REI skipped Black Friday and paid staff to go outside

Black Friday retail competition runs on one lever: deeper discounts, longer hours, earlier openings. Every outdoor retailer chased the same shoppers with the same tactic, and REI, a member-owned co-op rather than a public company, was competing for loyalty in a category where price wars favored whoever could discount hardest and longest.

REI's leadership asked what the co-op actually wanted from its members beyond a Black Friday transaction — repeat, values-aligned relationships, not one-day traffic. The idea on the table was the opposite of every competitor's plan: instead of opening earlier, close entirely, and pay every employee to do something else.

Instead of deeper doorbusters, REI closed all its stores on Black Friday, paid its 12,000+ employees to take the day off, and asked customers to #OptOutside rather than shop — forfeiting the industry's single highest-volume sales day by design.

Closed all stores and paid staff to take the day off, turning a foregone sales day into a credible signal of values that added over a million members.

Closing stores and paying staff is a costly, unmistakable signal of genuine values.

Forfeiting the biggest sales day proves commitment more credibly than any marketing.

Reinforcing the co-op's outdoor value proposition attracts values-aligned members.

The loyalty gained outweighed the single day's lost sales, driving record growth.

In a race-to-the-bottom promotion, opt out and redirect the day toward your core value to strengthen loyalty with your best customers.

REI added more than a million members in 2015 — record growth — while revenue still grew 9.3%, comparable-store sales rose 7% year over year, and web sales grew 23%, all in the same year the co-op forfeited its highest-volume sales day. REI made the closure permanent in 2022. REI's #OptOutside became an annual tradition joined by hundreds of partner businesses and public land agencies, and in 2022 REI made the Black Friday closure permanent policy rather than a one-off stunt — one of the few retail campaigns to functionally forgo a day's revenue and still be labeled effective.