As a vendor that sold them product over the years, then for the last 10 years did repairs for MEC, I can speak to the mismanagement of processes. Having them ship an $80 wholesale item back and forth across the country ($80 in shipping) for a $20 repair, makes no sense. Giving members warranty on items past the warranty period, that they could not verify was purchased from MEC, is well, just stupid.
As for the vendor dealings, they had no clue what they were doing in so many categories. They purchased from us, an item that does not work without a specific battery (only available from us), we told them that they only ordered enough batteries for 1/4 of the items, they said no, its fine, we know what we're doing. All they had to do was purchase the items as a prepacked set, but no, they were smarter than that somehow.
Most of the people I dealt with over the years, on the purchasing side, that were good at their jobs, left in the last 5 years (saw the writing on the wall). A bunch of the long term floor staff were culled about 3 or 4 years ago (they made too much money), but they were the staff that knew what they were doing.
In my opinion, MEC haven't been a Co-Op in about 15 years, probably longer if you look at their practices closely. They certainly weren't following their Mission Statement, when they started selling Bikes and Alpine Ski Gear, products readily available everywhere.
Sept. 29, 2020, 2:49 p.m. - TonyJ
As a vendor that sold them product over the years, then for the last 10 years did repairs for MEC, I can speak to the mismanagement of processes. Having them ship an $80 wholesale item back and forth across the country ($80 in shipping) for a $20 repair, makes no sense. Giving members warranty on items past the warranty period, that they could not verify was purchased from MEC, is well, just stupid. As for the vendor dealings, they had no clue what they were doing in so many categories. They purchased from us, an item that does not work without a specific battery (only available from us), we told them that they only ordered enough batteries for 1/4 of the items, they said no, its fine, we know what we're doing. All they had to do was purchase the items as a prepacked set, but no, they were smarter than that somehow. Most of the people I dealt with over the years, on the purchasing side, that were good at their jobs, left in the last 5 years (saw the writing on the wall). A bunch of the long term floor staff were culled about 3 or 4 years ago (they made too much money), but they were the staff that knew what they were doing. In my opinion, MEC haven't been a Co-Op in about 15 years, probably longer if you look at their practices closely. They certainly weren't following their Mission Statement, when they started selling Bikes and Alpine Ski Gear, products readily available everywhere.