Black Friday is now a everlasting vacation for out of doors retailer REI's 16,000 staff.
REI since 2015 has closed its doorways the day after Thanksgiving, and is now making the paid time without work one in every of its worker advantages, the Seattle-based cooperative introduced on Thursday.
In first shuttering its doorways on the day considered because the unofficial begin of the vacation procuring season, REI mentioned it wished to encourage staff and members alike to spend time outdoors — presumably outfitted with REI gear and clothes — as a substitute of procuring.
The retailer's shops, distribution facilities, name facilities and headquarters will shut each Black Friday. Consumers can nonetheless place orders on REI's web site, however the orders will not start processing till the subsequent day, REI mentioned in its assertion.
Owned by prospects who purchase lifetime memberships, REI operates 178 areas in 42 states and the District of Columbia. Like its competitor Patagonia, it manufacturers itself as a progressive firm.
In a like vein, Patagonia has additionally made a present of bowing out of the Black Friday procuring insanity, and now not runs Black Friday gross sales, in accordance to a bargain-hunting e-newsletter, Blacker Friday. It, too, says of us ought to spend the lengthy weekend outdoors and never on the mall or in entrance of their pc display procuring.