Imagine needing just one thing—a small metal tool for a mountain expedition. But there is nowhere to buy it, unless you order it from far away and pay a great deal of money. That was the problem that launched one of the world’s most unusual stores—a store owned not by a single proprietor, but by its customers.
The Ice Axe No One Could Buy
In the 1930s, a group of friends who loved climbing mountains lived in Seattle. Among them were Lloyd Anderson and his wife, Mary—an ordinary couple who spent their free time climbing snowy peaks. But climbers at the time faced one major problem: to safely climb on ice, they needed a special tool—an ice axe. Quality ice axes were made only in Austria, and importing one to America cost a great deal—almost as much as several weeks of food for a family.
Lloyd decided that if buying an ice axe was too expensive for one person, the solution was to team up with friends. He wrote directly to a factory in Austria and arranged for a bulk order so that each ice axe would cost less. The friends pooled their money—and it worked! Each person paid less than they would have if they had bought an axe individually.
What Is a Cooperative, in Simple Terms?
What Lloyd came up with is called a cooperative. Imagine that your class wants to buy a large number of identical paint sets in bulk—they cost less that way than if you bought them individually at a store. Everyone contributes a little money, one person negotiates with the seller, and everyone gets the paint sets at a lower price. If a little money is left over after the purchase, it can be divided among everyone who contributed.
That is how the climbers’ cooperative worked. In 1938, they officially named their company REI—Recreational Equipment Inc. Each member paid a small fee and became a co-owner. Not a customer, but specifically a co-owner! The company belonged not to one proprietor, but to everyone who participated in it.
“We just wanted to buy good equipment honestly, without overpaying,” Lloyd Anderson later said about how it all began.
From a Small Club to a Huge Store
The years passed, and the climbers’ club gradually became a real store selling equipment for hiking, skiing, cycling, and camping. But the most interesting part is that the company never stopped being a cooperative! Even today, nearly a century later, REI follows the same basic idea: customers who become cooperative members receive part of the money back each year simply for shopping at the store.
Here is how it compares with an ordinary store:
| Ordinary Store | REI Cooperative | |
|---|---|---|
| Who owns it | One person or a corporate owner | The customers who are members |
| Where the profits go | To the store’s owner | Returned to the members |
| Can you become a co-owner? | Usually not | Yes, for a small fee |
It turns out that the idea of cooperation is much older and broader than a single store in Seattle. Some grocery stores, credit unions, and even farms around the world operate on the same principle: people join together to obtain something that would be too expensive or difficult to get on their own.
Why This Story Still Matters Today
The story of REI reveals something remarkable: sometimes the biggest and best-known companies begin not with a desire to get rich, but with a simple question: “How can we solve one small problem together?” Lloyd and Mary Anderson did not set out to build a business giant—they simply wanted to buy an ice axe honestly for their mountain trips.
To me, that is the most touching part: a small idea based on fairness and friendship has lasted for nearly a century and still helps thousands of people get equipment at a fair price. It also reminds us that sharing is not an old-fashioned idea from the past, but an approach that still works and continues to change the world for the better—one ice axe at a time.
