By adamg on Fri., 3/21/2025 - 11:09 pm
Hilton's Tent City, 565 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge, announced today it's closing forever on April 30, after some 77 years in business.
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Venerable, yes. Cambridge, only recently
By Ron Newman
Fri, 03/21/2025 - 11:42pm
For most of its life, this store was on Friend Street near North Station in Boston.
Never should have left North Station
By Anonymous
Sat, 03/22/2025 - 12:34am
On Friend Street they were unique, & charged a premium for it. In Cambridge they were just another package of granola.
This comment
By Pete X
Sat, 03/22/2025 - 9:34am
Makes no sense. There's no other store like this in Cambridge and they're going to be missed. They had to leave North station because of high rents and they are almost certainly closing in Central Square for the same reason.
No other store?
By RCB
Sat, 03/22/2025 - 10:52am
There’s been a REI store in Harvard Square for several decades.
About that REI in Harvard Square
By Ella Saint Cyr
Sat, 03/22/2025 - 12:07pm
Only gerbils shop there.
No comparison
By tachometer
Sat, 03/22/2025 - 12:26pm
Hilton's was focused on gear and service. Unlike REI there are not "endcap displays" or other advertising pushing you to buy into a "lifestyle" based on it. That's not to say that you can't get decent gear at REI or that they don't have some knowledgeable staff, but there's a very different feeling between the stores and my preference is very much for the latter where I don't get that Madison Avenue assault to the senses.
REI has lost its soul
By SwirlyGrrl
Sat, 03/22/2025 - 1:17pm
If you are a member, don't forget to sign in to your account and reject the corporate slate of directors.
It is still a coop for now - use it like that and we can save it!
REI
By BostonDog
Sat, 03/22/2025 - 7:13pm
I'm a longtime member and shopper but REI has really headed south in the past decade. They used to sell good quality hiking and outdoor supplies at reasonable prices. But they've decided they'd rather be a "lifestyle" brand and they've shifted their focus to people who mostly interested in glamping, assuming they go into the woods at all.
They aren't entirely useless yet but I sorely miss the old REI when it was much more for serious backpackers and hikers.
What Universe Do You Live in?
By Pete X
Sat, 03/22/2025 - 12:43pm
Why do people just make up stuff like this?
There hasn't been an REI store in Harvard Square ever, at least in the past 25 years. There was an EMS store for a few years, but that closed, I don't know, sometime in the late 2010's?
There's an mini-REI in the Seaport District of Cambridge, Cambridge Crossing, but that was only open for a few years and is also closing.
The 51 to the 86 is a long haul
By RCB
Sat, 03/22/2025 - 3:01pm
…but I wouldn’t call it a universe away.
My point was that there are several outdoors-stores in Cambridge. Moreover, I find the kvetching and pearl clutching over the closures of B&M retailers to generally be tiresome forays into wistful nostalgia. People buy goods online because it’s a better way to do things. You’ll have to pardon me for confusing various 3 letter performance-outerwear outfitters. There’s so many of them around, I get mixed up!
But what do I know? I was at the Spaghetti Club last night until last call and I’ve been drinking bloody marys at The Boathouse all morning.
Your point
By Pete X
Sat, 03/22/2025 - 10:23pm
Is just wrong. What you are saying isn't correct. Go away.
What other outdoors stores are in Cambridge?
By Ron Newman
Sat, 03/22/2025 - 11:09pm
Not REI (after the Cambridge Crossing store closes next month), not EMS (closed years ago in Harvard Square), and soon not Hilton's.
These has never been an REI
By Anonymous
Sat, 03/22/2025 - 3:41pm
These has never been an REI in Harvard Square. (There used to be an EMS store in Brattle Square, but it closed about a decade ago.)
This is true
By BostonDog
Sat, 03/22/2025 - 7:04pm
And EMS had been on a downward slope for decades when they finally gave up the ghost in Harvard Sq. (The whole chain went bankrupt. Not many of them left anywhere.)
There is a micro REI near Leachmere that opened about ~2 years ago but they've announced it's closing next month. It was a pretty useless store although the people employed there were friendly.
I suppose their going out of business sale
By jmeltzer
Sat, 03/22/2025 - 6:40am
will be the spring of our discount tents.
And the sad thing is...
By u-hub-fan
Sat, 03/22/2025 - 9:22am
...you'll never get to use that joke again.
*slow clap*
By tachometer
Sat, 03/22/2025 - 12:27pm
.
Sorry to hear this.
By Lee
Sat, 03/22/2025 - 9:37am
One of the few good old shops left.
Saddened by this news. I'm not much of an
By MC Slim JB
Sat, 03/22/2025 - 11:33am
outdoorsman, but still love the heritage American brands it carries and are not easy to find elsewhere in Greater Boston, especially in one place.
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