Outdoor outfitter REI is staying closed on Black Friday and encouraging customers and employees alike to spend the day enjoying the outdoors. Well, Patagonia, a company that has its own outdoorsy retail stores in addition to supplying REI, decided to do something different to work against commercialization of a shopping holiday: the company plans to donate all of its Black Friday sales to environmental charities.
Note that isn’t all of their Black Friday profits. It’s all of their sales. Patagonia’s own stores and website are included, not merchandise sold at other retailers.
The company donates 1% of its sales year-round to environmental causes, and not big names with big fundraising operations. CEO Rose Marcario explained in a blog post announcing the planned donation that the target will be “grassroots organizations” that work in local communities. “These are small groups, often underfunded and under the radar, who work on the front lines,” she wrote.
Patagonia also recently closed down for a cause: the company closed down all of its offices and stores on Election Day in the United States so employees would have a chance to go vote.
(via AdWeek)
by Laura Northrup via Consumerist
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