WeatherdoG said:
If MEC is as far gone as you believe then do you actually think being a member and changing it from the inside will work? I imagine that not spending money there will work faster... The SJWs likely weren't members to being with for the most part so loosing even a few thousand people that actually spend money may be enough of a loss to make them shake their heads.
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Changing organizations from the inside seems to work best for the far left, because their platform of promising sunshine and rainbows plays a lot better in a soundbite than fiscal responsibility and making money. So long as people only want soundbites, and tweets to discuss important issues the emotional arguement will always win.
Well, you've just proven my point.
Long before MEC became the outfitter of choice for JTF2 (pre 5.11 days) and those wanting to stroll through downtown Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto with an air of back country authenticity, it started out with the west coast, tree hugging, dope smoking, Birkenstock wearing, granola eating crowd. As they've expanded, and people have joined just because they have good products at (mostly) reasonable, prices, the core philosophy and values of the cooperative haven't changed all that much. When I joined as a teen I knew what the story with the cooperative was and, although I haven't paid much attention lately, the platforms of the candidates and most of the resolutions put forward were never surprising to me.
MEC has never been about "making money". The shareholders are the members/customers so it is better to keep prices low to benefit all members rather than try to make huge profits, which would then end up being disbursed back to the very same people who paid the money to make the huge profits. They have survived, and thrived, based on their business model which isn't about profit. They certainly haven't been hiding what they are about ethically, environmentally or socially. It's just most people, including you apparently, couldn't be bothered to actually do the research to see what they were buying into even though it is right there on their website for any and all to read:
Mission and values
This isn't a case of the cooperative being "far gone" or the "SJWs" taking over, it was already there and they were always in charge.
daftandbarmy said:
MEC was dead to me after they eliminated the Mountain from their logo. But I still like their return policy
Indeed. That simple change was more upsetting to me than the decision to remove product lines (well, except for shutting down Serratus). Nothing they have decided not to sell isn't available elsewhere, or via a different brand in store.