Visual Merchandising and Store Design | VMSD.com

Reaching for a Higher Level: REI develops a two-story prototype store that extends its brand and expands its well-known commitment to sustainability even further.

By Steve Kaufman

Recreational Equipment Inc. (Kent, Wash.) – known to the world as REI – has become identified with its commitment to the environment, mostly through its aggressive pursuit of building stores that are sustainable and energy-efficient. It’s also known as an evangelist for healthy lifestyles and outdoor pursuits – what it calls “muscle-powered activities,” such as hiking, biking, camping and climbing.

But the 3 million-member consumer cooperative also sells stuff. Through its roughly 100 retail outlets in more than 27 states, REI offers performance gear, clothing and footwear. And so, as the company explores cutting-edge ways to build green stores and earn LEED certification, it also acknowledges that its stores have to be customer-friendly, with strong visual presentations, fixtures that permit shoppers easy accessibility to merchandise and traffic flows that make ultimate sense.

When REI built its new Round Rock, Texas, store last year, it had a few missions beyond pushing the green envelope (see sidebar below). One was to develop its brand in central Texas. It already had two stores in Austin, 20 miles south. But that didn’t mean it was a known quantity there.

“After we opened the Round Rock store, we did a customer intercept survey and found that almost one-third of our visitors were first-time customers,” says Dean Iwata, REI’s director of store development. “A lot of them were driving by on the way to an Ikea store next door and stopped in for fishing equipment. They thought we were just another sporting goods store.”

Another was to test this two-story concept in new construction. “There are challenges to multi-level stores,” says Iwata, “such as figuring out ways to pull natural light throughout the entire space, and creating traffic flows that encourage shoppers to venture all the way to the back of the store and make their way upstairs.”