Summary
REI apologized for endorsing Trump interior secretary nominee Doug Burgum, citing backlash over his support for fossil fuel drilling and deregulation.
CEO Mary Beth Laughton, who took over March 31, called the endorsement “a mistake” and pledged to refocus REI on protecting public lands.
The co-op will lead a new coalition, Brands for Public Lands, to lobby for conservation.
The REI Union, which had criticized the endorsement, praised the retraction. The company also faces legal challenges over alleged anti-union practices and benefits withholding.
We’re in the market for a kid carrying ebike, and while REI makes the most financial sense, I think we’ll be paying a visit to our LBS.
As an aside, I tend to prefer Sports Basement. Have had better luck with their bike department, too. No idea if they’re better from a corporate standpoint though.
LBS FTW
Hell yeah on LBS.
This is beyond not knowing their customer base. Where are people going to hike once national Parks are clear cut?
Doesn’t matter, line went up.
Oh no. Anyways, still on my list of places not to buy.
Imagine being able to afford camping and outdoor gear.
Right? They cant have it both ways. Dine with a nazi and you’re a nazi. Simple as that.
Maybe once they recognize the union and give them everything they ask for. 'Til then they get none of my money.
On that note, the Union requests that all REI members (if you have an REI account, this means you) vote in the board election.
The union was backing two candidates for the board. The current board, however, has intentionally left the pro-union candidates off the ballot.
REI’s union would like you to log in and vote “Withhold” for all three current candidates. It takes only a few minutes!
A “Withhold” majority vote would result in the candidates not joining the board.
Here are details on how to vote: https://www.ourrei.com/2025-rei-board-elections
To be able to vote, you must have made a purchase at REI in 2024 tied to your account.
Sadly, I’ve been boycotting them since 2022.
It says my member number is incorrect when I try to register. I’m gonna have to contact their support for this
That’s what mine said, but then I looked in the history and hadn’t bought anything in two years. Figured that was why
No shit.
Damn, even REI. The disappointments won’t stop coming.
Not a case of “even REI.” REI revealed themselves into just another boardroom full of bad guys in 2022 and have not improved since.
So odd that REI put themselves with this group. They look very out of place in this group.
Here are the other signatories on that letter from January supporting Burgum:
- American Bus Association
- American Horse Council
- American Prairie
- American Sportfishing Association
- Archery Trade Association
- Association of Marina Industries
- Boat U.S.
- CHM Government Services
- Diving Equipment & Marketing Association
- Eddyline Kayaks
- International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association
- Marine Retailers Association of the Americas
- Motorcycle Industry Council
- National Forest Recreation Association
- National Marine Manufacturers Association
- National Park Hospitality Association
- National Ski Areas Association
- National Wild Turkey Federation
- Outdoor Hospitality Industry
- Outdoor Industry Association
- Paddlesports Trade Coalition
- PeopleForBikes
- Professional TrailBuilders Association
- Recreational Off-Highway Vehicle Association
- REI Co-op
- RV Dealers Association
- RV Industry Association
- Society of Outdoor Recreation Professionals
- Specialty Equipment Market Association
- Specialty Vehicle Institute of America
- Sports & Fitness Industry Association
- The Corps Network
They saw the rv industry in elbow deep and decided to go lock step?
Yeah honestly I was completely baffled by that move
REI turned corporate or at least pro-corporate shortly after the pandemic. This all went down probably not coincidentally right after they hired an ex-Amazon exec, Cameron Janes, to be their “Chief Commercial Officer.”
They’re turning into another profit motivated shitshow and have become explicitly anti-union, hostile to their own labor, and also hostile to their own customers. They did this in the name of making more money, but given that it pissed off swath of their core customer base who are probably more vocal, left leaning, and activist than the average bunch of consumers who all quit buying from them, I’m pretty sure this wasn’t a net gain.
REI was already fully transitioned from a co-op to another big box store well before that.
REI has consistently hired executives and board members with backgrounds in traditional retail and other for-profit ventures since 2010.
They have chosen to run REI like their prior companies, focusing on margins and profitability rather than its primary responsibility, the members.
They have continued to open new stores and over extend themselves because profit must go up, though the main revenue generator for them is the membership fee. And because it is a one time fee, rather than recurring, they have to continue to open new stores to stay profitable.
On top of no longer acting like a co-op, REI has decided to fight its employees unionization efforts. Numerous REI stores have voted to unionize, and REI has refused to recognize the unions, in some cases for years at this point. REI has also hired notorious union- busting lawyers, removed PPE from repair shops, and illegally laid off dozens of individuals.
REI is now clearing house; laying off long term staff and replacing them with new, less expensive, and less knowledgeable employees. In 2010 the average camping department employee got 15+ hours of training; whereas by 2018 it was less than 4 hours.
REI is following exactly in the footsteps of Mountain Equipment Co-Op in Canada. Once on par with REI, MEC is just another shell of a company raped by private equity. And unfortunately for a lot of good people, I think REI will suffer a similar fate.
I’d argue it already has. I no longer shop there and haven’t done so for years, nor does anyone else I know in any of my hiking/backpacking/rock climbing/riding circles.
Knowing full well that they measure their “success” via their membership count, I also bullied them into cancelling my membership several years ago. That was an interesting experience.
Nice job getting the membership cancelled.
I worked there for the better part of a decade, but got out when I saw the writing on the wall. Unfortunately, I still have friends working there.
Yeah, that turned into a Laurel and Hardy skit in short order. “But it’s ‘lifetime!’”
Uh-huh. You want to bet?
I had their credit card, too, for the simple expedient that you could take the rewards points and cash them out. You can’t do that anymore, because you can’t cash out membership rewards at all anymore. Which to be frank was the only reason to shop there since the pathologically sell everything at 100% full list price all the time. The doge was you could get your discount in a roundabout way later by combining your normal membership points with the extra from the card, and then cash it out. Now that the membership points are just more company scrip, this is pointless. You may as well just buy the same stuff from somebody else for less, since there’s certainly no longer any ethical benefit to purchasing from REI to make up for paying extra.
Meanwhile, US Bank (the bank which used to issue their credit card before the transition) offers a Visa with precisely the same rewards structure as the old REI card, sans the extra couple of points on specifically REI purchases, which you can likewise cash out. So I just got one of those instead. It seems I wasn’t the only one who figured this out, because the CSR I spoke to in the process told me a lot of people were doing the same thing at that time.
Haha, I always felt scummy selling the credit cards, but that and the number of memberships you sold determined your hours.
Resign, they endorsed because they thought they would be the winners, turns out it wasn’t the popular move they thought it was, now watch them burn.
Trumps entires presidency is a big oopsie
Don’t care. REI is dead to me.
Shop at Academy instead, they don’t give to any political parties & their employees mostly give to non-Fascist groups.
Is this true? I’m a fan of Academy. Don’t let me down.
Academy is iwned by the same Private Equity firm that tanked Toys-R-Us. They are also the only national retailer that sells AR-15’s. Corporations are not your friends. You should not idolize them
Picking and choosing which retailer you buy your goods from based on their business practices is HARDLY idolizing them.
So yall don’t have pics of Toys R Us that you pray to every morning?
I’m pretty sure I’ve seen some odd pictures of the giraffe over on pawb.social… Maybe not the same thing?
They are also the only national retailer that sells AR-15’s.
Eh, what? Cabelas/Bass Pro Shops are certainly nationwide.
Thanks, I was wondering where to go to pick up an AR-15
I would say buy from your local gun shop but most of them are fucking racist nazis.
No legal way out of that one except Form 1 3d printing. It’s from the MAGA shop, the MAGA shop that doesn’t have too many stickers on its wall, or the gun show. Which is also MAGA.
And even if you print it, you’ll still need to buy a bunch of smaller parts from one of the above, or an online retailer. Which will be MAGA.
I know. Where I live it is deep deep MAGA. Overmountain Rifleman is pretty good at appearing neutral but I feel like they keep their MAGA on the downlow. I talk Warhammer stuff with one of the guys that works there.
Yes, it’s true. Check OpenSecrets.org.
“We just wanted to treat our employees like slaves! Why is he doing this to us?”
There’s no apology that can correct any of this lol, good luck.
Sigh. Where do I shop instead? Anywhere that actually supports cooperative efforts?
if you’re a probable or likely rei shopper looking for an alternative, check out garage grown gear
I’m an REI member and I hadn’t voted in a board election until this. I voted against all of them.
I’m also an REI member, how do we vote?
No on all.
I mean how, as in “what is the process to be able to vote?” I haven’t seen anything about the board meetings or votes.
Log in to your account? Check your email? I got an email about it a few weeks ago.
Gotcha, thanks. Didn’t know I had an online account with them. I normally got everything through the mail.
Edit: I guess I’m gonna have to schlep up to their physical store and figure this out.
But they changed the terms so you must now be an “active” member in order to vote. I found out I hadn’t spent enough money recently that I had been disenfranchised.
Damn, not an active member, and not likely to be this year either
