409. Inside REI’s strategy for trust, community, and growth

Leadership in retail today requires balancing innovation, culture and purpose. Mary Beth Laughton, president and CEO of REI Co-op, joins this episode of Retail Gets Real to share lessons from a career spanning some of the most influential brands in retail and explain how she is guiding REI into its next chapter. She discusses her career journey, the role of mentorship and how the co-op is evolving its strategy while staying rooted in its mission and values. (00:00:00) From consulting to leading iconic retail brands (00:05:51) Leveraging REI’s unique strengths for growth (00:07:37) Navigating culture at an 87-year-old retailer (00:09:25) REI’s strategy for the next chapter of growth (00:11:09) Turning strategy into action at REI (00:15:37) Leading retail in the age of AI (00:18:23) Keeping purpose at the center of the business (00:20:31) Building a culture that embraces change (00:24:01) The evolving future of retail The National Retail Federation is the world’s largest retail trade association. Every day, we passionately stand up for the people, policies and ideas that help retail succeed. Resources: • Become an NRF member and join the world’s largest retail trade association • Learn about our retail education platform, NRF Foundation, at nrffoundation.org • Learn about retail advocacy at nrf.com/advocacy • Find more episodes at retailgetsreal.com Related: • 392: How Warby Parker is redefining retail and customer experience • 380: How Vera Bradley transformed a legacy brand

You can listen to 409. Inside REI’s strategy for trust, community, and growth online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

409. Inside REI’s strategy for trust, community, and growth is an episode from Retail Gets Real by National Retail Federation.

This episode is 30:05 long.

This episode was published on Mar 10, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Retail Gets Real when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.