Two years ago outdoor equipment retailer REI did something reckless and revolutionary: They cancelled their Black Friday post-Thanksgiving sale.

Well, actually, they postponed it till the following day. The rationale: The holiday sales season was getting more and more outrageous–with some retailers even opening on Thanksgiving Day. REI wanted their employees to be able to enjoy the holiday–and the day after–instead of jumping into the normal feeding frenzy.

The pundits jumped all over this: REI would lose out on eager customers, their sales would drop, they were making a terrible mistake.

Except a funny thing happened: Nothing. As in, no changes to their holiday business. Customers just waited a day and came into REI on Saturday to shop. In fact, this worked so well that last year they repeated it.

This year, they upped the ante. Not only will they be closed on Black Friday, but they're encouraging customers to take the day off to avoid Black Friday madness and engage in outdoor activities as well.

How do you stand out above the noise? Sometimes you just get away from the noise altogether and go stand out in a field somewhere.

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