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)