Imagine you walk into a store, buy a tent, and at the end of the year the store sends you money back and says, "Thanks for being our owner!" Sounds like magic? But such a store has existed for almost 90 years, and it's called REI. This is not an ordinary store — it's a cooperative, meaning the store is not owned by one rich proprietor but by all the people who buy there. And now, as many adults argue about how to make work and business fairer, REI’s story shows that another way is possible.
The most surprising thing about this story is that REI sometimes does things that seem completely crazy for a normal business. For example, every year on the biggest shopping day in America, called Black Friday, when stores make the most money, REI... closes! They hang a sign on the door: "Closed. We’re outside!" and send all employees to go for a walk in the woods, mountains, or to the river. They even pay them for that day! For an ordinary store that would be a disaster. But REI can afford it because they have a different goal: not to make as much money as possible at any cost, but to help people love the outdoors.
How a store where everyone is an owner works
To understand why REI is so unusual, imagine a school nature club. All the kids chip in money to buy tents and sleeping bags for trips. They decide together where to hike and how to spend the club’s money. No one can say, "I'm in charge, I decide!" — because the club belongs to everyone together.
REI works almost the same way, only instead of a school club it’s a huge store with millions of members. When you buy something at REI for the first time, you can pay $20 and become a member of the cooperative — that is, one of the store’s owners. From that moment you’re not just a customer. At the end of each year REI looks at how much money it made and returns a portion of that money to its members. This is called a "dividend." In 2019, for example, REI returned $300 million to its members!
But the most important thing isn’t the money. The most important thing is that cooperative members can vote and decide how the store will operate. They elect a board of directors — people who make the main decisions. It’s like if students at your school could elect the principal and decide what the school rules would be.
The crazy decision that changed everything
In 2015 REI announced it would close all 143 of its stores on Black Friday — the most profitable day of the year for retailers. Many businesspeople thought REI’s leaders had lost their minds. "How can you give up that kind of money?" they asked.
But REI explained its decision simply: "We sell gear for hiking and outdoor adventures. But if our employees and customers spend the whole day inside stores in lines and crowds for discounts, when will they go on those outdoor adventures? We want people to spend time outside, not in stores."
They even created a special hashtag: #OptOutside. And you know what? It worked! Millions of people across America went to parks, mountains, and beaches instead of the mall. They posted photos of their adventures with REI’s hashtag. The store got so much attention and goodwill that it proved more valuable than any advertising.
An ordinary store could never do that. An owner would say, "I need the money now!" But REI is owned by its members, and its members care more that the store helps them love the outdoors than that it earns a little extra money for one day.
Why young people are rediscovering this idea
Here’s the surprising part: nearly 90 years after REI was founded, young people around the world are rediscovering the idea of cooperatives. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when many regular companies were firing workers and closing, cooperatives proved more resilient. Why? Because when a business is owned by the people who work or shop there, those people don’t abandon it at the first sign of trouble. They help one another get through hard times.
From 2020 to 2023 hundreds of new cooperatives were started in the U.S. by young people. These are cooperative cafés, bookstores, farms, even tech companies. Young people say, "We’re tired of one rich owner deciding everything while we just work. We want to build businesses together where everyone has a voice."
This is similar to what happened in 1938 when a group of hikers in Seattle created REI. They were ordinary people who loved going into the mountains but couldn’t buy good gear — it was too expensive. So they said, "Let’s create our own store! We’ll buy equipment directly from manufacturers together, and it will be cheaper." That’s how the cooperative was born.
What this means for all of us
REI’s story is not just the story of one unusual store. It’s a story that business can be run differently. Most companies are structured like a pyramid: at the top is an owner or shareholders who want as much money as possible, and at the bottom are workers and customers who have to do what they’re told.
A cooperative is organized like a circle: everyone sits together and decides what matters. For REI what matters is not maximizing profit, but helping people love and protect nature. That’s why they can close on the most profitable day of the year. That’s why they spend millions protecting national parks and forests. That’s why they pay their employees well and give them time to go hiking.
When I think about this story I remember something REI founder Lloyd Anderson said: "A cooperative is not a way to make more money. It’s a way to live better." He meant that when people work together and share, life becomes fairer and happier for everyone.
Now, as many adults argue about how to make work fairer, how to protect nature, how to create businesses that not only make money but make the world better — maybe they should look at REI. This store has shown for almost 90 years that another path is possible. A path where people matter more than profit, where nature matters more than sales, where everyone decides together how to live and work.
And the most wonderful thing about this story is that it’s not finished. Every year more young people create new cooperatives, trying new ways of working together. Maybe when you grow up you’ll create something similar — a store, café, farm, or something completely new where everyone is an owner together. Because engineering wonders aren’t only bridges and skyscrapers. Sometimes the most remarkable engineering feat is the way people figure out to work together.
