Supply chain issues and empty shelves have been so common in Washington State that now, 4+ years out, we don’t even blink. It’s an odd one. Go into a fast food joint one day, and they have no chicken. The next day, it’s no Swiss cheese. You shrug and carry on with life. I have, for these last 4 plus years, taken photos at grocery stores, over and over, of the half-empty shelves. There is never any rhyme or reason to what you cannot get.
Washington State was one of the most draconian states for shutting down retail. Need hardware? Sure. Booze? Sure! But a sleeping bag? No, it’ll kill everyone. But once it was all lifted, some things never returned to the pre-covid normal.
Some days, I wonder if it works great for retailers. They can shrug and say “supply chain,” and the consumers will go to the online location and order it (of which many stores do this often). They don’t stop and think, “Wait, they have it online, but not in the store?”
Our local Walmart (well, it is a 30-mile drive each way, but it is the closest location) is forever understocked. Empty shelves are the norm. I only go there if we need something desperately because chances are what I need no longer exists. I have watched their outdoor section, and it never comes back.
I was thinking the other day about this at the closest REI to me. It is the Alderwood Mall in Lynwood, Wa. This is a rare mall that still has a lot of foot traffic. Twenty or so years ago, the mall built an outside shopping area, and REI opened up in it. It sits near the Apple store, so it is a busy area.
Yet, for two years, I have watched the camping kitchen section never quite come back. Part of me always hopes that I will walk into REI and that it will be like it was in 2014. Dreams are just dreams, but I hope eternally.
There really is only two short aisles in this REI for camp kitchen. They have food on the wall, and breakfast food on another aisle. They carry far more food than actual gear to use to cook it.
Empty hangers await with minimal selection. It is primarily fuel on the bottom (and a huge canister tower to the right, but not seen). Stainless steel pots and a set that doesn’t look well made. A few MSR supplies are up high, and many TI utensils exist. To the left is a mish-mash of Jet Boil products.
On the other side is a random collection of GSI Outdoor and Sea To Summit products. A lot of mugs, plates, and utensils. But nothing that would grab you to stop and buy. Empty hangers.
If this were new, I’d walk on. But it has looked like this on every visit since the state reopened.
It doesn’t leave me excited. What I wanted was a particular MSR pot. REI had two MSR pots, a skillet, and a Ti boiler—nothing else. If you walked into REI a few years back, they’d have had the essential line, not just a few stragglers.
However, there was an entire aisle of towels. Yes, towels. There was no lack of them. Like they had nothing else to stock and thought, “Hey, we need an entire aisle of towels! In the kitchen/camping area!” I guess towels are the new hot accessory for camping.
The rest of the camp area was Yeti coolers and cast iron pans. And no, I am not joking.
Yet, if I go online to REI, they have 36 pages for “Camp Kitchen.”
So why are the stores understocked?
It doesn’t make you feel like going shopping in person, where you can touch gear. Buying online might be easy, but you don’t know if you’ll love it. It feels in many ways this is to become the way. The stores are for returns. Not shopping.
No longer am I finding fun new items to review by window shopping. Doing that online just isn’t the same.
As always, these are just my thoughts and what I see. Your mileage may vary. Your local stores might be brimming with gear, but hopefully, not so many towels.
~Sarah