Banana Bay Tactical

So, where to start? First, this isn’t a surplus store. All of the «surplus» is cheap Chinese knock offs. Second, what about prepper supplies? Sure they have some for 2 – 3 times of the going rate. LifeStraw for $ 39.99? Yeah, Academy has them for $ 20, Walmart for &19. Paracord for $ 15 per 100 yards? Yeah, anywhere online has it for $ 5. Save yourself some time and trouble, and by trouble I mean interacting with some wannabe tactical asswipes, avoid this place like the plague. The literal plague, as in the apocalypse. You know the thing the think they can prepare you for. Run, Daryl Y Carol, run.

Small but nice selection. Not much surplus but new items. Very organized. Armond was exceptionally helpful and provided us with some excellent suggestions on gun holesters. He greeted as soon as we walked in and continued to assist and answer all our questions. He’s was knowledgeable and professional with no pressure to purchase. It was a pleasure to work with him and he was always available the entire hour we shopped. :)

Gina and carina are awesome. I love this store. People are extremely friendly. Very helpful.

My husband and I went in to look for a unique gift for our godson, who will be sworn in this month, and protection for daughter heading off for college. Wayne, Ric, and Corina were very helpful and answered all our questions! Nice to be in a place where people know all about their products.

My husband and I came in looking for a bigger size tactical pants and Corina Ric and Wayne helped us tremendously. They are looking for places to order more. Thank you very much.

The number of items for sale seem to have diminished in the past year. The store has shifted from an army navy store to a tactical supply store. Probably for the best as their market has shifted. There are still some military surplus items for sale, but there are more tactically focused items. The staff has never been attentive or customer focused so you will need to ask for assistance, but most of their customers probably prefer it that way. Still an entertaining browsing place, I always find something I haven’t seen before.

They have the bests and most comprehensive assortment of military pins, unit patches and anything else you could want for your branch of service. Plus, the staff is extremely helpful and knowledgeable. Thanks to Wayne I got all the Vietnam memorial pins (over 60) to honor my father at his funeral. You have my utmost respect.

This place is awesome for anyone who is into this stuff! They have everything you can think of. Both new and old gear available! Wayne behind the counter was really helpful. I defiantly plan on going back to this place.

The store owner is really involved with customers store carries lots of cool new products and employees are verry helpfull and informative with the products sold and also very child friendly Wayne was very patient with my two small boys and helped me and my wife with choosing products that worked for us this made the visit me and my family a good experience. I always have a good experience in the store they are always friendly & helpful.

I went in the other day and this place is awesome! It looks way better than it used to under previous ownership. Bright and clean. A guy named Wayne helped me out. Found exactly what I was looking for. Excellent customer service!

Banana Bay is so awesome… dad took ALL the grandkids out there and they had a field day looking at all the gear they had. We have military family so it was great to see them wanting to represent our pride for our soldiers. Wade, Rick, well the whole staff is really friendly I definitely will continue to come back.

I love this place! It is always full of extremely cool buys, but probably one of it’s best assets is Rick. My son and I had the best experience on our last shopping trip together. Rick took the time to ensure that we found what we were looking for and that we were satisfied with the options among the stock. He made suggesions of items that would compliment our original purchase items and rounded out our sale so that we were so exited about the complete look, use and practicality of the items. Friendly, knowledgeable and most of all courteous staff made for a most pleasant shopping experience. Thanks for hiring the best that Austin has to offer! UJacob

There is hardly any authentic military gear in the store — just a few items sparingly sprinkled among the cheap imported clothing.

Eh. Either with the new management or the old, this one sits on the two-​three border. Most of the stuff isn’t military surplus, but made-​in-​China junk, at prices that you can beat with 30 seconds on Amazon.
That said, it’s still nice to have the place as a resource to get a hands-​on feel for your camping equipment, rather than buying sight-​unseen merchandise online and having to return it 20% of the time. I’ve picked up a nice, sturdy camping duffel there as well as blankets, a military-​issue cot, and various odds and ends like small utility knives and some mosquito netting.
The old management used to send out sale notices on an email list, something I haven’t yet seen from the new folks. I hope that continues in some form at some point. I’ve bought a number of things here and I like having a store in central Austin with outdoor equipment more specific than what you can get at the hardware or discount stores and less shock-​inducingly expensive than REI. It’s enough for me to offer a tepid recommendation.

Being a filmmaker in Austin, it is hard finding high quality military and law enforcement gear and clothing that is both high quality and reasonably priced. Banana Bay offers this and more. The management staff is ultra helpful and has helped me source critical pieces of gear and clothing for a number of high end video shoots. I cannot give a higher recommendation!

UPDATE: I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to get back and update my review. I had a very positive response from Banana Bay and it was just a misunderstanding. I was contacted and told I could bring the merchandise back. Unfortunately, my travel schedule was awful and we were not able to get back over to the store for near 2 months. There were no issues exchanging the hat. Kudos to Banana Bay for excellent customer service following a misunderstanding. As I said in my original review (below) — I think they have some really cool stuff and we will definitely go back.
ORINGINAL REVIEW: I actually thought they had nice stuff here — but I will not ever go back. My son refs soccer and we needed a black hat for sun protection. My wife called around and was told over the phone that if he didn’t like the hat they don’t refund — but do allow in-​store exchanges. That was all that was told over the phone. My son didn’t like the hat. I actually though it would work well, but I didn’t want black. By the time I made it back over to the store, it had been nearly 3 weeks. The hat still had the price tag, and I had the receipt. All I wanted to do was swap the hat out for a different color. Guy behind the desk just couldn’t let me do that. On the bottom of the receipt it says store credit only within 10 days of purchase. If they had told my wife that over the phone we would have made sure to get back. They should write a book on horrible customer service. All I wanted to do was swap the hat out — it wouldn’t cost the store anything. Instead the guy behind the counter says, if they let me do that, they will need to let everyone. Ok, so they kept their policy and lost a potential return customer. With that attitude, I wouldn’t buy anything there ever again.

This place has been an Austin tradition for anyone into the tactical, prepared, military or law enforcement community. I recently started going, because of my obsession with military simulation paintball, and airsoft.
One day I went in, and saw the place was closing. I had built a relationship with the staff, and knew I would really miss the place, then right after the final day of the closing sale, word came out the new owners would take the place over and keep it going. I was excited.
Heres where it gets cool, the new owners are really updating this place, more modern gear, modern high end tactical unis and gear. They still have a huge selection of surplus items, but they’ve really created a huge new selection of tactical molle gear, and gotten new vendors to come in with a wide range of stuff.
I really enjoy going to Banana Bay, and really glad the doors are open and the new staff are really doing it right!

The old Banana Bay is dead. Hopefully the new Banana Bay will become something great.
I’d been to the old Banana Bay store several times and always been turned off by:
1. High prices on used stuff.
2. Not enough exotic clothes.
The old owners seemed to have focused a lot of their inventory on new clothing. Maybe they were catering to people working on Camp Mabry. The thing with selling new stuff was they were competing with the internet. I could always find their new gear for cheaper or the same price on Amazon. Working in this retail space, they should have been selling used vintage and foreign surplus. Stuff that you don’t want to order online because there’s no telling how the sizing is.
I give this a five-​star review due to my optimism that it seems the new owners have surveyed the decisions made by the previous management and are forging in a smarter direction.
I’ll come back and update this over time as things progress at the new Banana Bay.

Everything is in the store «Made in China.» At first i was like «Whoa! look at all this neat stuff!!,» but upon further inspection, I noticed not so much. There is a very high markup on most things. Google «MICHAUD AMENDMENT AND the Berry Amendment» It requires that all Military clothing be MADE IN USA. if thats the case, where did all this Made in China crap come from? This isnt a surplus store, this is a china import store with a heavy markup.

Boy Kid: «I need new shoes.»
Me: «Sure, what kind do you want?»
Boy Kid: «Military Boots.»
Me: «Crap, Why? You aren’t going into the military, because you aren’t allowed to die. And if there is a military draft, we are going to Mexico.»
Boy Kid: «I just like the boots…» (Walks away)
We head to Banana Bay. To start, this place creeps me out. It’s really packed with stuff, and difficult to get around the store. It smells strange, and the employees have blank looks in their eyes.
At Banana Bay, he finds the boots he likes. I make him try them on (like a mom does) and ask if he is sure those are the boots he wants (i was really hoping they weren’t).
We pay, and leave. A week later, the boots have come away from the soles. Oh, and no refunds or exchanges. Hey, thanks, now I have to buy more boots. But definitely not from this place. It’s way too weird and their boots suck.