X out of 10

In short, this place sucks. Sure, their prices are fine, and they appear to offer an incredible selection at first glance. But after having shopped at their Seattle (Northgate) and Issaquah, WA, stores multiple times, I’ve finally had enough. My major gripe about Joe’s is that it has big stores, with lots of racks, and lots of stuff.

Many people would consider those characteristics to be positive. Those people, however, have never shopped at GI Joe’s.

See, in order for a vast selection to work, there must at least a rudimentary organizational system. At Joe’s, there’s no such thing. To illustrate: this weekend I was looking for ski pants, specifically a pair of Columbia Titanium ski pants. I made my way to a rack topped with a sign sporting the Columbia Titanium logo. In an ideal world, this rack would have contained only Columbia Titanium apparel. In GI Joe’s world, however, this rack contained no Columbia products whatsoever. Not seeing any customer service reps anywhere other than the cashier stands, I browsed another rack, then another. Finally, I found the pants I was looking for, hanging on a rack labeled “Youth” (note that I am a 6′ 2”, 180 lb. man). Returning later to exchange the pants (they were too big), I couldn’t find a pair in anything resembling my size. I mentioned this to the cashier, who offered to Special Order the pants in the correct size, noting that “it will probably take 3 to 4 weeks.” My cup runneth-ing over, I opted for a full refund.

The story above is basically illustrative of every experience I’ve ever had at GI Joe’s—big stores, lousy service, a middling selection, and a complete lack of organization. They get an X score of 1.0 simply because, on my most recent trip, their adequate return policy made it easy for me to take my money elsewhere.

X = 1.0