REI also says it will be paying its employees to get outside and be active.
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REI has announced it’s going in the opposite direction of other retailers this year: the outdoor and athletic supply store will close its doors on Black Friday, giving employees the day off with pay.
Instead, the company is urging would-be shoppers to “opt outside” – ostensibly to spend one of the busiest shopping days of the year as far away from REI and shopping malls as possible. In fact, it’s become a badge of pride for a few companies to remain closed even for Thursday. That is in addition to the day off employees get on Thanksgiving. Amazon registered record sales during last Black Friday.
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Still, for REI, which ended 2014 with $2.2 billion in sales, Black Friday has consistently been a top 10 sales day. The decision was motivated by the company’s outdoor ethic, Stritzke said. “It’s an act where we’re really making a very clear statement about a set of values”. As retailers increasingly try to milk whatever they can out of the shopping bonanza, many workers end up clocking in not just on Friday but Thanksgiving Day itself – a phenomenon known as Black Friday creep. Perhaps John Muir said it best back in 1901: ‘Thousands of exhausted, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home.’ We think Black Friday is the flawless day to remind people of this essential truth.
