We hold the key to our shackles

Every year as the month of November approaches, I prepare for my annual Black Friday centered anti-consumerism rant.  I've watched as year after year, the desire to buy expanded beyond the temporal limits of a single day and an increasing number of stores opened their doors earlier and earlier.  First came the midnight sales, and then 11pm open times, and on and on until many stores have come to expect their employees to show up not only on Black Friday but most of Thanksgiving Day as well.

We are all responsible for this, collectively, as a society.  We have become comfortable with elevating the joy we get from buying garbage that we'll throw away weeks or months later above the value that real human relationships and communities bring to our lives.  There are many reasons for this, many simultaneously interacting players in this game, but that doesn't change the fact that we all have the ability to opt in or opt out of the materialistic orgy that epitomizes much of our broader cultural dysfunction.

But for the first time in many years, I have inspiring, optimistic news to report.  The Facebook stories about REI have already begun to proliferate, so I'll make my recap brief: REI has decided to close ALL of its store on Black Friday, to delay processing any online orders until Saturday, and to give all its employees a paid day off.  The corporate office is encouraging them to go outside and do something they love.

It could very well be the case that there are cold, calculating motivations behind this decision.  It could be that this move is primarily motivated by a desire for positive PR and building a head of steam behind outdoor adventurism that will increase demand for the niche products that REI sells.  In fact, I'm certain that's at the very least an element of the choices we're seeing here.  But ultimately, I still praise this as an amazing development.  If a company has figured out how to create profitability by making choices that enrich the lives of its employees and encourage people to make positive, healthy life choices that will reward them and build enduring value for them, instead of leaving with a hollowness that can only be filled with more meaningless consumption, then I won't complain.