Author Topic: REI closed on Black Friday  (Read 6852 times)

Eric

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REI closed on Black Friday
« on: October 26, 2015, 07:47:13 PM »
REI is closing its stores on Black Friday this year.  As someone who is surely not alone in thinking that Black Friday shopping is out of control, it's nice to see a retailer take a sensible approach, even if it costs them a little money.

http://money.cnn.com/2015/10/26/news/companies/rei-black-friday/index.html?section=money_latest

They are going to encourage their employees and would be shoppers to "go outside" instead.  Very mustachian in my opinion. 

Jags4186

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Re: REI closed on Black Friday
« Reply #1 on: October 26, 2015, 07:55:44 PM »
If you scope out the Black Friday deals and have a Citi credit card, you can buy your stuff before hand and then take advantage of Citi's Price Rewind.  No reason to go crazy.

HPstache

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Re: REI closed on Black Friday
« Reply #2 on: October 26, 2015, 08:21:35 PM »
A good PR play on their part.  They are going to get viral support for this choice.

Outlier

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Re: REI closed on Black Friday
« Reply #3 on: October 26, 2015, 08:45:55 PM »
That's an awesome idea. It's not going to get me into a store that sells $2,000 bicycles but I'm sure the employees appreciate it.

kudy

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Re: REI closed on Black Friday
« Reply #4 on: October 26, 2015, 09:12:55 PM »
I like it a lot.

Thegoblinchief

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Re: REI closed on Black Friday
« Reply #5 on: October 27, 2015, 06:50:56 AM »
The PR is good, it's a good thought. From my experience in retail, though, the employees just get to have a bat-shit insane Saturday instead...

cautiouspessimist

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Re: REI closed on Black Friday
« Reply #6 on: October 27, 2015, 06:58:32 AM »
That's an awesome idea. It's not going to get me into a store that sells $2,000 bicycles but I'm sure the employees appreciate it.

They also sell cheaper bikes. Do you refuse to go to Safeway because they sell $8 bread in addition to the $1.50 bread?

SMCx3

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Re: REI closed on Black Friday
« Reply #7 on: October 27, 2015, 07:04:24 AM »
This is a great move by REI on many fronts.  The coverage they are receiving is huge.  In addition, this will also help win over a lot of consumers.

tooqk4u22

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Re: REI closed on Black Friday
« Reply #8 on: October 27, 2015, 07:07:57 AM »
Saw this and thought it was awesome....cynic in me believes that they have reviewed their numbers for the past black fridays and figured it was a loss (ie they don't want/get discount shoppers) so lets get good press instead.

Either way....good for workers and good for business.


Thegoblinchief

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Re: REI closed on Black Friday
« Reply #9 on: October 27, 2015, 07:46:01 AM »
Saw this and thought it was awesome....cynic in me believes that they have reviewed their numbers for the past black fridays and figured it was a loss (ie they don't want/get discount shoppers) so lets get good press instead.

Either way....good for workers and good for business.

No, according to USA Today Black Friday is one of their top 10 days. The others probably revolve around their members' coupon promos

Eric

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Re: REI closed on Black Friday
« Reply #10 on: October 27, 2015, 09:46:33 AM »
The PR is good, it's a good thought. From my experience in retail, though, the employees just get to have a bat-shit insane Saturday instead...

Yeah, I'm sure Saturday will be nuts, but at least they'll have 2 days off prior to rest up!

Jeremy E.

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Re: REI closed on Black Friday
« Reply #11 on: October 27, 2015, 12:04:05 PM »
I don't mind stores having sales on black friday, it pisses me off that wal mart starts having sales at 6pm on thanksgiving, when people are still visiting with their families and friends.

Gone Fishing

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Re: REI closed on Black Friday
« Reply #12 on: October 27, 2015, 12:15:20 PM »
Saw this and thought it was awesome....cynic in me believes that they have reviewed their numbers for the past black fridays and figured it was a loss (ie they don't want/get discount shoppers) so lets get good press instead.

Either way....good for workers and good for business.

No, according to USA Today Black Friday is one of their top 10 days. The others probably revolve around their members' coupon promos

Sales or profits?

Glenstache

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Re: REI closed on Black Friday
« Reply #13 on: October 27, 2015, 12:28:12 PM »
Saw this and thought it was awesome....cynic in me believes that they have reviewed their numbers for the past black fridays and figured it was a loss (ie they don't want/get discount shoppers) so lets get good press instead.

Either way....good for workers and good for business.

No, according to USA Today Black Friday is one of their top 10 days. The others probably revolve around their members' coupon promos

Sales or profits?

They will also be paying 12,000 employees that day, even though they won't be at work and will clearly be taking a loss on that day. Personally, I think this is great. But, I find the whole consumer-sucka-frenzy through the holidays stomach churning, so I'm pre-disposed to like pretty much anything that opts out of even a little of it.

Cromacster

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Re: REI closed on Black Friday
« Reply #14 on: October 27, 2015, 12:33:58 PM »
I agree that black friday has gotten way out of control, but overall I'm still mixed how I feel about it.  I worked as a cashier at Target in high school.  Many of the employees liked the holiday season because they could work crazy over time, especially over the thanksgiving weekend.  Not everyone was in this line of thinking, but many of them were.  It should also be said that even though (most) stores are not open on thanksgiving there are still a lot workers there preparing for the big weekend.  Some stores might be viewing this as "hell, we have people here working, we might as well open the doors".

With that said
They will also be paying 12,000 employees that day, even though they won't be at work and will clearly be taking a loss on that day. Personally, I think this is great. But, I find the whole consumer-sucka-frenzy through the holidays stomach churning, so I'm pre-disposed to like pretty much anything that opts out of even a little of it.

If the employee's are still getting paid, that is pretty awesome.
« Last Edit: October 27, 2015, 12:35:40 PM by Cromacster »

Jeddy

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Re: REI closed on Black Friday
« Reply #15 on: October 27, 2015, 12:36:27 PM »
Good on REI - I have no problem with a company wanting to take advantage of the masses desire to spend, but I tend to think most of the employees would rather spend time with their own loved ones rather than ringing items up for strangers. The 6PM 'Black Friday' holiday shopping starting on Thanksgiving THURSDAY is a little much.

Thanksgiving is the start of 'Jeddy avoids any store other than a grocery store like the plague' season. It runs from Thanksgiving Day through New Year's Day.

The lunacy that comes out in people through the holiday shopping period is insane. For a time that is marketed as bringing out the best and happiest in people, it tends to bring out the ugly in the majority of the masses.

Unfortunately 'Jeddy avoids any store other than a grocery store like the plague' season runs right into 'damn this gym is wicked crowded!' season, which starts on January 2nd and runs for about 90 days.

tvan

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Re: REI closed on Black Friday
« Reply #16 on: October 27, 2015, 12:59:15 PM »
With online shopping I don't think any of this matters much. Unless your one of the people that enjoys getting trampled for some piece of shit gadget.

darkadams00

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Re: REI closed on Black Friday
« Reply #17 on: October 27, 2015, 06:21:40 PM »
I wish stores didn't open for prep until 6am and open the doors until 10am---as usual---on Black Friday. The slide of prep back towards midnight and the opening to 6am was just a "camel nose in the tent door" marketing effort a couple decades ago. It was only a matter of time until number crunchers at the headquarters (who won't be working between Tuesday and the following Monday) started moving the clock backward.

Regardless of the amount of money spent over the holidays, folks who rely on retail for a paycheck now have to skip a large part of Thanksgiving and don their smocks. And the chance at a bargain widget sends families in multiple directions, often to the disappointment of a child, parent, or spouse who would rather spend the holiday together having fun, making memories. Even at my parents' home, there is a nice plaque on the wall that says, "The most valuable things in life aren't things." But when I suggested that my mother, sister, and wife skip the sales last year to spend more time with the family and all of the kids/grandkids, they were speechless. I would love to skip a family holiday one year to prove the point, but that would be a waste of what time we do have.

MayDay

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Re: REI closed on Black Friday
« Reply #18 on: October 28, 2015, 07:15:05 AM »
Pleased to see REI taking a lead on this issue -- I think it will boost their bottom line as well.

Now if only the other two huge Seattle-area HQ-ed businesses (Costco and Amazon) would do the same!  Costco might.  Amazon? Never....

Have you (or anyone) ever been to Costco on BF?  I haven't, but I've seen the sale ads, and they didn't look insane.  That led me to believe that they didn't have an unusual day.

Considering that I use Costco mainly as a grocery store, I would find it fairly annoying for them to be closed on BF.  I doubt their employees are coming in at midnight to rearrange the store for sales like Walmart et al.  I figured it was just a regular work day for them, given what I know about the stores, the sales, and their general treatment of employees.  I guess you could argue that day after Tday should be a federal holiday since many people get off work. 

Re. Amazon, I assume plenty of tech support people have to work for online business regardless of holiday.  Does that mean no one should online shop on holidays/weekends/etc?  I struggle with that.  I like to tell myself that at least the people working on website support are probably really well paid for being on call on holidays, unlike the cashier at Walmart. 

Thegoblinchief

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Re: REI closed on Black Friday
« Reply #19 on: October 28, 2015, 07:25:22 AM »
"Closing" a website and then turning all of the things back on would be way more work than just staffing a skeleton support crew that's probably just on-call remote techies anyways.

undercover

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Re: REI closed on Black Friday
« Reply #20 on: October 28, 2015, 07:50:04 AM »
The employees are just ecstatic because it gives them time to do their own BF shopping, sadly. Equally as said, I did get sucked into BF shopping one year when I was maybe 18. After that, I quickly realized that I never wanted to follow the herd ever again, and I'm much better off buying a few high priced items (that never go on sale anyway) as opposed to buying something just because it's cheap (like most people).

BF in general is dying as the deals have been very lackluster across the board the past few years.

Jeremy E.

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Re: REI closed on Black Friday
« Reply #21 on: October 28, 2015, 11:00:53 AM »
The employees are just ecstatic because it gives them time to do their own BF shopping, sadly. Equally as said, I did get sucked into BF shopping one year when I was maybe 18. After that, I quickly realized that I never wanted to follow the herd ever again, and I'm much better off buying a few high priced items (that never go on sale anyway) as opposed to buying something just because it's cheap (like most people).

BF in general is dying as the deals have been very lackluster across the board the past few years.
Black Friday at Wal Mart isn't dying, but I wish it would.

Gumbo1978

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Re: REI closed on Black Friday
« Reply #22 on: October 29, 2015, 01:34:13 PM »
REI got a lot of good pub out of this.  They emailed members to let them know and gave them links to share and twitter hashtags to post about it.  This is the kind of responsible their customer would appreciate and may be better for their bottom line.  I've shared the link with friends and tweeted about it myself.  I don't really care what their motives are for doing it, I'm just glad they did it.  If spreading the word (essentially advertising for them) keeps the practice in place in future years, I'm all for it.