Black Friday

[Optimistic Paranoid]

REI has announced that all of their stores will be closed on Black Friday, all their help will get a paid day off, and are urged to "get outdoors!"

They're urging everyone else to get outdoors, too.

Bravo!

This is the kind of thing that encourages me to shop with them instead of Cabella's or Gander Mountain!

I should mention that I had a part time job, for about five years, selling guns at a local Gander Mountain. And yes, I had to work on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday, as well as New Year's Day. Christmas was the only day we were closed. I hated it!

And don't EVEN get me started on stores being open and running big sales on Memorial Day and Independence Day! Was up to me, there would be a law that only food stores, drug stores, and gas stations could be open on those days, the better to keep their TRUE meaning alive!

 

[bob91yj]

...keep supporting REI, they'll keep supporting the Sierra Club, and your public lands will get closed and you can sit in their parking lot and camp in your vehicle on Black Friday...just saying is all.

 

[Haggis]

So this is the new social media darling. Normally I'd be hunting but I think I will go shopping...you know help the local economy, keep my neighbors employed, add to the revenue of our local government and piss off the dreamy eyed social media hipsters.

 

[Scott]

...keep supporting REI, they'll keep supporting the Sierra Club, and your public lands will get closed and you can sit in their parking lot and camp in your vehicle on Black Friday...just saying is all.

Ding ding ding. Keep supporting REI, and watch lands get closed before your eyes. I refuse to step inside that store, which kinda sucks because they sell a lot of cool stuff.

 

[dr1665]

I like the anti-commercialism of their angle, though. Working in retail MarComm, I've been straight pimping merch every day since the first. It's grating.

I got a fever! And the only prescription is Nature-RX.

 

[Chazz Layne]

Dani and I are both fans of her working holidays and Black Friday. Double pay, and she gets to save the vacation time for mid week when there's no one out on the trail.

 

[Dave]

That's actually really smart.

As far as Black Friday, I'm in the BTDT club. Some may find it fun but I have zero reasons to deal with the chaos anymore. No baubles are worth that drama or even my time.

And whether you like REI or not (I love the store but despise the company politics), they're on to something with the #OptOutside social media campaign. I support it.

I much prefer to be outside on Black Friday than swept up in a tidal wave of meaningless consumer driven mania.

YMMV

 

[taugust]

For many years Black Friday was a day for me to go exploring in Anza-Borrego, either solo, or with a few friends. It was so nice to enjoy the weather and beautiful desert, and I usually saw few others out there. No crowds to fight. Win!