A Brief Review of Hiking/Outdoor Shops

I have recently been buying hiking equipment and thought I should share some of my experiences. Most of the shops listed here are located in Pretoria or Johannesburg, with the exception of Mountain Mail Order (Cape Town) and iwarehouse (online). The comments I make are generally based on a single visit to the shop/website and are entirely my own opinion.

Ventures for Africa , Cresta Shopping Centre, Randburg:

This shop does not have its own website (that I could find), so it was necessary to phone them to ask what they had in stock. The staff were friendly and helpful. They were willing to pitch various tents for me to look at, although they only wanted to pitch the tent inners without flysheets to save time. The store seemed to have a good selection of stock, including e3 and MSR tents. Unfortunately the MSR tent I bought here had to be returned, as there was a hole in the tent inner (manufacturing defect). It is never fun to have to return a product, and unfortunately the shop could not replace the tent as they were out of stock. They were happy to refund my money though, and did this quickly and efficiently.

Drifters , Sandton City Shopping Centre, Johannesburg:

This shop does have their own website, but they do not list any stock. It was necessary to phone them to ask what they had in stock. The staff at the Sandton City branch were friendly, helpful and knowledgeable. They were willing to pitch various tents for me to look at (flysheets and all), even though it meant moving some of their shelves around to make space. The staff were patient and offered good advice while not forcing any particular product on me. The store seemed to have a good selection of stock, including Black Diamond tents and Thermarest mattresses. They don't respond very quickly to email (I emailed the address on their 'contact' page on 1 October 2013 and have yet to receive a reply).

Plasticland , Atterbury Value Mart, Pretoria:

This is not an outdoor shop, but I thought I should include it here as they sell a great selection of cheap, light-weight plastic containers and ziplock bags that can be used for re-packaging. The items that I looked at on their website were all available in store. The staff were friendly, helpful and knew their products well. They had a large selection of bottles and containers, as well as various sizes of ziplock bags.

Sportsmans Warehouse , Atterbury Value Mart, Pretoria:

This store did not have all the items listed on their website in stock. The staff were fairly friendly. I found the layout of this store to be a little irritating: I had to walk around a fair amount to find what I was looking for, and things were not always labelled clearly. They had an average selection of products, including First Ascent sleeping bags, Cape Storm clothing and "flat-pack" duct tape. They had a wide variety of sports strapping tape.

Trappers Trading , Atterbury Value Mart, Pretoria:

The staff did not seem very helpful. I was the only customer in the shop, but none of the staff offered to help me, nor did they return my smile and greeting as I walked in. I also found that it was not always easy to get to the stock I wanted – for example I had to lean over a folding camping bed to get to the sleeping bags. They had an average selection of products, including First Ascent sleeping bags, mattresses and gloves.

Cape Union Mart , Atterbury Value Mart, Pretoria AND The Grove Shopping Centre, Pretoria:

I went to 2 different branches of Cape Union Mart (one in Atterbury and one in The Grove), but had very similar experiences in both so have included them as one entry here. Most of the stock advertised on their website was not available in store, and vice versa (some of the stock that they had in store was not advertised on their website). The staff were friendly, enthusiastic and keen to help. They were happy to fetch and open products for me to look at, but did not always seem very knowledgeable about the products themselves. The staff were willing to phone other branches to find products that were out of stock. They had an average selection of products. The K-way brand was represented very heavily.

Due South , The Grove Shopping Centre, Pretoria:

Some of the stock advertised on their website was not available in store. The staff were friendly, but not overly helpful (they had none of the items I was looking for, and did not suggest alternatives nor offer to phone other branches). They had a below average selection of stock. They stock some North Face sleeping bags.

Outdoor Warehouse , Six Fountains Lifestyle and Decor Centre, Pretoria:

They had most of the items that I looked at on their website, available in store. No staff members came to help me while I was browsing, but the products were very clearly labelled and it was easy to find what I was looking for. They had a decent variety of products in stock. The First Ascent and 360 Degree brands were heavily represented. The staff member at the till was very friendly and double checked all my purchases before I paid for them.

Mountain Mail Order , Cape Town (I purchased items through their online store):

I corresponded with a staff member via email. They were extremely friendly and helpful and replied quickly to enquiries. For a slightly higher shipping fee, they delivered to my door (you need to arrange this with them first). The item I bought arrived within 48 hours.

Iwarehouse , online store:

I corresponded with a staff member over the phone. He was very friendly and helpful and willing to call me back numerous times. I did not buy anything in the end as I could not wait the 2-3 days for it to be shipped to Pretoria, but my experience of their service was very positive.

Brilliant work! Thanks very much for that!! I have my own similar list, but always good to have it all in one place. ... and with links to the websites, top work

In Pietermaritzburg we have 3 shops:

Bush n Bundu is great. Cesar is very knowledgeable (and is a member of the rescue team), for advise on climbing you won't do better. None of the guys are very clued up on Berg routes - so not much point in asking them for help with planning a hike, but they all know the different gear, and can advise you on the use of it. Its probably the only shop in the general area where the staff are all actually outdoor people who understand the mountains. Their prices are a tad on the high side though.

Our Cape Union Mart here is interesting - most of the staff can't tell you anything about the gear, they aren't outdoors people. However they are always very friendly and willing to order stock, send stock for repairs etc. So overall - if you don't need advice, its a great store.

Our Trappers has relatively friendly staff, but the shop isn't well stocked and doesn't sell many technical items. They have descent prices on some items, but I had a less than pleasant experience when they wouldn't send my FA trekking pole for repairs when it broke 6 months after I bought it. Aside from my cheap gaiters I don't get much from these guys.

I was also very happy with Mountain Mail Order. They had great customer service, respond quickly and all the stock arrived at the post office relatively quickly in good order. Free postage if the order is over R500 - thought that was pretty cool, I also got 15% off due to a special they were running at the time. They also have a very wide range of products.

The local climbing gym does sell climbing gear (and Back Country food), but their prices are roughly the same as Mountain Mail Order and they don't stock much. It takes as long to get anything from them as it does from MMO as they have to order the stock first. Josh (who runs the wall and the shop) is very knowledgeable and provides good advice with the items. He has done a bit of Berg climbing (Sentinel, Mponjwane and Monk's Cowl - not sure what else), but he is very quick to discourage people from trying Berg climbing.

Thanks ghaznavid and JonWells! It is great to hear what other people's experiences were at various places. Franchises like Cape Union Mart and Due South do seem to differ from store to store, and even from day to day

I wanted to add that I made an enquiry on 11 October 2013 on the Cape Union Mart website using their contact form, and they got back to me answering all my questions today

I'm in the North of JHB (Buccleuch) and quite demanding in what I buy and the service I get so it's
1 Drifters
2 Trappers 4ways
3 Ventures for Africa (Good but far to travel)
4 any Outdoor warehouse
5 Cape union (any)
6 other
7 other
8 other
9 other
10 Due South.


1 ,2 and 3 give hiking club and mountain club discounts (sometimes with a bit of a push)
4 and 5 often need the manager to clear the discount and you don't always get it.
Please do our community a favour and do not bitch and moan about discount if you do not have, or cannot produce, an up-to-date membership card. It has left a bad taste at Drifters and CUM and Palma of Ventures for Africa almost stopped giving the discount because of this.


Due South are a fashion house and employ staff with no experience except in the use of their personal cell phones. Their redeeming grace was that they are the North Face agents, but sadly North Face are also turning into a fashion house with their technical equipment and quality diminishing by the day.. IMHO

Sadly, in spite of continuous moaning by myself, Jax and, I believe Sabine, none of the above mentioned stores ever have a scale on hand, so take your own if you are weight watching, the labels often tell lies.

BUT, isn’t it such fun buying new hiking stuff?????
Regards

We have one more good one on the East Rand - Comet Campworld. Slots into Geordie's list in 2nd place in my opinion. Stock, knowledge of products, prices and willingness to source or acquire what you want are all good. Discount to hiking club cardholders a whopping 10%. One pair of hiking boots justifies your membership.

See their webpage:

cometcampworld.co.za/

Wow, thanks for all the information about discounts and about other stores! Is the discount for Johannesburg hiking club members, or some other hiking club?

BUT, isn’t it such fun buying new hiking stuff?????

Geordie, it is the most fun ever! I almost don't want to make a purchase sometimes, just so I have an excuse to carry on shopping

Yes I can vouche for the shop in Glenwood Durban!!!!

Outdoor Adventure Gear

Excellent service and prices were very competitive with Cape Union Mart, Outdoor Warehouse.

He only stocks stuff that works! There are no gimmicks in his store!

In fact I have never been impressed by any outdoor store I've seen until I saw this one.

It just had all the right stuff!

Drifters is great, best advice, good range, and usually cheaper than bulk stores like CUM and ODW (suprisingly). The only kak thing is having to go to Sandton City. Very surprised they don't have a scale (I was there last week).

Ventures for Africa is also good, but I find them generally overpriced, and they watch you like a hawk while you walk around the store, as if you're going to shoplift. I also get the feeling that they don't like people coming in and browsing without buying (which I do for various reasons).

I buy a lot of stuff at CUM on sale - they have fantastic sales - and have always had very good service there. I just know not to ask their salespeople anything technical because they do not know. I have recently started buying more K-Way stuff (Mercury Jacket and Extreme Lite 500 sleeping bag) after many years of not buying due to not trusting reliability and quality.

I have similiar opinions about ODW, though their salespeople are usually a bit better (got reasonable advice when buying a tent there).

Hardly ever go to Due South because there isn't one near me. Never go to Trappers either.

Browse Mountain Mail Order a fair bit, not sure if I've ever bought there.
Big pity Mammoth Outdoor closed down, they had a lot of good imported kit that no-one else carries.