"REI Gives Workers Black Friday Off And Tells Them To Hit the Trails"

"Check your credit score and grab your walking shoes, people! Black Friday is coming.

Not familiar? Picture a Pamplona-style running of the bulls the day after Thanksgiving, but instead of running from giant horned cattle in narrow city streets, imagine hoards of Americans running toward giant sales in suburban shopping malls. (And like the running of the bulls, the tradition is surprisingly dangerous. There have been seven Black Friday shopping-related deaths and many injuries since 2006.)

Black Friday has also long been the focus of anti-consumerist protests like Buy Nothing Day (and was the target of a nation-wide Black Lives Matter protest last year). This year, however, at least one store will voluntarily be keeping the doors locked and the security shutters drawn: Outdoor retailer REI has announced it will close on both Thanksgiving and the American horrorday known as Black Friday.

CEO Jerry Stritzke told CNN that the store will close on Black Friday in the hope that people will get outside and actually use the products REI sells every day. “The idea of being out on a mountain and maybe finding some snow is pretty awesome,” Stritzke said, adding that this will be a paid holiday for REI workers."

Katie Herzog reports for Grist October 27, 2015.