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.
“why golly golly gumdrops we had no idea asshole mcbabyeater was a baby eating freak that wanted to eat our babies, we just thought he would let us dump out trash in the local pond and lower our taxes. We take full responsibility for this one, so we’re going to start a branding coalition. Sorry, guys :(”
“We have many values, but the most valuable value to us is profit, far and away. As a business pursuing profit above all else, supporting this administration, and always being ready and willing to bootlick, anywhere, anytime, at a moments notice, was thought to be our best shot at the highest profitability possible for our members. Unfortunately, like most of the supporters of trump, his administration, and his best-picked people, we’re left embarrassed, and holding a (figurative) bag of shit, with nothing to show for it except for smelly hands. Sorry. Can we get a do-over?”
“We have a problem considering everyone that buys our stuff are campers that camp at these parks. We totally did not see or hear anything about this and caught completely by surprise the administration was going to do this. The “Drill baby Drill” slogan we thought he was referring to drilling for profits in OTHER people’s lands! Who are we going to sell all this crap to now?!”
The leopards have never seen such a buffet of faces to eat. Only the best buffets. The biggest. Buffets like nobody has ever seen before! Billions of faces. Ok I’ll see myself out now.
No shit.
Yeah I have a friend from the UK who voted for Brexit. He regrets it now and I’m like: “WHAT DID YOU THINK WAS GOING TO HAPPEN?!”
A mistake like that gets people fired.
It is being called a mistake because it’s costing them more money than they thought it would.
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.
Is it a new board because I’m pretty sure we all voted withhold.
“We just wanted to treat our employees like slaves! Why is he doing this to us?”
Oh no. Anyways, still on my list of places not to buy.
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.
Done! Wouldn’t have bothered voting if I hadn’t read your comment, so thanks for sharing. Voting was really easy, just had to enter my member number and zip code.
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
Imagine being able to afford camping and outdoor gear.
Where will I get a $47 headlamp though?
REI is corpo scum. They are not a co-op. This retraction is nice to hear but ultimately meaningless as long as they continue forcing corpo trash board candidates into their rigged board elections system.
Their union has done a decent job of documenting some of their behavior. This wasn’t an anomaly.
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
They are also the only national retailer that sells AR-15’s.
Eh, what? Cabelas/Bass Pro Shops are certainly nationwide.
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?
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.
Honestly, at least around my parts, gun stores are charging at least $200 over online prices, that includes big box stores. Best to take the online route. You’ll have to ship to an FFL, so best to check which ones are the cheapest (any gun store is an FFL). Mine only charges $50.
If you’re concerned about politics, I’d say let the gun industry slide, it’s full of right-wingers and not worth it to sift through them. Honestly, you might be surprised how much of a leftist message many of them sympathize with. You’ll have to be the judge on who is cool or not, people are people.
Best to do your research on which rifle you want, there is a plethora. For cheap while decent quality, many folks like the budget PSA AR-15s for as little as $400. A lot of folks will buy a cheap lower like the PA-15 for around $150 and attach a better quality upper as the lower isn’t the most important. The lower is the only regulated part that needs to be picked up from an FFL.
Lastly, if you purchase any firearm, learn it and practice. Know every detail about it as you’ll be tearing it down and cleaning it every so often. Above all else, be safe and have fun.
Yes, it’s true. Check OpenSecrets.org.
No shit, everybody knew Trump and his team of morons was exactly that - fucking morons.
don’t forget corrupt
I though that fact was fairly obvious, but you’re absolutely right.
This combined with them being anti union means I won’t be shopping there for a while.
how you gonna call yourself a co-op and be anti-union
The board is cooperative with their bank accounts. 🙂
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.
REI makes a large amount of money selling bikes which almost entirely come from China. This about-face is purely a reaction to tariffs and the Orange turd affecting their bottom line, not some moral epiphany.
I had no idea they endorsed Trump. I will never buy from them again.
They endorsed a Trump nominee, I thought. Or was still enough for me to vote withhold and I’m not likely to shop there until it’s clear all the rot is removed.
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
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.
I contacted their customer support and had them delete my account. I also sent them an email as to why, and stated I’d be telling everyone I know not to shop at REI.
Fuck them.
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 dodge 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.
Yeah honestly I was completely baffled by that move
They saw the rv industry in elbow deep and decided to go lock step?
