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Comment by vore | Hacker News Reader

They might call themselves REI "co-op", but a consumers' cooperative is really the polar opposite of representing the interests of workers. It's really just a shareholder owned company with a few steps removed in the middle.

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In practice, the “co-op” stuff really just amounts to a run of the mill rewards program. I can’t tell any actual difference between it and various other “loyalty program” thingies, aside from that they force you to join it to buy anything from them.

This is how I’ve felt about it. I’m a member and I had no idea you can vote for board members, that never came up during the pitch to sign up. It was all about the member-only sales events and cash back rewards.

Members can vote on the board of directors.

I doubt anyone really cares, and it's not open nominations.

The difference is that the company is actually owned by the co-op members, so it’s a co-op and not a rewards program.

I don’t get any money out of it unless I buy stuff. And it’s never anywhere near how much I spent. And I’m pretty sure it’s store credit (I can’t recall for sure, been a while). So.

I thought you were wrong about cash back being not an option, but that changed this year:

https://www.rei.com/help?a=Can-I-receive-my-Total-REI-Reward...

That's pretty lame.

You'll definitely get asked about it, but there is absolutely no requirement to join to buy anything from REI.

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