This holiday season, retailer REI is encouraging its customers to Opt Outside.
The store has decided it won’t participate in Black Friday – November 27 – closing all 143 stores and giving its employees a paid day off.
In a statement, company CEO and President Jerry Stritzke said he wants employees and customers to spend the day enjoying the outdoors instead of inside "fighting it out in the aisles."
The REI website encouraged customers to join the employees and the movement by using the hashtag #OptOutside.
Here’s Stritzke’s statement:
REI is closing on Black Friday.
You read that correctly. On November 27, we’ll be closing all 143 of our stores and paying our employees to head outside.
Here’s why we’re doing it.
For 76 years, our co-op has been dedicated to one thing and one thing only: a life outdoors. We believe that being outside makes our lives better. And Black Friday is the perfect time to remind ourselves of this essential truth.
We’re a different kind of company—and while the rest of the world is fighting it out in the aisles, we’ll be spending our day a little differently. We’re choosing to opt outside, and want you to come with us.
Jerry Stritzke, President, CEO
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