The REI Co-op NOligarchy Profile
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NOligarchy Score
72.0
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REI Co-op earns a NOligarchy Score of 72.01 out of 100 — a position just above the sector average, anchored by a spotless regulatory record and zero shareholder extraction machinery. The company brings in $3.53 billion in annual revenue and faces no fines, no violations, and no public-market payout obligations. What costs it points is a combination of an active federal lobbying operation and a pay gap that, at this revenue scale, remains entirely hidden from public view.
Current Pillar Scores
Political Access
64.1
Wealth Extraction
60.4
Playing by the Rules
100.0
Score history — 23 quarters
Tier bands show where each quarter's score falls — no numeric y-axis needed. The dashed ring marks the year-over-year comparison point. Tap any quarter but the first to see its pillar breakdown.
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Political Access Grade: 64.13/100. REI Co-op channeled $310,000 into federal lobbying from Q3 2024 through Q2 2026 (8 quarters — the two-year tracking period), targeting public lands legislation and electric bicycle policy through a single outside firm. No Political Action Committee (PAC) contributions were reported.
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Wealth Extraction Grade: 60.44/100. REI Co-op’s cooperative structure means it faces no public disclosure obligation on executive pay or profit distribution. The best available estimate puts the CEO-to-worker pay ratio at 406:1 — a benchmark figure, not one the company has published. No stock buyback or dividend data appears in any public filing.
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Playing by the Rules Grade: 100/100. A perfect score. Zero regulatory fines, zero recorded violations, and no public subsidies drawn from government budgets across the two-year period.
REI Co-op ranks 13th out of 22 companies sharing its federal industry classification — Sporting Goods, Hobby, and Musical Instrument Retailers. Its score of 72.01 sits modestly above the sector average of 68.3, a position earned almost entirely by its clean regulatory record and absence of shareholder payout machinery. The Wealth Extraction grade, dragged down by an estimated pay gap that cannot be verified or challenged because it is never disclosed, is what holds the ranking where it is rather than pushing it higher.
The Bottom Line: A Cooperative That Keeps Its Pay Gap to Itself
REI Co-op’s profile is defined by a sharp contrast: a spotless regulatory history and no shareholder extraction machinery on one side, and an estimated CEO pay ratio of 406-to-1 that the company has no legal obligation — and has chosen not — to publish on the other. The company brought in $3.53 billion in annual revenue; the gap between what its top executive and its frontline workers take home is simply not on the public record. A cooperative structure that shields a $3.53 billion business from the executive pay transparency rules that apply to every publicly traded competitor is an accountability gap — not a compliance finding either way.
Spending to Shape the Outdoors
REI Co-op poured $310,000 into federal lobbying across Q3 2024 through Q2 2026, according to Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) filings. That sum — roughly nine cents for every hundred dollars of annual sales — buys something money can always purchase in Washington: access. No PAC contributions were reported, and Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show no individual executive donations linked to REI Co-op for the period.
REI Co-op routed all of that spending through a single outside firm: Brumidi Group, which also works for Publix Super Markets. Three lobbyists handled REI’s account, contacting the House of Representatives ten times, the Senate eight times, the National Park Service (NPS) four times, and the U.S. Forest Service twice across the period.
FEDERAL CONTACT LOG
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
10
≈ every 50th business day
SENATE
8
≈ every 62nd business day
Natl Park Service (NPS)
4
≈ every 125th business day
U.S. Forest Service
2
≈ every 250th business day
4 federal bodies named in federal lobbying filings · 2024-Q3–2026-Q2
Between 2024-Q3 and 2026-Q2, REI Co-op was named in lobbying filings reaching 4 federal bodies — from HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES to SENATE.
The lobbying landed overwhelmingly on Natural Resources — eight separate filings in that issue area — with two on Transportation. Both tracks connect directly to REI’s commercial interests. The company sells outdoor gear and apparel to customers who depend on access to federal public lands; legislation expanding, restricting, or transferring those lands directly affects the market REI serves. On the Transportation side, REI sells electric bicycles — putting a federal consumer incentive for e-bikes squarely in the company’s financial interest.
Shared Lobbying Exposure
REI Co-op
client
BRUMIDI GROUP
lobbying firm
Publix Super Markets Inc
also a client
Why it matters: the same firm argues REI Co-op’s case and its rivals’ — one hire buys a web of shared access that can’t be seen from outside. This network worsens REI Co-op’s political-access score (see methodology for the exact factor).
LDA filings show lobbyists referenced several specific pieces of legislation. The Public Lands in Public Hands Act appeared across multiple quarterly filings in two forms — cited as H.R. 7430 in late 2025 and as H.R. 718 in early 2026 — making it the most consistently named measure on REI’s public docket. Filings also referenced the America the Beautiful Act (S. 1547); the Great American Outdoors Act 250 (H.R. 9250); a joint resolution concerning boundary waters in Cook, Lake, and Saint Louis Counties, Minnesota; and a separate joint resolution relating to the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument’s resource management plan. On Transportation, filings cited the Electric Bicycle Incentive Kickstart for the Environment Act (H.R. 1685 / S. 881) — the E-Bike Act — in two consecutive quarters. The LDA filings record that these bills were referenced by REI Co-op’s lobbyists; they do not record the company’s position on any of them.
An Undisclosed Pay Gap at Billion-Dollar Scale
REI Co-op’s CEO pay ratio is not publicly disclosed — the cooperative structure means it faces no obligation to file the executive compensation disclosures that publicly traded companies submit to regulators. The best available figure is 406:1, based on AFL-CIO Executive Paywatch industry benchmarks for comparable companies in this sector, per AFL-CIO Executive Paywatch. That estimate means REI’s top executive takes home an estimated 406 times what a typical frontline worker earns — a gap that is hidden from the public, not one the company has chosen to illuminate. Because this figure is a sector benchmark rather than a disclosed number, no matching dollar amount can be stated with confidence.
No stock buyback or dividend data is on the public record for REI Co-op. As a member cooperative, it does not issue publicly traded shares and therefore does not run the buyback programs public companies use — the deliberate reduction in shares outstanding that inflates per-share metrics and triggers executive performance bonuses. What it distributes to members and executives remains invisible in any public filing. That is simply the limit of accountability when a $3.53 billion company faces no public disclosure requirement on pay or profit distribution.
A Spotless Public Record
REI Co-op carries zero recorded regulatory violations and zero dollars in fines across the two-year tracking period — and no public subsidies drawn from government budgets. That is a genuinely clean record for a company at this revenue scale. Many retailers generating a fraction of REI Co-op’s $3.53 billion in annual sales have accumulated wage theft settlements, environmental penalties, or consumer protection fines across the same stretch. REI Co-op has none of those on the public docket from Q3 2024 through Q2 2026.
A perfect score here is notable precisely because it is uncommon. Among the 22 companies tracked in this sector, a spotless regulatory record at this revenue scale stands out — and it is the primary driver keeping REI Co-op above the sector average despite the lobbying spend and the opaque pay structure that weigh on its other grades.