There’s always a healthy dose of irony around Thanksgiving. Thursday is an introspective day focused on spending family time together, relaxing, enjoying a meal, and being grateful for everything that we have. Then Friday rolls around (or recently, Thursday night), and people crazily rush out of their houses before dawn, camp outside in freezing weather, sometimes get injured, and fill up their cars with flat screen TVs, Xboxes, tablets, and everything else that happens to be on sale. It’s a massive fest of impulsive buying – people trying to acquire the greatest amount of material possessions possible. And this comes just a few hours after being thankful and content. Without a doubt, Black Friday makes Thanksgiving feel a little less special.

This year, REI is the first to reverse the trend of creeping Black Friday sales into the Thanksgiving holiday. The outdoor sports retailer will be closing its doors in 143 stores around the country, giving out no doorbusters or crazy sales and eliminating the crowds of frantic shoppers. The reason for this? REI is trying to promote going outdoors on Black Friday. The company is closing to avoid becoming another consumer trap. REI has started a hashtag, #OptOutside, to spread their message. Instead of running through Target grabbing half price movies, REI is encouraging people to take a hike outside; instead of camping in the parking lot of Best Buy, the company is encouraging people to camp out in nature.

Since Black Friday is one of the biggest shopping days of the year, REI will definitely lose money in this bold move. However, closing is an important action in the preservation of their company’s message: to go outside. By putting the company’s values before retail success, REI gives us a gentle reminder over the holiday weekend to reprioritize the things in our lives and to take a break and enjoy the outdoors.