After working with startup and existing businesses that have 10–20 owners, the scale of REI is somewhat staggering. It has been around for more than 75 years. It has 143 stores at last count. It is a known name in households where people hike, camp, trek, bike, kayak, and do other outdoorsy things. It has fierce customer loyalty, great customer service, and REI’s 12,000+ employees routinely vote them one of the best companies to work for. The $2Billion+ company’s annual revenue is surging in a way that other major retailers, in whatever niche, can’t match. And in case you didn’t hear me the first time, they have more than 5.5 million members.
But as I learned more about the spectrum of cooperative economics it felt a little like REI was a cooperative in function (moreso than just in name because the dividend return is a better patronage program than my food cooperative) but not apparently invested or very noticeable in the cooperative community. Was cooperation just a corporate survival strategy? Or was it a way to fundamentally transform 1) how people conduct commercial activity and 2) how we relate to one another and the planet. I wasn’t sure for REI.
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