Sunday 14 May 2017

REI.com membership and dividend tip.

So I've been a member of REI, an outdoor store started in Seattle and based in the United States, since my first trip to the US in 2011. Imagine Singapore before Decathlon opened it's 2 mega stores and you have an idea of the amazement I had the first time I stepped into a REI store. Any REI store was easily 20-30x the size of an outdoor retailer store in Singapore and most of the gear was sold at a price much lower than the exact same model in Singapore.

I still recall all of the items i purchased from that very first store. Vibram footwear, climbing helmets, shoes, a rack of quickdraws and multiple slings/ATCs. I probably spent close to a thousand Singapore dollars that day.

As a Co-op, they do give you back dividends based on the amount you spend. Typically you get about 10% of what you previously spent for that year and this can be used to purchase items from REI. The only problem is that this dividend can only be kept for 2 years. If unused after this time, it will simply be taken back. Anyway to cut the long story short, I'm going to tell you 2 ways of not losing out on that dividend. Firstly, you can request for a gift card on that dividend. Gift cards, unlike dividends have no expiry date and so you could keep that amount of money for your next REI purchase even 10 years down the road. Assuming of course that REI is still operating then. Not too sure what thei company policy is on honouring giftcards should the company decide to close shop.

Secondly, and also my preferred method, you can request for a cheque on that dividend amount. This means when they close the yearly expenditure accounts in July ( I believe that is the correct month) you'll get a cheque in the mail to your registered address! Cash is even better than credit!!

You can find contact information for REI here.

Let me know if this helps you out!