REI will reduce its staff by about 400 employees across its 162 stores, according to a report from Kent Reporter.
The Kent, WA-based outdoor retail giant closed all of its retail locations on March 16 in response to COVID-19 and began reopening locations in mid-May. On April 6, REI announced it planned an unpaid 90-day furlough of the majority of its retail and field employees, beginning on April 15.
“Nearly all REI stores are open in some capacity with a focus on health and safety standards for employees and customers, and we’ve been able to bring the majority of those employees back from furlough,” a spokesperson said in a July 10-email to Kent Reporter. “This week we notified approximately 400 retail employees (less than 5% of our retail staff) that they will not be brought back when the furlough period ends on July 15.”
REI has 13,000 employees.
On April 6, REI also announced that its limited operations “means we are also making overall reductions of our headquarters workforce” although the number of those laid off headquarter employees weren’t revealed at the time. REI last week told Kent Reporter that about 300 headquarter employees were laid off in April. The company employs about 1,000 in Kent.
Photo courtesy REI
