#OptOutside

If you live in America you know how crazy the Black Friday shopping scene is here. People are all stressed out trying to get a steal of a deal at a store that they can probably get any other time of the year. When you go out shopping you are taking away from the whole point of the Thanksgiving holiday of spending time with your family/friends and relaxing.

One way to beat all this stress and truly relax is by taking part in the initiative started by REI in 2015. They closed their store on the Friday after Thanksgiving but still pay their employees to go out and enjoy the outdoors. They don’t only encourage their employees to get outside instead of going shopping but they also encourage everyone else to do so as well.

This year they are taking it a step further and #OptOutside and “Opt to Act” in the words of REI’s CEO Eric Artz. They are starting a movement of people joining a nationwide clean-up effort. REI is starting a few new initiatives to help the company become more eco-friendly. Some of the new initiatives are:

· Inviting 5,000 members to pilot a used gear buy-back program—in which members may receive REI gift cards when they trade in gently used outdoor items for resale

· Working toward a goal of operating as zero-waste (diverting 90% of waste from landfills) across their total operations by the end of 2020

· Testing a new online rental reservations system that we plan to roll out more broadly in 2020

The movement has started growing more and more every year thanks to the help of social media. They encourage people to post pictures on social media of them opting outside on and using the hashtag #OptOutside. Click here for a link to a poster that you can print off and hold in your pictures as well.

If I am going to do a plug for an REI hashtag I might as well do a plug for my own hashtag. If you are in Texas and on an adventure and post of a picture on social media don’t forget to use #AdventuresInTexas. Also if you are looking for someone to #OptOutside or #OptToAct with on November 29th, 2019 feel free to hit me up! I am always down!