Work Reform

Done. I've been boycotting REI since... 2019, I think? When all this crap first came to light, or at least when I became aware of it. When their ex-Amazon management was trumpeting how their membership numbers were such a metric of success, I also managed to cancel my "lifetime" REI membership. This made their customer support people very confused. So confused that they actually gave my membership fee back, despite the fact that I'd paid for it like 15 years beforehand.

I had an REI credit card. I cancelled that, too.

I stood up for REI for a long time. I held my nose and bought my camping and climbing stuff from them for ages despite the fact that they were and are consistently the most expensive place on Earth to buy outdoors stuff. Because they were supposed to be a "co-op" they were "not corporate."

Yeah, so, about that.

Fuck 'em. If you're going to be dealing with corporate asshats anyway you may as well shop at the ones that have the decency to be cheaper.

What’s everyone’s alternative today? I really like REI for the stuff they sell, but am absolutely behind the boycott.

I thought the employees were also owners?

Goddammit just walked into one today for first time. Didn't know these existed. It just open in Tulsa. Now got to boycott? Where can I go to try on hiking boots? Getting fuck hard as hell to shop local now a days.

I think this is an example of the inherent misalignment of consumer and worker interests in consumer coops compared to worker coops. While there are also misalignments between consumers and workers in worker coops, there's more alignment, especially because the workers are often consumers of the coop themselves.

Breaks my fuckin heart that this is still going on.