You're talking about differences, I'm talking about similarities. You can't tell me you can't compare them. You can compare anything.

The sports themselves end up with class and social differences partially because of which stores sell them. Not exactly easy to get into skiing, snowboarding, ice climbing, downhill mountain biking, etc. The specificity of the sport only matters to people who think their identity is wrapped up in that sport. To the world at large it's just more expensive toys for the leisure class.

I'm not saying REI is better or worse, I'm saying they end up with market sector monopolies, and that a true definition of market sector includes the social strata as well as the geography of the customer base.

Nobody said you wanted certain brands to have limited retail locations. What I am telling you is that that is happening, and will continue to happen when the market consolidates to a handful of brands. Strangely, Amazon is both more disruptive and better for the industry as a whole, because they cover literally all price points and want to sell anything and everything. REI is a much better consumer experience because it's curated, but don't count on most of their choices to be driven by "this is a better product", just what people are interested in buying. And as always the consumer is only as wise as their options.