this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2023
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What did MEC do? I never heard of them before last month when I bought a backpack while visiting Canada.
MEC used to be the Canadian equivalent to REI. The "C" in MEC stood for "cooperative," as in cooperative corporation. Members are supposed to be part-owners and have a say in how the business is run. Despite that, in 2020 the MEC board sold the company to a US firm without consulting the member-owners.
And ever since then it has enshitified. Their Merino used to be affordable and 100% Merino. Then it went to Merino/Nylon blend, which is passable, at least nylon adds strength. And now it's like 60~70% polyester and more expensive then it used to be. It's literally the same as Uniqlo "Merino"
Shit it's worse than that. They broke the cooperative so owners like me got no consideration in the deal. The groundwork had been laid for years - slowly freezing enthusiasts out of the board in favour of people with retail experience. The next phase was changing product mix to increase sale volumes over the best equipment for your sport.
I noticed it several years ago when I went to talk about paddles and the kid there said he hadn't been trained on that area yet. And I was like "trained? Don't you paddle?" And the kid said he'd bought a bike after he started working there but didn't really have a sport.
Wait, what the fuck!?