Photo: Sarah Stierch | Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
In 2015, REI closed its doors for Black Friday -- the day after Thanksgiving viewed in the U.S. for jump-starting holiday shopping. On this day, most U.S. retail businesses open their doors early, close late, and market special sales to encourage shoppers. Yet this particular retail cooperative chain, being a store for outdoor gear and clothing, stated it was giving employees a holiday to encourage them to spend time outside, instead of shopping. Now, seven years later, the Seattle-based cooperative has announced that Black Friday will be a permanent holiday for its 16,000 employees. While orders can still be placed on its website that day, they will not begin to be processed until the next day. As a cooperative structure, REI is owned by customers who buy lifetime memberships, operating across 178 locations in 42 U.S. states.
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