R&R Sport

I went sour on RnR sport when i went in to make an enquiry about a tent and a complete (lady dog) of a saleswomen repeatedly walked right past me and ignored me no less that 4 times. Ive worked in service industries before and thought its just a surly employee. So I rang and talked to the manager of the store and he basically told me to go stuff myself, "If I didnt like the service go elsewhere..." So i did! I say, bugger you! If you dont want my $600 dollars I will go and use it somewhere else. That was 5 years ago and I have never set foot in any of their stores since. By comparison, i buy a lot of gear online and have never had any problems, lower prices than New Zealand (even with shipping and currency rates), replies are prompt, good selection, larger size range etc. I like to support local retailers but honestly they dont make it easy.... Kathmandu is a fashion store not a serious outdoor supplier.

the r&r that was in wellington always gave me the impression that its salespeople knew best and if you didnt agree you were obviously wrong. They dont exist in Wellington now.

auckland staff ride the bikes around the shop to stave off boredom.

must be hard to get good shop staff now... pay is terrible. hours can be terrible, working weekends, what outdoors person wants to work weekends?. not that mentally challenging, standing on your feet all day trying to keep fussy customers happy and answer the same questions over and over... one shop i was speaking to a staff member, he was working seven days a week, not sure if one or more of those days were half days. i remember the anti theft device was left on a pair of pants i bought, i tried to remove it and wrecked the pants and took them back,, the staff member had a fair bit of veiled anger like i was a real muppet.. i think it was pent up frustration from his job, he seemed like a reasonably switched on guy, trapped in the job for whatever reason.. its funny when staff start trying to sell you stuff and you know they are talking half truths or BS , or you ask about if they are going to get in a particular new technology and they look at you blankly because they've never heard of it.. they should pay one person well in a shop who knows what they are doing and get them to teach the rest of the staff or the staff can refer to them if they get stuck, but a lot of staff just seem to operate in a vacuum, possibly because no one in the shop is that knowledgeable. i was asking at a shop if they were getting any new rainshells in, the guy said he was, and i asked what material it was using, he couldnt tell me till i prompted him with some names like pertex and he said pertex equilibrium, which isnt a waterproof fabric.. so would he be happy to sell that fabric as a waterproof jacket> the no of people walking around in the outdoors with clothing that isnt fit for purpose, and some of it can be very expensive. people using any shell jacket at all like a rain shell. people will use windshells, shoftshells. non waterproof insulated jackets, down jackets in rain because thats all they have to try and stop the rain... when they bought it, either there was little or no interaction with the staff or the staff didnt ask what they were going to use it for. in some ways its great the variety of materials there are to choose from now at outdoors shops. but it just makes it more confusing for buyers and thers a bigger gap than ever in peoples knowledge of what various fabrics do. a lot of people think any garment that is a shell fabric is waterproof, and the non waterproof garments often look nicer than the waterproof ones and thats the swaying factor or they buy something that looks warm, thinking they are killing two birds with one stone when they might end up killing themselves.. in some cases people are forking over serious money for garments and they havent done their homework or asked some basic questions at the shop. "is this waterproof" could be three of the most important words you could ever utter. not saying them could end badly in the outdoors.. very few shop staff would probably understand that much about the technology involved in a few of their products. let alone all of them.. and its amazing how much technology is being employed in whats being sold. but you're just at the mercy of a whim often when buying gear. its like buying a house because you like it's character without getting a thorough building report...

I generally get good service in outdoor shops but I really dont envy them their jobs, it would drive me nuts. Best outdoor advice i ever got in a shop was from a guy in a Smiths City Market store. He was a hunter and tramper so he actually knew what he was talking about. I often go by and have a yarn with him about trips Ive done etc.