REI almost got me to buy camp cookware
April 13, 2008I stopped by the REI yesterday to look at their bicycle inventory. We did not have an REI in Louisville, it’s kindof like a Dick’s Sporting Goods. But while Dick’s is the Chevrolet of sporting goods, I’d say REI is maybe the Volvo or the Saab. Not really a luxury brand but definitely more upscale and refined. No cornhole boards at REI, unlike Dick’s which had plenty of them especially with Louisville or Kentucky colors painted on them.
So anyway, while I was there I wandered thru the other sections of the store. And I came across this really nifty selection of camp cookware. Compact pots and pans, which nested together or were made of ultra-light aluminum or whatever else would make them appealing to campers.
Thing is, I don’t camp. I’ve done it, but I don’t like it and it’s not something I would normally do anymore. Too much nature — bugs, creepy crawly things, poison oak, yada yada yada. But I am a gadget freak, and so I found myself oddly attracted to some of the cookware on display.
There was one set in particular that I liked. The pot was narrow, designed apparently to fit into small spaces in your backpage. There were plastic prep bowls and a cutting board that all nestled inside the pot. And the lid of the pot not only held everything together but could also be flipped over and used as a small frying pan. Really nifty.
I can’t tell you how close I came to buying the damned thing. Even though it might never leave my kitchen, I’d probably only use it to boil eggs and fry up some Spam on my nice halogen stovetop. But it was such a cool gadget that I was sorely tempted.
Oh well, luckily sanity prevailed. Yes I need to consume things, do my part for the economy. But not on camp cookware that I’ll never take camping. I think I’ve already found what I’ll be spending my tax rebate on. I’m going to replace my laptop with one of these little HP mini-notebooks. The one running Linux, so I’m not paying more money to Microsoft.