Talk:Mountain Equipment Co-op

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I've never read in any MEC literature that it was modelled after REI; the only reference I can find is to it being a store where MEC founders bought their climbing gear. I'm going to revert this change untill someone can provide a source. Padraic 17:44, Apr 7, 2005 (UTC)

I've never heard of it either. --Spinboy 00:01, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I personally understood from reading the MEC history page that the co-op was basically inspired by the REI model, and I think it's clear that the two have more in common than otherwise. But I don't have a better source, so I've just added a note that the two stores are "generally similar", if only to better describe MEC to US readers. I'm not sure why the note about the share price was removed, so I've put that back, too. --Mvcorks 21:06, 2 May 2005 (UTC)

MEC actually started as a result of climbers from UBC outdoor club, VCC Langara and several other stuident climbing groups who were tired of paying retail costs for climbing rope by the hundred foot. They began purchasing wholesale spools of rope as wella sopther clibing gear. Eventually they got U of T students involved in largeer purchases.

As a member of the Varsity outdoors club (VOC) at UBC, a few members did found the Coop after getting feed up of always traveling to REI in Seattle to get gear and the radder poor quality of gear selection in Vancouver. There's an article in the 1971 VOC Journal mentioning the founding of the Coop. It mentions that after a crappy trip to Mt. Baker(?), the participants decided that it was time to have a proper Outdoors store with good prices in Vancouver. Apparently, the quality of gear was very questionable and the prices were expensive during that era. One of the founders is still coming on VOC related trips. We also have a copy of a MEC meeting from 1971 (not entirely sure about this, need to check...). REI did help in the beginning in setting up the distribution and various contacts within the industry for MEC. 154.20.57.153 04:43, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

This place is definately a copy of REI. Same products, same store layout, same building architecture, same "co-op" idea, similar websites, even the logo is practically identical. Far too many things are the same to be coincidence. If MEC moved into the US they would get sued and lose. Maybe MEC came first and REI is the copy? Whatever, it looks like a blatant rip-off to me, I'd change the article but I don't really know if it would improve it. 71.49.175.222 19:34, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

I had never even heard of REI until recently, and I've been buying outdoor gear at MEC for over a decade. Why does an article about an entity in one country require a reference to a "comparable" entity in some other country? Should an article about Walmart make reference to IKEA, because it was an earlier big-box store? If the MEC article doesn't stand on its own, it should be fixed. If there's a reference to be made, then make it; otherwise, the line about REI should be removed. Similarly, the MEC reference should be removed from the REI page. The next question would be ... do we need a category for "outdoor equipment retailers"?  ◉ ghoti 05:38, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Obviously the 23 Jan 07 user has no idea what co-operatives are. Newsflash: co-ops don't exist to make money. By saying MEC is a 'rip-off' of REI because they're both co-ops is like saying Arby's/Burger-King/Harvey's/Wendy's is a 'rip-off' of McDonald's because they're both for profit and they both sell burgers. Moreover, as someone who has been to both REI and MEC and looked closely at how both are run, I can assure you that both are very different in how they operate. In my opinion, REI has lost its way as a good co-operative and seems way more like a for-profit business than MEC. LeoTrottier 20:04, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Major edit

I just added a bunch of information to this article, please look it over to ensure it is adequately NPOV (full disclosure: I am member of MEC). I removed the part in the header about not advertising - I've seen MEC advertising in paddling and outdoors magazines. The list of initiatives can be expanded, obviously. There are a couple unsourced statements which may have to go if they can't be backed up. I don't really know what came of the Vancouver Sun article but it should be mentioned. Padraic · talk 22:08, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Growth section

This section says that after the September 11th terrorist attacks, sales stagnated and the company went through major restructuring. Why did terrorism in America have such a drastic effect on sales of outdoor recreational gear in Canada? To me the phrasing seems to indicate an alleged cause-and-effect, but there are no reasons given for why this happened, so the 9/11 reference seems totally gratuitous. Unless some elaboration is made on this point, the "post-9/11" text should be changed to "late 2001." -Steve

I agree, 9/11 shouldn't be specifically mentioned as a date unless a direct correlation can be drawn, I think. We just just as easily say that "lately, sales dropped so much that it went through major restructuring"Khono (talk) 15:12, 11 February 2008 (UTC)