "as an ATM," and a customer in Washington state who had returned a snowsuit he bought in 1970 to climb Mount Rainier. Entrepreneur's list of accepted returns included burned-up camping equipment, 14-year-old backpacks and energy-bar wrappers. None of this was hidden. REI's senior vice president of retail, Tim Spangler, pointed out that anyone could google "REI return policy" and "find lots of interesting discussions."

Where It Went

The returned gear did not disappear. For more than 60 years REI held members-only garage sales, where returned items were sold at a discount to other members. A tent could be bought new, used for years, returned for a refund, and sold at a garage sale to another member.

The co-op paid for each of these trips. It paid the refund, took back something worth less than it had cost, and sold it for less again. The member who returned it came out ahead, and the loss came out of the same margin that paid everyone's dividend.

The Arithmetic

REI's 2012 sales rose 7 percent to $1.9 billion, which was less than it had expected, and profit fell 4 percent to $29 million. The company laid off some staff in March 2013. Around the same time it noticed a spike in returns of items bought more than a year earlier. "In the last three years the number of customers who were stretching the policy beyond its intent became material," Spangler said. "We have to watch our profit carefully if we are going to pay our members a dividend every year."

From 4 June 2013, most items could be returned only within one year of purchase, and outlet items bought on REI.com within 30 days. Defective goods could still come back at any age. About 90 percent of returns were already happening within the first year, so the change mainly affected everything else. REI said it would explain the new rule in three million emails.

The Second Tightening

The one-year window lasted, but by 2024 it applied only to members. Non-members got 90 days. Then, in late 2024, REI emailed a group of members that made up less than 0.02 percent of its 24 million, or roughly 4,800 people. Purchases they made on or after 6 November 2024 could no longer be returned or exchanged. They were still welcome to shop.

REI said the group returned 79 percent of what it bought, on average, and had returned $2,400 of gear each in the past year, $1,400 of it used. "We've tried to curb this behavior by some members over the past several years with targeted warnings and probationary periods," the company said. "Unfortunately, these tactics have not proven effective."

The garage sales, meanwhile, have become Re/Supply, a permanent section of the stores and website stocked from returns and trade-ins. It is open to members only, and in 2022 it sold more than a million used items.

REI still takes gear back and still sells it again to members, now every day of the year. About 4,800 of those members can buy it but cannot bring it back.

Filed from public reporting:

• The Seattle Times, via HeraldNet — "REI adds time limit to return policy"
• SGB Media — "REI Kills Life-time Return Policy, Citing Uptick in Returns of Dated Merchandise"
• TODAY — "REI and Bloomingdale's may have cracked down, but these stores still have the best return policies ever"
• NBC News / Entrepreneur — "REI Ditches Its Lifetime Warranty: Good or Bad Idea?"
• Adweek — "REI's Been Selling Used Gear for Over 60 Years. Here's What Brands New to Resale Can Learn"
• Retail Dive — "REI to open Re/Supply resale store in Oregon"
• Retail Dive — "REI changes policy to stop serial returners"
• Gear Patrol — "REI Changes Its Legendary Return Policy, with Crackdowns on the Way"