REI skipped the biggest shopping day of the year on purpose and paid its staff to go outside instead

the problem

Standing out in a Black Friday market where every retailer competes on the same discounts

background

what everyone would do

Compete on the same lever every other retailer uses — deeper discounts, longer hours, an earlier opening. That's the entire toolkit of Black Friday competition, and it puts REI in a race it can't win on its own terms: price wars favor whoever can discount hardest and longest, not whoever best represents outdoor values, so matching competitors tactic-for-tactic just makes REI indistinguishable from them on the one day it should matter most.

what they saw

REI's leadership asked what the co-op actually wanted from Black Friday and realized it wasn't one day of discounted transactions, it was repeat, values-aligned members. Once the goal was reframed that way, competing harder on price stopped making sense — the insight was that opting out entirely and redirecting the day toward the co-op's actual values (getting outside) would say more about who REI is than any doorbuster ever could.

the move

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.

why it works

Closing every store and paying 12,000+ employees to take the day off is a costly, unmistakable signal that REI means what it says about valuing time outdoors over transactions — a claim no amount of marketing copy could make as credibly as forfeiting the industry's single highest-volume sales day. Because the move directly reinforced the co-op's actual value proposition rather than competing on a lever (discounting) where REI had no advantage, it converted a day of foregone Black Friday revenue into a stronger long-term relationship with exactly the customers REI wanted to keep — evidenced by REI adding over a million members and growing overall revenue 9.3% that same year, proof the loyalty gained outweighed the single day's sales given up.

the payoff

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.

where it breaks

The move only works if the business has genuine values distinct from its competitors that the sacrifice can credibly demonstrate — a retailer with no real differentiating identity opting out of a discount day just looks like it's ceding ground, not making a statement. It also depends on the business being able to absorb the foregone revenue from the single day without it threatening near-term viability, which is easier for an established, loyalty-driven co-op than for a thinner-margin or growth-stage retailer that needs the immediate cash Black Friday generates. And it requires the audience to actually notice and value the gesture — a similar move by a brand without REI's existing reputation for genuine outdoor-focused values risks being read as a marketing stunt rather than an authentic statement, undermining the very credibility the sacrifice was meant to build.

what came after

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.

references

1. [1]How REI Launched And Built A Movement Far Larger Than The Brand ItselfForbes, 2017forbes.com
2. [2]REI Newsroom — 10 years of #OptOutside: REI Co-op continues to close its doors on Black FridayREI Co-op, 2025rei.com

keep it

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• 2017 · Behavioural Economics Team of the Australian Government (BETA) / Australian Taxation OfficeAustralia's tax office cut inflated deduction claims by writing to the accountant, not the taxpayer