The outdoor equipment retailer REI Co-op is closing its “small-format neighborhood store” in Cambridge’s North Point neighborhood after three and a half years, the company said Thursday.
The last business day will be April 3 at the 181 Morgan Ave. store in the Cambridge Crossing development, according to a note on the store website. It opened Oct. 1, 2021. No other REI stores in the area are closing, a company spokesperson said.
At less than 6,500 square feet of selling space in a total 8,000 square feet, it was “the smallest footprint store in our fleet in the country,” said the spokesperson, who declined to give a name. “We opened with a learning agenda to understand how to best serve the needs of an urban community through a curated product selection and partnership with other stores and our digital presence.”
It was REI’s “first-ever” small store, the spokesperson said, and is closing due to its “underperformance against the co-op’s goals.”
A worker at the store cited increased rents from the developer of Cambridge Crossing, DivcoWest, and being hit hard by inflationary price increases. “Goods are being taxed pretty heavily these days,” the worker said, calling it “just kind of a perfect storm of not-great things.” REI’s spokesperson said neither rent nor inflation was a factor, though.
DivcoWest, asked about the next use for the space and whether there was a rent increase that could have affected REI, said only that the developer was “excited to explore new opportunities for activating this space.”
The Graffito SP firm, which handles leasing in the 4.5-million square foot Cambridge Crossing, lists 10 spaces available there for retail and food uses in addition to the REI storefront. They are along Morgan Avenue, North First Street, Jacobs Street and Water Street.
REI isn’t the first chain business to try a small-format approach and back away.
Stop & Shop grocery chain parent Ahold launched a small-format bfresh concept in 2017 in Allston, Brighton and in Somerville’s Davis Square. Its 11,000-square-foot store in Davis lasted the longest of the three and yet was still shut down in 2023 despite having years left on a 10-year lease, with an Ahold spokesperson explaining that “the store was not meeting financial expectations.”
A small grocer called McKinnon’s Meat Market has outlasted bfresh directly across Elm Street; a few blocks south is the small gourmet grocer Pemberton Farms and a grocer called Food Land that sells South Asian goods. It expanded in 2021 and “is staying for the next 15 years,” the length of the lease, owner Jamal Uddin said at the time.
The REI in North Point focused on running and bicycling gear, though the chain is most known for filling the needs of all sorts of outdoor sports and activities. (There is a bigger REI in The Fenway in Boston.) A 15,000-square-foot Eastern Mountain Sports lasted in Harvard Square from 2007 to March 2017, when it was shuttered after two company bankruptcy filings. Since then, Cambridge’s needs for outdoor activities have been filled by a 3,950-square-foot Hilton’s Tent City in Central Square.
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I spoke with a manager there last year. She said they closed at 6:30 because the neighborhood was like a ghost town at night. Also complained that there was no parking so who would be shopping there. Cambridge senior went there to shop for Christmas presents for grand kids. She could not park. Drove around and around and finally left.
A stupidly expensive “outdoor living” store failed in a stupidly expensive part of urbanity??? Shocker!
Increasing commercial rents are to blame for this. It is convenient to blame lack of parking, except there is on street parking and garages.
I went there last fall to try to buy a winter coat. It took me two trips and both failed.
The first attempt I drove around the neighborhood a bunch of times and finally gave up because there was no place to park. I went home and came back via the Green Line the following week.
The second time, I walked all through the store, which was filled with merchandise, but couldn’t find what I was looking for. I thought that was weird. I wasn’t looking for anything special.
In the end, I went home, logged onto their website, and found exactly what I wanted. They even delivered it to my door. No parking needed.
So, I’m not sorry to see it close. I couldn’t imagine ever going back there.
No parking, and not enough foot traffic in that neighborhood to keep a retail place like that afloat. How else did REI think this story would end?
REI is generally terrific and the cycling/running focus in Cambridge seemed to make sense.
It’s a shame that “small footprint” stores are economically unviable. The Fenway REI is large and annoyingly dark, unpleasant for shopping. It is also difficult to get to (I’m a city dweller and prefer not to drive) And there’s the parking question. Yes, there is no parking in Cambridge crossing (it worked for me for quick pickup or drop off) and where does one park in that confusing Fenway area?
As for camping, long live Hilton’s tent city!
GLX and the community path also opened past their original projected dates, which I imagine had an impact on early sales for the site. Plus CX is still just not that pleasant of a place to be yet, at least in that part of it. The Park 151 apartments were under construction for a lot of the run of REI at that spot, and there’s still no movement on the empty lots at Parcels R and Q2. Maybe in 10 years it would’ve had a better chance
Most Cambridge customers arrive by walking, biking, or public transit—only 1/3 drive.
It’s a poor business location. Stop blaming bike lanes. Retail business can’t survive by appealing to a minority of customers.
I meant “Stop blaming *parking*”, not “bike lanes”, but what’s the difference? There’s a lot of overlap in that Venn diagram.
@AvgJoe The irony of course is that this location was focusing on runners and cyclists – who falsely claim that retail businesses will be more profitable/supported with bike lanes. Cyclists obviously did not support this business and losing 1/3 of potential customers who must or choose to drive is a huge amount of business to lose. Even well-funded national chains cannot prosper here, look to Harvard Square if you need any more proof.