Take It Outside You Two
America's iconic outdoor retailers as a window into our political divisions
I lived near the legendary Connecticut supermarket Stew Leonard’s growing up. They set unreasonable retail expectations for the rest of my life. Why doesn’t every grocery store have a petting zoo, interactive food prep exhibits, whimsical Rube Goldberg mechanisms to move eggs and milk around for the amusement of children, and animatronic buddies, some of whom sing original songs, scattered throughout?
Excepting Hershey, Pennsylvania, those unreasonable expectations have rarely been met - but I’m always looking out for unique retail experiences that give you more than what you take with you at the check-out.
Over the past few years, I’ve had the opportunity to travel around the country, exploring the extremes of American experience from the packed-like-sardines density of downtown Manhattan to the wide open (very wide open) spaces of North Dakota and Alaska. While the cultures of these places couldn’t be more different, they have at least one thing in common - a love of outdoor recreation. Even in the darkest heart of the concrete jungle, there are legions of people eager to put on some moisture-wicking tech fabrics and get out in nature, or whatever the closest available approximation to nature is.
Guess the Groups
My work was in the political arena, and my eye was trained on more than billboards - I was trying to figure out what made these places tick. With that in mind, humor me with a thought experiment. I’ll describe the demographics of two groups, you guess what the groups are.
Group 1
Majority highschool-educated
The majority earn between $50k-$100k annually, with a significant portion earning $30k-$75k
65% male, 35% female
The majority live in rural and suburban areas, particularly in the South and Southwest
Majority prefer in-store shopping
The majority are between 35 and 55 years old
Group 2
Majority college educated
The majority earn $75k or more
55% male, 45% female
The majority live mostly in urban and suburban areas with a heavy concentration in Coastal states, the Mountain West, and New England
Majority prefer online shopping
The majority are between 25 and 44 years old
If you guessed that Group 1 is Republicans and Group 2 is Democrats, you’d be right (sort of, and accidentally, but still right-ish). But you’d be even more right if you guessed that Group 1 is Bass Pro Shops shoppers and Group 2 is REI shoppers. These two retail giants don’t just rule a huge portion of the outdoor recreation industry, they’re instantiations of the values of the founders and people who shop there - and symbolic representations of the different value systems that have come to dominate huge swaths of America.
Aesthetics
From the earth tones that suffuse their products to the logo that appears to be almost hiding in a mountain, REI’s aesthetic is one of blending into the background and being a part of nature. Chalkboards and simple line drawings dominate the design of their displays, often placed on antique-looking distressed wood crates. The store is a simulacrum of a perfect remote rural gear shop, organized to feel like you’re in a (large) backcountry business run by urban sophisticates who have given up the big city for a slower, more contemplative life.
Bass Pro Shops’ logo screams with aposematism, a red and yellow beacon to anyone looking to hunt or fish. If REI is a simulacrum of a perfect backwoods gear shop, Bass Pro Shops is a simulacrum of a perfect backwoods hunting lodge, replete with taxidermied animals and weathered full log construction. They’re as much amusement park as they are retail locations, especially in places like Palm Bay where customers walk between pens full of wild boar and alligators on their way in.
Beyond the aesthetics, there’s one huge difference between the two stores - excepting butane camp stoves, REI has abandoned combustion while Bass Pro Shops embraces it. You can’t get weapons or engines at REI. At Bass Pro Shops, you can find a massive selection of guns, ATVs, boats, and other tools to move through the wilderness.
REI is for “Anywheres”, Bass Pro Shops are for “Somewheres”
Are you familiar with the concept of “somewheres” and “anywheres”? In his book “The Road to Somewhere: The Populist Revolt and The Future of Politics” David Goodheart argues that the major divisions in our politics come from the conflict between “somewheres” (people who are physically tied to a geographic location by work, family, and tradition, and like it that way) and “anywheres” (people who work in the decentralized knowledge economy and can travel freely with no bonds tying them to a physical location).
Weapons and motors are the provenance of “somewheres.” You can’t fly into Denver with an ATV and a shotgun to hit the mountains - but if you’re tied to a place, plan to be there for a long time, and want to have maximum ability to traverse your chosen place (in other words, if you’re a “somewhere”), Bass Pro Shops has everything you need.
Meanwhile, REI is Valhalla for an “anywhere.” They offer lightweight, durable, packable gear, built to be thrown in a suitcase and put to the test on destination outings. While the poor “somewhere” has to leave his wheels at home, the mobile “anywhere” can hop off at Denver International from almost any airport in the morning, get in an Uber, and be halfway through hiking at Red Rocks that afternoon.
These two brands arrived where they are today not through media pressure or any other coercive outside influence - market forces have made it clear that there’s room for many different kinds of outdoorsmen in this great big country.
But I have a bold suggestion to make to both kinds of shoppers. Get outside your comfort zone! If you’re an REI devotee, check out your local Bass Pro Shops (I know, you won’t get the co-op discount, but it’ll be worth it). If you’re a Bass Pro Shops booster, drop in at your local REI. See just how much you share with them! You’ll get a window into an America you probably don’t spend too much time with.
And if you’re like me and you don’t care about brands but would like the aesthetics of REI with the product selection of Bass Pro Shops, you’ll just have to muddle along, enduring the mistrust and suspicion of people committed to one brand or the other. Wait, was I talking about retail stores or politics?
This is great! I am an REI anywhere-er but I'd happily shop at Bass if they had the gear I need. I guess if you are a somewhere-er with place and motors, you don't need light gear.