Visit the REI flagship store in downtown Seattle for the first time, and you'll stop in wonder. On the grounds surrounding the store, which spans an entire block of otherwise ordinary urban landscape, a hiking trail and mountain bike test track meander around a waterfall and brook. Inside the main entrance, a 20-meter-tall rock climbing pinnacle looms over shoppers. And on the shelves and display stands that sprawl across two gigantic floors of retail space are stacks of backpacks, hiking boots, canoes, kayaks, tents, jackets, and just about every other outdoor clothing item or accessory you can name. You feel younger, stronger, and more ­adventurous just being here.

On any given day, somewhere between backpacks and winter socks, a man and a woman who are soon to be married will be roaming the aisles. One will be carrying a handheld device about the size of a cell phone and pointing it at something he or she likes. The device is an infrared reader: push a button, and a laser beam reads the bar code of the targeted item. When the reader is synched with a specially equipped cash register, the item is added, instantly, to the couple's online REI gift registry. Eric Thorson, operations manager at the store, smiles when he thinks about the couples he's seen. "We have one scanner per couple, and we'll have the future wife run upstairs to women's clothing, and [the groom] wants to be downstairs in the climbing department picking out an ice axe," he says. "It's almost like it becomes the ultimate shopping adventure for the two of them rather than thinking about what would be a practical wedding gift." The scanner can record some 300 items, but, Thorson notes, "I've seen scanners come back that we have to upload and send back out because they filled the memory."